‘It was a bit feisty’: Tensions
PROTESTERS AND SUPPORTERS EXCHANGE VIEWS OVER EVENT
TENSIONS were high in Melton as the Quorn Hunt arrived in town for its traditional New Year’s Day meet.
About 40 protesters gathered ahead of the meet and shouted “shame on you” at those taking part.
One witness said: “It was a bit feisty, with some protests going on throughout, but it didn’t kick off massively with any fighting or anything.
“There were a few people in the faces of the hunting group, but they were ushered back before anything escalated.
“The hunt came out of the car park on their horses and with dogs alongside them.
“There were plenty of supporters also down at the meet, with kids being given the chance to stroke the dogs in the park.
“They weren’t there for that long before the dogs were being put back in the cars and people were riding away on horseback. I’d say they arrived at 10.30am and left shortly after 11am.
“It wasn’t as chaotic as I was expecting, but it was a mix of cheering and shouting from the people there.”
Footage also shows protesters calling senior town warden Ian Wilkinson a disgrace as he was at the hunt serving port and whisky in the stirrup cup tradition.
They also misnamed him as the mayor of Melton, to which he replied: “I’m afraid I’m not the mayor.”
Boxing Day and New Year’s Day meets are a tradition for most hunts, with groups organising events in towns across Leicestershire and Rutland.
The last New Year’s Day meet to take place in Melton was in January 2020, when the Cottesmore Hunt arrived in the town. It did not gather last year, due to lockdown restrictions.
The countryside tradition continues to fuel anger among antibloodsports campaigners, despite the Hunting Act 2004 explicitly banning hunting wild mammals with dogs in England and Wales.
Hunts now gather for lawful trail hunting, in which a scent is laid for hounds to follow.
Opponents claim this can often be used as a smokescreen for illegally hunting foxes.
Ministers have been urged to stop all trail hunting on public land due to the concerns, with Labour and the League Against Cruel Sports criticising the government for granting licences.
National Trust members have voted to halt the sport on the charity’s land over concerns it was being used as a cover, a move echoed by Natural Resources Wales.
But activists said more than 240 hunting days will have taken place on land owned by the
Ministry of Defence alone last year.
Labour’s shadow environment secretary, Jim McMahon, said: “Allowing hunts to go ahead on public and government-owned land is completely irresponsible, regardless of whether those taking part are the Prime Minister’s mates.
“The government must do more to close the loopholes that allow people to break the law and consign hunting to the history books, where the vast majority of us believe it belongs.”
Chris Luffingham, the director of external affairs at the League Against Cruel Sports, said: “It’s time all major landowners permanently banned trail hunting on their land and that the government strengthens the Hunting Act to ensure its loopholes can no longer be exploited.”
In October, director of the Masters of Foxhounds Association, Mark Hankinson, was found guilty of intentionally encouraging huntsmen to use legal trail hunting as “a sham and a fiction” for the unlawful chasing and killing of animals during webinars. National Trust members overwhelmingly voted to ban trail hunting on the charity’s land in England and Wales after the conviction at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
The Welsh government nature agency Natural Resources Wales, which looks after swathes of countryside and forests, also banned trail hunting on its land. The Quorn Hunt was contacted for comment about the Melton altercations, but had not responded at time of publication.
There were plenty of supporters, with kids being given the chance to stroke the dogs in the park
Witness