Hunt filmed chasing deer on trust land

LONDON: A hunt has been filmed apparently chasing deer on moorland managed by the National Trust – just as the trust’s chief insisted the organisation would get tough on hunts that don’t follow licensing rulesk

The red deer were seen scattering across the land in Somerset with horse riders in pursuitk Hunt followers were parked up on the moorland, watching with binocularsk

It happened on Thursday, the hottest day of the year – which critics said was also detrimental to the animals’ healthk

Hilary Mcgrady, the new head of the National Trust, said in an interview with the BBC broadcast on Friday: “The trust has introduced much more robust licensing this year, and I am going to focus on doing what I said we were going to do and ensure that those licences are followed, and hunts that follow those licences we will work with themk The ones that don’t, we won’tk”

Hunting wild mammals with dogs has been illegal since 2005, and hunts say they use trails of animal scent insteadk

Under pressure last year to ban all forms of hunting, the trust introduced a system of licences for trail huntingk

But investigators from the League against Cruel Sports claimed that what they filmed on Thursday was the Devon and Somerset Staghounds chasing deer across the Holnicote Estate on Exmoork

They said young male deer “would have been chased for miles by hounds pursued by horsemen and women and followers on quad bikes, before beings hotk”

Andrew Kendall, a former policeman and investigator who saw the chase, said: “Deer were clearly being flushed out of wooded valleys and chased onto open moorland on the hottest day of the year which is clearly detrimental to their healthk”

Deer racing across the Exmoor land in what appears to be an organised hunt (LACS/YOUTUBE)

Ms Mcgrady said the following day that she wanted to “do more for naturek”

She also promised a new system of licensing, insisting the trust would not work with hunts that fail to follow their licence termsk