LEADING ANIMAL WELFARE ORGANISATIONS BACK CALLS FOR A STRONGER HUNTING LAWS

The chilling sound of hounds in cry having picked up a fox scent was played across central London today as campaigners from the UK’s most influential animal welfare organisations converged on Westminster.

The Time for Change Coalition Against Hunting, which is led by the League Against Cruel Sports, is calling on the next government to tighten hunting laws.

Specially equipped vans toured Whitehall playing a film showing how hunting with hounds carries on despite it being banned nearly 20 years ago, while campaigners gathered outside parliament to demand the law be changed as a priority.

Chris Luffingham, acting chief executive of the League Against Cruel Sports, said: “Today, Downing Street heard the sickening sound of a baying fox pack closing in the for the kill, something which can still be heard in the countryside despite the ban – and that’s why the next government must act with urgency to strengthen the Hunting Act. It’s time for change.”

Despite the fox hunting ban coming into force in 2005, League Against Cruel Sports compiles figures showing hunts are still chasing and killing foxes and wreaking havoc on rural communities.

The most recent report covering the last hunting season between November 2023 and March 2024 showed nearly 1,400 eyewitness sightings of activity related to suspected illegal fox hunting across England and Wales.

Chris added: “The figures show hunts being in places where they simply wouldn’t be if they were really following a trail, and to properly stop the law being broken the next government needs to ban trail hunting, close legal loopholes being exploited by hunts and introduce custodial sentences for those caught illegally hunting.”

The Time for Change Coalition Against Hunting includes some of the country’s largest animal welfare organisations, including the RSPCA and Battersea.

Trail hunting, where hunters claim they are following a pre-laid animal-based scent, has been described by T/Assistant Chief Constable Matt Longman, the most senior police officer in Wales and England with responsibility for fox hunting crime, as a “smokescreen for illegal fox hunting”. He also said the government should close the loopholes which allow the hunting community to continue killing foxes with apparent immunity.

The Scottish Government strengthened its fox hunting laws last year and banned so called trail hunting.

Polling data released late last month shows that, despite being banned nearly 20 years ago, voters want hunting laws strengthened by the next government.

The polling was commissioned the League but carried out independently by FindOutNow with further analysis by Electoral Calculus in March and April this year.

Chris added: “Voters, the police and animal welfare campaigners all have the same message – consign fox hunting to the history books by strengthening the law.

“The harrowing sight and sound of foxes being torn apart must be ended once and for all.”