League-led anti fox hunting coalition launches

Author: Andy Knott

An anti-foxhunting coalition made up of animal welfare and environmental organisations has been officially launched.

Led by the League Against Cruel Sports the Time for Change Coalition Against Hunting will lobby for stronger hunting laws to protect wildlife.

I am very proud to be able to announce the official launch of the Time for Change Coalition Against Hunting – a coalition of animal welfare and environmental organisations that together want to see a proper end to fox hunting in the UK.

We've known since very soon after the Hunting Act 2004 was introduced that hunts were using its many exemptions – and something they call trail hunting – to carry on chasing and killing wildlife with hounds.

We and other like-minded organisations have been calling out for the law to be strengthened, for its many exemptions to be removed, and for trail hunting to be outlawed.

With the advent of smart phones and social media the public are now able to see what we and other groups that monitor the hunts see – no trails being laid, no attempt to recall hounds when they pick up the scent of a wild animal, hunts marauding across the countryside with no respect for the people who live there. In short, they can now see the dark underbelly of hunting and know, as we do, that the law needs to be changed. 

This coalition has been many years in its formation. As a group we have worked together to see maximum sentences for animal welfare crimes increased. We have lobbied government on the Kept Animals Bill and the Animal Sentience Bill. We have convinced major landowners to ban hunting on more than 2.5 million acres of land. We have shown that we are a loud and powerful voice lobbying for an end to injustice and unfairness around animal and wildlife crime.

And now we’re an even bigger force for animals.

Our coalition of some 30+ charities represents many millions of people across the UK. The public have said, time and time again, that they support a ban on hunting with dogs. It doesn’t matter whether they live in cities or villages - every time we conduct polling the message is the same. The latest round, commissioned by the League and carried out by FindOutNow, said 78 per cent of respondents want to see it properly banned. This polling isn’t a one-off. Year after year we get similarly resounding results in that people abhor hunting with hounds.

It’s time they were heard when they say: It’s time for change.

People want to see laws that work. They want to see the people who break laws, no matter who they are and what law they break, being properly punished. They want to stop seeing injustice. So too with hunting laws. They want to see animals protected in law and in reality.

And that’s why we have launched this coalition. We are building on the work we have done together over the past few years and using our collective voices to urge the government to tighten hunting laws. To that end, I’d invite you to sign our petition adding your voice to the many millions saying it’s time for change.