Fight stepped up over future of trail hunting
NATIONAL Trust members in Devon are being urged to vote to allow trail hunting to continue on Trust land – despite a campaign by the League Against Cruel Sports to have the practice banned.
The future of trail hunting – legally allowed under the Hunting Act which banned hunting foxes and stags in 2004 – is being put to a ballot of National Trust members.
The Countryside Alliance, which is opposed to any further restrictions on hunts, said it had received positive feedback from Trust members in Devon who will have a say in the matter.
The Alliance was responding yesterday to a leafleting campaign by the League Against Cruel Sports aimed at shoppers in Exeter city centre. Suzanne Heaney, one of the campaigners, said: “We are asking the people of Exeter to help us to pressure the National Trust to end fox hunting on its land.”
But a Countryside Alliance spokesman said: “The League Against Cruel Sports has spent the last 18 years making ridiculous claims about hunting yet nearly every time it makes allegations to the police or a court they are found to be false.
“There have been hundreds of thousands of days legal trail hunting carried out by hunts since the Hunting Act came into force and only a handful of convictions relating to registered hunts.
“We have received incredibly positive feedback from National Trust members living in Devon who are voting against the motion to end trail hunting on National Trust land. Like them, we hope this divisive motion is defeated so that the National Trust can get on with doing its real job.”
The National Trust, which looks after 250,000 acres of countryside in the UK, is holding its AGM in October when there will be a vote in which members will get the chance to call for a permanent ban on the licensing of trail hunting.
A Trust spokesman said: “The law does allow what is known as trail hunting to continue. This activity involves people on foot or horseback following a scent along a pre-determined route with hounds or beagles. It effectively replicates a traditional hunt but without a fox being chased, injured or killed.
“We paused trail hunting on National Trust land last year following leaked Hunting Office webinars and a resultant police investigation. We’ve been listening carefully to both sides of a highly polarised and passionate debate around trail hunting and will be considering a number of issues before reviewing our position on trail hunting later this year. This means we will not be operating the usual licence application process during this period.”
The League Against Cruel Sports handed out leaflets and spoke to shoppers in Exeter High Street yesterday alleging trail hunting was a ‘smokescreen’ that allowed hunts to carry on killing foxes.
Campaigner Ms Heaney said: “We feel it’s imperative now that major land owners like the National Trust take a stand and finally ban the hunts from their properties.”
Suzanne was part of a small group of staff and volunteers from the charity out and about in Exeter yesterday, including one in a fox costume.