25th July 2022
Back in October 2021, one of the UK’s most renowned fox hunters was found guilty of encouraging others to hunt animals illegally. Mark Hankinson, former director of the Masters of Foxhounds Association, was prosecuted after internal hunting webinars were leaked to the public.
Hankinson was caught on film saying that trail hunting was used as a smokescreen “to portray to the people watching that you’re going about legitimate business”. Trail hunting is the laying of an artificial trail for hounds to follow instead of them chasing a real fox. It was brought in after hunting with dogs was made illegal in 2005.
However, on 20 July, Hankinson’s conviction was overturned after he won an appeal in Southwark Crown Court. The judge ruled that Hankinson’s words “are capable of more than one interpretation”.
The verdict is particularly worrying for all those who don’t want to see foxes and other mammals ripped to pieces by Britain’s rich people in the name of ‘sport’. Since the hunting ban came into force, there has been ample gruesome footage, as well as eyewitness reports, of hunts breaking the law by murdering foxes, deer, hare and mink. For years, hunt saboteurs and campaigners have tried to force big landowners like the National Trust to take action against this illegal hunting. But it was only after Hankinson was found guilty that they were forced to ban the bloodsport from their land.
Considering the judgement
To its credit, the National Trust has put out a statement saying that it won’t reconsider its ban on trail hunting. The organisation said:
There were many contributing factors in our decision to no longer issue trail hunting activities on National Trust land, including the appropriate use of charitable funds, the risk of reputational harm to the Trust and the result of the recent members’ resolution vote on this matter at our October 2021 Annual General Meeting.
We will not be reviewing our position on trail hunting as a result of this appeal.