League launches campaign to highlight hunting on National Trust land

The National Trust licenses ‘trail’ hunting on its land, in which hunts are supposed to follow pre-laid scents rather than real foxes.

But today the League is launching the first in a series of films which asks the question, if ‘trail’ hunting is real, then why are animals still being chased and killed by hunting hounds?

Chris Luffingham, campaigns director at the League, said: “If trail hunting is real, then why does the League receive so many reports of foxes being chased and killed, livestock being worried, hounds running loose on roads and railway lines, and even domestic animals being killed by hunts?

“Our film shows clearly - and shockingly – the figures involved in just the four months that the 2019-20 season lasted.

“The answer has to be that trail hunting is a sham, a cover for illegal hunting, that no trails are laid and the hunts are making a mockery of the Hunting Act.”

The motion has been lodged by a member of the National Trust, with the help of more than 200 of our own supporters who have signed to support it. If accepted, it will be part of the agenda for the National Trust’s annual general meeting, currently scheduled to take place on October 31, and members will have the opportunity to vote on it. Get more information here.

Mr Luffingham added: “The National Trust is a great organisation and the role it plays in preserving historic sites is second to none. However, one part of history it doesn’t need to preserve is fox hunting, even indirectly.

“We ask the Trust, if trail hunting is real, then why are so many people reporting to us that it’s not? Until the Hunting Act is strengthened to stop this activity in its entirety, we’re urging the National Trust to help us end it on land being preserved for the public.”