24th April 2023
Fox hunting with dogs is illegal in the UK, but still takes place across the country. Recent statistics show that during the 2022/23 hunting season, monitors reported 526 cases of suspected illegal hunting. Even when they do find themselves in court, they use loopholes in the law to be found not guilty.
Since the introduction of the Hunting Act in 2005, hunts have used the excuse that their dogs are trail hunting – that is, that they are following an artificially-laid trail, rather than the scent of a fox – to get away with murder. But hunt saboteurs and monitors on the ground expose and film hunts tearing up foxes week in, week out.
A number of land owners, such as the National Trust, have banned or suspended trail hunting on their land. But one of the biggest land owners – the Ministry of Defence (MoD) – refuses to follow in their footsteps.
Fox hunting protected by the state
The MoD continues to ignore endless footage, spanning almost 20 years, showing foxes being terrorised on its land. No-one has ever been prosecuted for hunting on MoD land. Hunt staff committing crimes seem to have a special immunity from the law.
This immunity extends to the Royal Artillery Hunt, which hunts foxes on Salisbury Plain, owned by the MoD. Monitors and saboteurs have caught the the Royal Artillery illegally hunting numerous times. Despite this, defence secretary Ben Wallace gives the hunt special protection.
In December 2022, Wallace made it more difficult for activists to monitor the hunt on MoD land when he terminated a memorandum of understanding between the MoD and the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS). Under the memorandum, the MOD informed LACS where hunts were operating on Salisbury Plain.
Seemingly, it doesn’t matter to Wallace that his hunting friends are murdering foxes. He would rather focus on criticising the “masked and camouflaged” hunt saboteurs who catch them doing it. However, this doesn’t come as a surprise if you know that Wallace wants the Hunting Act repealed, anyway.