Four Things The Next Government Must Do To End Hunt Cruelty

After much speculation the General Election has finally been called and will take place on 4th July 2024.

With this comes a likely change in Government, and the biggest chance yet that the law will be changed to make the Hunting Act 2004 fit for purpose, actually banning the hunting of wild animals with a pack of hounds as it should have done 20 years ago.

Since then, up and down the country hunts have been exploiting loopholes in the law and continuing to chase and kill foxes, hare and deer for fun, much as they did before. Week in, week out, hunt saboteurs report on the criminality, animal abuse and violence that is part of hunting. But it isn’t just us who see it for what it is.

From the rural communities plagued by it, to animal protection agencies and police chiefs who try to enforce the law, everyone knows the law on hunting isn’t fit for purpose.

In a Channel 4 News exclusive earlier this year, which showed recent footage of hunts flouting the law and committing gross acts of animal cruelty, National Police Chiefs’ Council Lead on Hunting Crime, Matt Longman said, “What we’ve got is a law that has a high level of ambiguity within it, and it is without doubt, at times being used by some as a smokescreen to allow them to continue hunting as they said they would 20 years ago. Everybody knows this.”

In a follow-up piece, he went on to state that in order to work, “the Hunting Act is going to need reform, to close some of the loopholes that are continually being exploited.”

If these rural crime gangs are to be stopped, the next Government must act, and must do so quickly and decisively.

Here are four steps they can take to make sure the spirit of the law is upheld…

• Ban so-called ‘trail hunting’ which hunts currently use as a smokescreen to carry out illegal hunting
• Immediately end ‘terrier work’ on hunts. This is where some of the worst animal cruelty takes place (to terriers and badgers as well as foxes). Even hunting’s governing body admits this has ‘no place’ in legal hunting and has tried (and failed) to impose a self-enforced ban.
• Close the loopholes and exemptions in the law that allow animals to be chased and killed, such as through the ‘research and observation’ exemption that stag hunts regularly exploit
• Get tough on those who ride roughshod over the law, by bringing the sentencing powers under the Hunting Act in line with other animal cruelty offences, and make sure police are properly educated and resourced to enforce the law

But this is only going to happen if politicians and the next Government know it has to happen.

That’s why we’re asking YOU to contact the candidates who are standing to be your next MP, to tell them the desperate need for strengthening the Hunting Act.

Please follow the link above to take action! You can also write letters to your local paper, and make sure all canvassers are told the importance of a Hunting Act that works and understand your strength of feeling on the issue.

By taking action together, we can end hunting for good.