Hunters prepare for another battle with government

Trail hunting was billed as a cruelty-free alternative to hounds chasing and killing animals

Twenty years ago this month the Hunting Act came into force banning hunting live animals with hounds.

Now hunters are bracing themselves for another battle with the government, which is insisting that it will fulfil a manifesto pledge to ban trail hunting, where hounds follow a scent rather than pursue a live kill.

The head of the Countryside Alliance campaign group, Tim Bonner, says "it's frankly extraordinary" that Labour has chosen to return to an issue that is "irrelevant to 99% of the population".

But many Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green MPs claim the present law is not working and needs to be tightened.

Trail hunting has been seen by many in the countryside as an acceptable alternative to fox hunting.

Instead of chasing animals, hounds follow the scent of a fox or hare. If an actual fox is spotted the hounds must be called off.

Hunting groups insist that they follow the law, but animal rights campaigners say foxes are still being killed.

The League Against Cruel Sports told us that since August, there have been 23 reports of foxes being chased and 41 reports of hunts wreaking havoc across the East of England.

A spokesperson for the British Hound Sports Association accused the League of "spreading unverified allegations to suit its agenda".

'Labour can't drop this issue'

Adrian Ramsay MP from the Green Party said we "need to ensure cruelty is stopped"

Mr Bonner told the BBC Politics East programme that Labour was wasting its time on the issue.

"If you ask people what the government's priorities should be either in the countryside or elsewhere nobody will raise this issue," he claimed.

"There is no logic to this proposal. There is a law in place and on the basis of all the evidence we have it works perfectly well."

There were 573 successful prosecutions under the Hunting Act between 2005 and 2021. Mr Bonner said that only a handful involved people from hunts, with the majority of convictions being for poaching.

"The Labour Party cannot drop this issue," he said.

"Hunts still exist and that is apparently an insult to parts of the animal rights movement and some parts of the Labour party and until hunts don't exist they won't be happy."

Public opinion 'shifted'

Alice Macdonald, Labour MP for Norwich North, insisted Labour was not obsessed with the issue and banning hunting was not its number one priority.

"But there is evidence the Act isn't working and there are animals being hurt and public opinion has shifted," she said.

Adrian Ramsay, Green Party co-leader and MP for the new rural Waveney Valley seat straddling the Norfolk/Suffolk border, said: "We need to ensure cruelty is stopped.

"There is an alternative - we could end trail hunting and allow drag hunting where different types of scent are used."

The exchanges on BBC Politics East are a sign of the arguments to come when the government publishes its proposals.

View from the frontline

Euan Nicolson from the Suffolk Hounds insists that trail hunters do not set out to kill foxes

'Important part' of rural community

Euan Nicolson is senior master of the Suffolk Hounds, which rides in the Newmarket area.

"Hunting has evolved since the ban 20 years ago. We follow a trail, the hounds love it, the followers love it and it's a really important part of the countryside community," he said.

"We always have permission from the land owner whose land we cross and we do not go out to pursue wild animals.

"It is always a possibility [that a fox could get harmed] but hunting is regulated and managed with protocols in place. Our huntsman has a very disciplined pack and were they to get on the wrong trail, which happens very infrequently, he calls them back.

"I don't see why trail hunting is receiving all this attention."

'Hunts still killing foxes'

Animal rights campaigner Mike Nicholas says the present Hunting Act is not working

Mike Nicholas, communications officer with the League Against Cruel Sports, said: "I had nearly 1,400 reports last year of suspected illegal fox hunting and hunts wreaking havoc on rural communities.

"The hunts are still ignoring the ban. We know that far out in the countryside away from public gaze the hunts are chasing and killing foxes.

"We're also seeing behaviour that's entirely inconsistent with trail hunting - hunts on railway lines and in people's back gardens... distressing reports of killing people's cats and dogs.

"Trail hunting is a deception to fool the public, the police and the courts. It's a smokescreen and so it's time for stronger fox hunting laws."

Politics East is on BBC One on Sunday at 10:00 GMT and is then available on the BBC iPlayer.