Foxhunting ban being ignored, say environmental groups

Foxhunts may hold Boxing Day meets under guise of trail hunting, warn campaigners

Mattha Busby

Wed 26 Dec 2018 06.30 GMT

Environmental groups fear the ban on foxhunting is being ignored as hunters prepare for the largest event of the year this Boxing Day.

Across the country, 53 foxhunts are scheduled to meet on Wednesday, including two on National Trust land. However, campaigners say there are likely to be more fox, hare and stag hunts that are not listed.

Hunting groups have faced allegations that blood sport has continued under the guise of trail hunting, and charities say there have been dozens of reports of foxes being pursued and killed since November 2018 when the hunting season began.

Chris Pitt, the deputy director of campaigns at the League Against Cruel Sports, said: “Wild animals – including foxes, hare and deer – are still being chased to exhaustion across the British countryside before being torn to pieces by packs of trained hunting hounds.

 “With over 85% of people opposing all forms of hunting with hounds, there is strong support for British wildlife being given robust protection from those who kill for sport. How can we call ourselves a civilised nation when those who gain entertainment from attacking wildlife continue to go unpunished by the law?”

A growing concern that the ban is being “brazenly flouted” led Labour to announce that it would strengthen the 2004 Hunting Act – much maligned by both hunters and animal rights activists – if elected and remove legal loopholes that make prosecutions hard to achieve.

Continued