After last year’s embarrassing Farcical Friday, the pro-blood sports lobby group, the British Hound Sports Association (BHSA), has somehow managed to surpass itself in the ridiculousness stakes – and it’s not even Smokescreen Saturday yet!
By now, you might have thought the hunting fraternity would have learned to exercise a little more care when selecting which hunts to showcase in its desperate attempt to maintain the smokescreen of trail hunting.
But no, you actually couldn’t make this up if you tried.
Just days after a Lauderdale Hunt huntswoman was convicted of illegally hunting a fox with hounds, the Lauderdale is advertising an event encouraging newcomers to discover the joys of ‘trail hunting’. The event poster was uploaded onto the Lauderdale Hunt’s social media and quickly spotted by Glasgow Hunt Saboteurs.
In Scotland. Where trail hunting is banned.
The Lauderdale’s joint meet with the Berwickshire Hounds is seemingly delighted to support Newcomers to Trail Hunting Week in Wedderlie, Gordon, on Saturday 17 October.
Saturday also happens to be the annual smokescreen performance day, when a carefully selected (or perhaps a not-so carefully selected) handful of hunts are wheeled out to put on a display for Tory MP’s and other indignitaries. If they are lucky, GBeebies and the Torygraph might even dispatch a tea-boy masquerading as a journalist to cover the spectacle.
The since-deleted poster promises a warm-welcome courtesy of the Tilson family, a chance to meet the hounds and follow on horseback or foot. No previous experience is necessary.
Clearly, no previous knowledge of Scottish hunting legislation is needed either.
So-called trail hunting has been banned in Scotland since 2023. Under the Hunting with Dogs (Scotland) Act 2023, following an animal-based scent laid for hounds is prohibited.
As if that weren’t awkward enough, the Lauderdale Hunt was in the news recently for illegal hunting.
On 05 October 2026, Claire Bellamy, former master and huntswoman of the Lauderdale Hunt, was convicted in Paisley Sheriff Court of deliberately hunting a fox with dogs outside the area permitted by a NatureScot licence.
In fact, it was reported that she wasn’t even named on the NatureScot licence in any case!
The poster invites the public to “Come and discover more about trail hunting and our community”.
Perhaps they first ought to discover what the law says.
The poster forms part of the wider campaign organised and promoted by the Countryside Alliance’s propaganda wing, Future for Hunting and the British Hound Sports Association (BHSA) – itself a rebrand of the disgraced Hunting Office.
As if that wasn’t farcical enough, another participating hunt has managed to make this public relations disaster even more awkward.
Three Counties Hunt Saboteurs reported this week that The Worcestershire Hunt – one of the four hunts selected to put on a trail demo on Saturday – was filmed by a member of the West Midlands Badger group in an incident involving a fox and a badger sett.
The incident was said to have occurred in the Wilmcote/Aston Cantlow area of Warwickshire. Sabs say that an officer from the Badger Group who had been in the area in relation to a swan rescue, witnessed the hunted fox run past them near a canal.
She noticed two men in the corner of a nearby wood and approached them telling them that police were on their way. The men scarpered and the large badger sett where they had been was discovered to have freshly blocked entrances.
After last year’s Farcical Friday, you might have expected the BHSA to be a little more selective, but then again, finding a hunt that actually lays a trail must certainly be quite a challenge for hunting’s propaganda unit.
A HSA spokesperson said
“It is no surprise to see this poster advertising what is essentially an illegal activity, made even worse by the Launderdale’s recent conviction. Sometimes they drop the ball and tell us exactly who they are, whereas other times they put up the smokescreen and invite pro-hunt MP’s and media to report on it once a year.
No one is fooled.
The government needs to get on with the job now and ban it properly”.
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