Minister Commits to End Trail Hunting at Landmark Parliament Event

This week an event was held at the Houses of Parliament in London, which was heralded as a momentous stepping stone and call to action to both MPs and the Government on the path to ending hunting for good.

Many Members of Parliament and Peers attended a reception hosted by Seamus Logan MP, with Irene Campbell MP and Ruth Jones MP, to hear from keynote speaker Baroness Sue Hayman of Ullock Minister for Animal Welfare, with activists and campaigners including Chris Packham, Peter Egan, Dr Jane Washington Evans, Eduardo Gonҫalves of the Campaign Against Trophy Hunting and notably our very own Chair of the Hunt Saboteurs Association.

Guests and cross-party parliamentarians heard in shocking detail about the need for change in the laws governing hunting in the UK, with impassioned appeals from Chris and Peter to take on the totemic and toxic issue of wildlife persecution by people who seemingly feel the current laws simply do not apply to them.

Baroness Hayman reiterated in the strongest terms the Government’s position on so-called trail hunting, a commitment to ban the practise before the next General Election and described in detail the urgent need to improve this country’s laws on hunting in order to fully deliver on their promises made in their manifesto.

Experienced experts from the Hunt Saboteurs Association were also on hand, along with representatives from the Wildlife Guardian, League Against Cruel Sports, Protect The Wild and Action Against Foxhunting, in addition to representatives from wildlife rescue group Fox Angels to answer questions and discuss the realities of hunting today with the many attendees.

Guests of honour also included Dave and Cee Wetton, stand out figureheads of anti-hunting activism since the 1960s.

Crucially, MPs are now owners of the HSA booklet “Witness The End Of Hunting”, a full and detailed overview of the amendments that the Hunt Saboteurs Association is pressing for.

These are:

• Inclusion of recklessness and negligence with the Hunting Act
• Reversal of the burden of proof, ensuring that participants in hunting are responsible for the actions taken with hunting hounds
• A complete and total ban on trail-hunting, using animal based scent or otherwise. This has been comprehensively discredited as a sham to evade the current law
• Removal of all Hunting Act exemptions
• The definition of ‘Hunting’ to be set in law to include the searching for a scent or an animal
• Increase of criminal penalties, including the possibility of custodial sentences, in line with the Animal Welfare Act 2006

The HSA thanks all supporting organisations who made this event possible, the echoes of which will be heard through Westminster for years to come.