Landowners are ditching hunting, why the silence from the MoD?

Lets be clear about this, hunting is on its last legs. The webinar release was an absolute fiasco for the world of hunting. The (still listed on their website) director of the MFHA was prosecuted for his role in encouraging representatives from nearly every hunt in the country to slaughter wildlife and evade prosecution.

Ruled in court to be a sham and a fiction, “trail” hunting has become an embarrassment for many large landowners. With public pressure mounting, public bodies and charities are dropping hunting for fear of being tarnished by its vile reputation. Given this we ask, how can an organisation, funded by taxpayers, continue to licence illegal hunts?

The statements from other organisations are damning. Natural Resources Wales said:

“In order to assure ourselves properly that trail hunting on our estate wasn’t being used as a cover for illegal activity, we would have to invest in skills and resources that we currently don’t have, to police it properly,”

This begs the question, are the MoD going to allow hunting unpoliced despite regularly being informed of illegal activity on their land by local sab groups and monitors, or are they going to spend taxes on policing bloodsports enthusiasts they allow to use their land?

The Malvern Hills Trust, surely an independent observer, monitored hunting and found no trail laying, constant breaches of policy, and aggression towards staff trying to enforce policy the hunts had agreed to. This is not “antis”, this is a body which actively tried to facilitate hunts to use their land, and found an absolute refusal to do it legally. The MoD is failing in its due diligence by ignoring reports like this.

The National Trust cited the fact they can’t trust hunting’s governing body, and the resources needed to police hunting in their reasons for no longer licensing hunts. How can the MoD continue to trust a body which held webinars encouraging illegal activity? Every single person speaking at the webinars is part of running hunting, there is no argument that it was Hankinson alone.

We need to ask ourselves some questions:

• How can the MoD justify licencing eighteen hunts?
• How much money will the MoD spend policing illegal hunts on their land?
• Is this what our taxes should be spent on?

The silence from the MoD is deafening. We demand that they answer the public when asked about they policy on hunting. We want you to contact the MoD and make it clear that criminals shouldn’t have more access to their land than the public.

Please email:

DIOSec-Parli@mod.gov.uk
to ask the MoD directly about licensing hunts.

Landmarc…..enquiries@landmarcsolutions.com – or phone 01980 674951
to ask a private MoD contractor about their “policing” of hunts on MoD land.

MDP-SalisburyPlain-GMB@mod.gov.uk – MOD Police Salisbury Plains
to ask about policing of hunts.