Campaigners slam fox hunting festival for sanitising brutality

Campaigners from animal welfare charity the League Against Cruel Sports have slammed a festival in Peterborough for ‘sanitising the brutal world of fox hunting’, and have highlighted the scale of killing still taking place despite the ban and called for stronger laws.

Members of the public are being urged to boycott the Festival of Hounds taking place tomorrow and to send a League end of season fox hunting report to their MP – which analyses the scale of suspected illegal fox hunting still taking place and the havoc being inflicted on rural communities.

The festival is taking place as the government considers what legislation needs to be drawn up to finally end fox hunting for good, following the closure of its consultation to ban so-called trail hunting.

Emily Lawrence, campaigns manager at the League Against Cruel Sports, said: “The festival organisers are trying to hoodwink the public and government by sanitising the brutal world of fox hunting to mask the killing of foxes and hunts’ anti-social behaviour and criminality.

“We are calling on the public to boycott the festival and to take action by contacting their MP and encouraging the government to strengthen fox hunting laws.”

At least two of the hunts taking part in the festival – the South Dorset Hunt and Warwickshire Hunt – have recently been convicted of fox hunting.

A hunter from The Duke of Beaufort’s Hunt was caught on camera shooting several of their hounds before loading up their bodies in wheelbarrows which were then ‘thrown away like garbage’.

The League’s end of season figures show the scale of fox hunting still taking place – 488 foxes were seen being chased during the most recent cub hunting and fox hunting seasons in England and Wales which finished at the end of March.

The figures also showed a pattern of anti-social behaviour by hunts, with 1,220 incidents in which they wreaked havoc on rural communities. The ‘hunt havoc’ included reports of trespass; livestock worrying; and hounds running amok on railway lines and busy roads – all activities inconsistent with the idea of following a trail, which is what hunts claim to be doing.

Just 23 or 3.7% of the 624 hunt meets monitored across England and Wales contained evidence of a trail being laid – and within those 23 reports there was still evidence of 22 foxes being chased.

Polling commissioned by the League Against Cruel Sports and carried out independently by FindOutNow with further analysis by Electoral Calculus in March/April 2024 found that 76 per cent of the public supported stronger fox hunting laws, with only seven per cent disagreeing.

A clear majority of voters in rural as well as urban areas across the country backed new laws to stop foxes being chased by hounds and killed, with 70 per cent of people in the countryside supporting the proposal.

Emily added: “The cruel and savage activity of fox hunting should be banned, not celebrated.

It’s time for change. It’s time for the government to ban trail hunting, introduce jail sentences to act as an effective deterrent for would be hunters, remove all the loopholes in the existing law, and introduce measures to end reckless or accidental hunting.”

More on how to take part in the action, contact your MP and call for stronger hunting laws.

Ends

Notes to editors

For information or interview requests, please contact the League Against Cruel Sports Press Office on 01483 524250 or email pressoffice@league.org.uk

Trail hunting has been described by Assistant Chief Constable Matt Longman, the national police lead on fox hunting crime, as a “smokescreen for illegal fox hunting”. He also described illegal hunting as “prolific”.

Fox hunting was banned in Wales and England when the Hunting Act came into force on February 18, 2005.

The League’s end of season fox hunting report is available here. The figures are compiled from reports to the charity’s confidential Animal Crimewatch service and other reports from monitor and sab groups analysed by the League’s intelligence team, which is staffed by former police officers and civilian analysts. The figures are believed to be just the tip of the iceberg showing only those hunts being monitored.

Find Out Now interviewed 5,379 GB adults online from 26 March - 2 April 2024. Data were weighted to be demographically representative of all GB adults by gender, age, social grade, other demographics and past voting patterns.

Find Out Now and Electoral Calculus are both members of the British Polling Council and abide by its rules.

A full breakdown of the data is available here: https://electoralcalculus.co.uk/blogs/DataTables_LACS_Jun2024.xlsx

The League Against Cruel Sports is Britain's leading charity that works to stop animals being persecuted, abused and killed for sport. The League was instrumental in helping bring about the landmark Hunting Act 2004, the Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Act 2021, the Hunting with Dogs (Scotland) Act 2023 and bans on the use of snares brought about by the Agriculture (Wales) Act 2023, and Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024.

We carry out investigations to expose law-breaking and cruelty to animals and campaign for stronger animal protection laws and penalties. We work to change attitudes and behaviour through education and manage wildlife reserves. Find out more about our work at www.league.org.uk. Registered charity in England and Wales (no.1095234) and Scotland (no.SC045533).