Fox Hunting in the UK
Written by Zia Maxwell
Fox hunting has been illegal in the UK for almost 20 years. It was banned under the ‘Hunting Act 2004’. Despite its illegal status, fox hunting remains widespread due to significant loopholes in existing legislation.
The Hunting Act states at s.1 that a person commits an offence ‘(...) if he hunts a wild mammal with a dog, unless his hunting is exempt’, or if some other loophole exists. A loophole that has developed is trail hunting, which is where hounds follow a trail of an animal scent that has been pre-laid by huntsmen. In practice, however, hounds often pick up real scents of foxes on the ground instead, and foxes are killed. This tends to escape prosecution under the Act due to the huntsman being able to argue that the intention was not to chase a live mammal. To prosecute, the police must prove that the suspect had the intent to hunt illegally. The ‘Crown Prosecution Service Legal Guidance on the Hunting Act 2004’ reveals that intention equates to someone ‘(...) encouraging his dogs to chase a wild mammal, for example by the use of the hunting horn, or that the defendants deliberately allowed the dogs to be out of control’.
An exemption that exists in Schedule 1 of the Act is flushing out, this includes hounds chasing foxes out of their habitats, to be hunted by birds of prey through falconry (s.6(a)), or shot to prevent damage to farmed animals (s.2(a)(i)). The ‘United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’ states that there are frequent occurrences of birds of prey simply ‘accompanying’ the hounds as a pretence, to raise a defence to claims of illegal hunting. During the 2022/23 hunting season, the ‘League Against Cruel Sports’ ‘(...) compiled a report of 526 eyewitness reports of hunts being involved in suspected illegal fox hunting in England and Wales (...) including 400 cases involving a hunt being seen chasing a fox’. Such high figures indicate that the legislation fails to provide adequate legal protection for foxes due to the overly broad exemption clauses.
Andy Knott, the former chief executive of the League Against Cruel Sports, emphasises that: “(...) Any law that has as many exemptions and is so easy to circumvent as the Hunting Act is clearly not fit for purpose’.
These loopholes and exemptions in the law mean that the police face difficulties enforcing the Hunting Act. In addition, findings from an independent review of the North Wales Police state that evidence is difficult to gather, due to hunting being ‘a fast-moving activity, that usually takes place on private land away from the public gaze, and thereby in a location the police have no automatic right to enter’.
Scotland is leading the way for ethical change, as the Scottish Government passed the ‘Hunting With Dogs (Scotland) Act 2023’. S.14(1)(a) of the Act bans trail hunting, s.3(3)(a)(i) limits the number of dogs used for flushing out to two, and s.1(2)(b) increases liability to include custodial sentences for up to five years. These changes ensure the law is more robust and clear, and the addition of custodial sentences acts as a strong deterrent to fox hunting. Legislation following suit in the rest of the UK would efficiently close loopholes and help the police to use their powers to put an end to illegal fox hunting.
