I am an anti-foxhunting person. I think it’s disgusting. Many people would agree with me. I admire the hunt saboteurs. In this video you see them facing women and men on horseback, members of the Ledbury Hunt taking part in the usual Boxing Day activity (2021). And a certain amount of chaos was generated with the police doing their best to maintain order. There is a placard in the video being held by one of the hunt saboteurs which says that decent people don’t support foxhunting. A sentiment with which I fully agree.
The Labour Party in the UK has become embroiled in a row with the Countryside Alliance because they’ve called to outlaw trail hunting on public land. Trail hunting has been used as a smokescreen to cover up real foxhunting. Foxhunters really do not want to stop foxhunting and they will even use fraudulent behaviour to cover up what they’re doing. A leader of the foxhunters recommended it. He’s been prosecuted successfully. But Labour want more MPs in the countryside so when they go against foxhunting, they have less chance of achieving that objective. Jim McMahon, the shadow environment secretary said that ministers were turning a blind eye to foxhunting. He has called for a total ban.
A hunt master at the Ledbury Hunt in Herefordshire said:
“This is something we will continue to do for as long as we are allowed.”
There has been violence at a meeting of the Avon Vale Hunt in Lacock, Wiltshire on Boxing Day as supporters clashed with hunt saboteurs. One hunt supporter is seen grabbing one of the protesters in a headlock. Punches were exchanged. Police said that no arrests had been made.
In all, about 250 hunts meet on Boxing Day in a normal year according to the Countryside Alliance.
You may know that the hunting of mammals using dogs was made illegal in the UK in 2005. Trail hunting allows foxhunting of sorts to continue. It involves a fox-based scent trail being laid ahead of the pack.
Although, there are objections to this for the reasons stated above i.e. it can be a smokescreen for genuine foxhunting. The National Trust and Natural Resources Wales have both banned trail hunting on their land for this reason.
McMahon said that:
“Foxhunting needs to be banned once and for all, but the government continues to turned a blind eye. Labour will close the loopholes which allow animal cruelty to be cloaked in a trail hunting smokescreen.”
He wants the UK government to ban trail hunting on all public land.
