Groups ramp up campaign for ban on trail-hunting
While Labour made a manifesto pledge to ban hunting outright, it wasn’t in July’s King’s Speech, and campaigners push for a timeline
As the start of the hunting season approaches, groups Action Against Foxhunting (AAF) and Protect The Wild (PTW) have launched new campaigns hoping to force Labour to ban trail-hunting.
On 11 October, AAF released a 90-page report entitled Broken Law – How the Hunting Act has Failed, which gives 23 recommendations on how the Hunting Act 2004 should be amended to make it “effective”.
It says hunts should be banned as organisations, and packs of hounds banned from being used altogether. Additionally, “hunt Masters, and the hunt as an organisation, should be held responsible for illegal actions of any hunt staff. Hunts should also be held corporately responsible.”
International law positsthat no person may be punished for acts that they did not commit, and modern legal systems limit criminal liability to individuals, which suggests that this recommendation by AAF may be unlawful.
PTW looked to gain more attention for its campaign by sending an open letter to Labour Environment Secretary Steve Reed. The letter was signed by British stars including Oscar winners Judi Dench and Mark Rylance, as well as comedian Ricky Gervais.
The letter called the perfectly legal activity of trail-hunting a “deceitful pretext” and a “smokescreen”. The group also express its disappointment that, despite Labour’s manifesto commitment to ban trail-hunting. this was not mentioned in the King’s Speech in July.
The League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) was protesting about autumn hunting in Leeds last week, calling for the Government to publish a timeline for a trail-hunting ban.
Although Labour is yet to make any formal statements about plans for a trail-hunting ban, last month it blocked 11 trail-hunts from riding on government land, and no licences for trail-hunting on Ministry of Defence (MoD) ground were issued for the upcoming season.
But Helen Walsh of the British Hound Sports Association (BHSA), pointed out: “The fact that there have only been 25 convictions for breaches of the regulations, out of nearly 250,000 days of trail-hunting since 2005, speaks for itself. This is despite constant scrutiny of almost all trail-hunts, including the use of drones and recording equipment.
“Trail-hunts are conducted in daylight in the countryside with anyone able to watch them at any time — we are transparent in what we do. When journalists come along and see the control that the Hunt staff have, and the way hounds are called back if they leave the trail, their perception of trail-hunting is completely revised.”
