From Trail Hunting to Drag Hunting: The Next Smokescreen?

Trail hunting does not exist as a genuine activity; it exists only as a myth. It was invented after the hunting ban as a smokescreen for the continued hunting of wild mammals – exactly as campaigners warned it would be, and exactly as hunts themselves said they would do.

In 2020, fifteen years after hunting was banned, the sport’s governing body held a series of Zoom calls during the Covid lockdowns which were later leaked to the Hunt Saboteurs Association and released on ITV News. The recordings exposed hunting’s leadership, coaching masters and huntsmen on how to circumvent the law and avoid prosecution. It was from these webinars that the now-infamous term “smokescreen” entered the public debate — used to describe trail hunting as a cover for continued illegal hunting.

The leak marked a turning point. The beginning of the end of hunts operating with impunity while publicly insisting they were acting within the law. Twenty-one years later, the public has more than had enough, and finally a government was elected with a manifesto pledge to ban the fiction of trail hunting.

But banning the myth alone does not deal with the underlying activity. How can you ban something that does not truly happen? What must be outlawed is the use of any smokescreen that enables the hunting of wild mammals to continue under another name.

That means ensuring hunts cannot simply reinvent themselves through another supposedly “alternative” activity.

And there is every reason to believe they already are.

The most obvious replacement smokescreen is drag hunting. That is not speculation — it has effectively been admitted by the hunting lobby itself. As reported by the BBC News, Countryside Alliance representative Polly Portwin said that if trail hunting were banned, hunts would adapt:

 “We will find a way, we’ve had to find a way and we’re going to have to adapt”. 

So why is the government simultaneously saying it wants “alternative practices such as drag hunting and clean-boot hunting, which use non-animal scents, to continue to thrive”?

“Thrive”? There are only seven registered drag hunting packs in the UK.

The Drag Hunting Reality

• Berks & Bucks Draghounds — formerly kennelled with the Avon Vale Hunt and hunted by former Avon Vale huntsman Stuart Radbourne before the Avon Vale were exposed in multiple cases involving extreme cruelty to animals. Radbourne would slaughter foxes on Saturdays and hunt a drag on Sundays. He has since been seen riding as whipper-in for huntsman Andrew Van Oostrum despite multiple convictions relating to serious animal abuse.
• Cambridge University Draghounds describes itself as an “extra-mural study” for students, but openly presents itself as a training ground for future leaders of the hunting world, boasting a “long list” of former members who became masters of hounds. One example is Ronnie Wallace, associated with hunts including the Hawkstone Otterhounds, Exmoor Foxhounds, Ludlow, Cotswold and Heythrop hunts.
• Crawley & Horsham Draghounds switched from registration with the British Hound Sports Association (BHSA) to the Masters of Draghounds & Bloodhounds Association ahead of the proposed ban. The fate of their fox hunting hounds remains unclear. The organisation has long been associated with “smokescreen” hunting practices. Former master and huntsman Richard Gurney was exposed in the Hunting Office webinars referring to trail laying as a “Plan B” to use when hunt saboteurs appeared. The Crawley &  Horsham Hunt also has convictions for illegal hunting. In 2012, three members, including huntsman Andrew Phillis, were convicted on five counts of illegal hunting. In 2013, professional huntsman Nicholas Bycroft pleaded guilty to an offence under the Hunting Act. In 2021, two separate cases against then-huntsman William Bishop collapsed after CPS failures to disclose video evidence.
• Isle of Wight Hounds — another former BHSA-registered pack now making the switch before legislation changes.
• Jersey Draghounds
• Mid Surrey Farmers Draghounds
• Staff College Draghounds

The Scent Contradiction

Sabs have long documented what scents so-called ‘trail hunts’ claim to use, here are just a few from our reports;

Staghounds

• Quantock Staghounds — aniseed (2018)

Foxhounds

• Hampshire Hunt — Olbas Oil (2025/26)
• Royal Artillery Hunt — valerian root (2025/26)
• Portman Hunt — clove oil (2025/26)
• Wilton Hunt — aniseed (2023/24), then reportedly returned to fox scent in 2025/26 because alternatives “don’t really work as well”

Harriers

• Holcombe Harriers — “cheap perfume”

Beagles

• Bolebroke Beagles — aniseed
• New Forest Beagles — Olbas Oil (2017)

The original justification for trail hunting using fox scent after the Hunting Act was supposedly to “keep the dogs’ noses” trained while hunts campaigned for the repeal of the Act. Yet the extraordinary inconsistency in the scents now claimed — from aniseed and clove oil to cheap perfume and Olbas Oil — alongside admissions that animal-based scents work better, exposes a fundamental problem: they do not actually know what works best because hounds were never genuinely retrained away from live quarry. 

The example of the Wilton Hunt is particularly revealing. After publicly claiming to have switched to non-animal scent trails in 2023/24, it now reportedly admits that fox scent has been reintroduced because alternatives “don’t really work”. 

It cannot be acceptable for actual hunting to continue simply to preserve seven registered drag hunts — several of which have direct or deeply questionable links to convicted fox hunting activity and individuals associated with illegal hunting. 

A ban on trail hunting alone is not enough. The government must ensure that any new law covers all eventualities, closes every potential smokescreen, and removes the loopholes and exemptions that have allowed hunts to continue operating in practice while claiming compliance on paper.

Nothing less will do.