Calls for Labour to honour pledge to toughen anti-hunt laws

Animal welfare campaigners are calling on ministers to keep to a pledge to toughen anti-hunt laws, as figures suggest illegal foxhunting remains widespread in England and Wales.

Almost 20 years since the Hunting Act 2004 was brought in by Tony Blair’s government, the League Against Cruel Sports (Lacs) – the animal welfare charity that was the driving force behind the original ban – says its data evidences how stronger legislation is required to close loopholes and prohibit trail hunting, which campaigners say has been used as a smokescreen for illegal foxhunting. Trail hunting is where dogs follow an animal-based scent.

As hunts gathered for their traditional Boxing Day meets, the UK government re-committed to its manifesto pledge to ban the practice, which it acknowledged was being used as a cover to hunt and kill wild animals.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs told the PA news agency: “This government was elected on a mandate to introduce the most ambitious animal welfare plans in a generation and that is exactly what we will do”.

“We are committed to a ban on trail hunting, which is being exploited as a smokescreen to cruelly kill foxes and hares”.

The figures were collated by Lacs from August and encompassed both the cub-hunting season and first six weeks of the foxhunting season, which started in November. They reveal 186 reports of foxes being pursued by hunts and 220 reports relating to suspected illegal hunting incidents.

Lacs also highlights 553 cases of what it terms “hunt havoc”, disruptive or antisocial behaviour affecting rural communities, which may include trespassing on farmland and worrying livestock, hunt hounds being loose on roads and attacks on domestic animals.

Chris Luffingham, the acting chief executive of Lacs, said: “These figures show that the Boxing Day hunt parades are a charade, hiding a world of brutality that has never gone away in the 20 years since the Hunting Act was introduced.

“It’s time for change and for the government to urgently set out a timetable of measures to strengthen hunting laws and stop foxhunting once and for all. Not only does so-called trail hunting need to be banned, but the loopholes in the Hunting Act need to be removed, and custodial sentences introduced for those caught breaking the law.”

He added: “If hunts were really following pre-laid trails and trail hunting as they constantly claim, none of the recorded incidents would have occurred.”

The National Trust, one of the UK’s largest landowners, banned trail hunting in 2021 amid concern from critics that the practice was masking illegal foxhunting. Trail hunting has been suspended on Ministry of Defence land since Labour was elected in July.

But the chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, Tim Bonner, said that banning an activity that “brings the rural community together” would be “an act of spite”, and an “extraordinary” issue to focus on given the poor state of relations between the government and the farming community following its budget proposals to cap inheritence tax relief for farms.

“Given where the government is in its relationship with the countryside already, frankly it would seem extraordinary that they’d want to double down on an issue which really doesn’t matter.”

In January 2023, the Scottish parliament voted to ban trail hunting as well as making it illegal for a person to use more than two dogs to chase or stalk a wild mammal without a licence.

At the time, Lacs said the legislation had resulted in the most robust anti-hunt laws in the UK and should increase pressure on England and Wales to revisit their own legislation.

The first hunting season covered by Scotland’s new law took place last winter, but data published by the Scottish government showed at least 41 licences were issued to allow the use of packs of dogs, and only two licences were monitored for compliance.

Lacs Scotland’s director, Robbie Marsland, said he had increasing concerns that mounted hunts in Scotland were claiming to participate in drag hunting, where dogs follow an artificial scent, as a smokescreen.

“The fact that at least one mounted hunt had access to a licence to flush to guns [when dogs can be used to chase a fox out of cover so it can be shot] with more than two dogs is of deep concern. It was the behaviour of mounted hunts who said they were flushing to guns that led to the law being strengthened. In these circumstances it would seem crazy for any mounted hunt to get a licence to flush to guns.”