26th November 2020
We are aware of the recent allegations made to the police in relation to a webinar hosted by The Hunting Office, hunting’s governing body. Whilst these allegations are being examined by the police and Crown Prosecution Service to determine if any criminal offences have taken place, we are suspending trail hunting on our land until this investigation is complete. At that point, we will consider what action we should take.
We currently licence trail hunting and any hunts that take place on our land are subject to strict licensing requirements which are set in accordance with the Hunting Act 2004. We also monitor the hunts – our employees attend meets to ensure they are acting in accordance with the licence. We will take action if the hunts operate outside the conditions of the licence.
Given that many different groups have an interest in our land, it is our policy that we do not discriminate between any of those groups by banning any particular legal activities, unless they would have a detrimental impact on water quality or otherwise affect our ability to carry out our regulatory responsibilities. To achieve the best possible balance across different views our stakeholders express, we base our decisions on what is lawful. Because trail-hunting is currently a legal activity and does not impact water quality, then we do not consider it our role to ban a legal activity.
We encourage anyone who has any information about criminal activity to report this to the police as it is the police that is responsible for investigating and prosecuting illegal activity. We will facilitate any investigations the police wish to undertake on our land and we have always supported any that have taken place. Should any illegal activity have occurred, we will take appropriate action.
AGAIN I HOPE THIS BAN STAYS FOR EVER. ITS BEEN PROVED THE HUNT BRIGADE ARE LIARS AND CHEATS AND PRETEND TO TRAIL HUNT WHEN THEY ARE ACTUALLY HUNTING FOR REAL WITH PACKS OF DOGS. IF HUNTING IS NOT BANNED THEN WHY NOT BAN DOGS GOING. TO STOP DOGS WOULD BE A BIG STEP. I HAd a video sent to me showing a vile scumbag THROWING A LIVE BABY FOX INTO KENNELS EVIL BASTARDS THEY ARE/