DELAY IN THE GOVERNMENT CONSULTATION ON STRENGTHENING THE HUNTING ACT AND WHAT WE’RE GOING TO DO ABOUT IT. 

|| Target of 1000 names on the letter reached, and we’ve put the first one in the post. However, please add your name to the next one ||

As the Government Consultation on strengthening the Hunting Act has been delayed once again (not January, as we were told, but “some time early in the year”), we are not happy at all. Are we running out of time? Will Labour lose the next election? If they do, it’s game over. Will Reform get in? Reform, who have said they will make fox hunting legal again. We are so very nearly there. There isn’t much time. We are sending this letter, but we need 1000 names to go on it. Can you add yours? Please allow us, by filling this quick form out. 

P.S. In the unlikely event of the Government coming up with the consultation before we’ve sent the letter, we’ll send a different one, thanking them for getting on with it.

The letter is below.

Dame Angela,

We are deeply upset to learn that the consultation on strengthening the Hunting Act has been delayed yet again. We were hopeful it would take place in January, and we are now devastated to see that promise pushed back once more. Each delay prolongs suffering and uncertainty for so many people and so many animals.

Within the anti-hunting community there are campaigners, saboteurs, and monitors, alongside countless others who oppose hunting with every fibre of their being. Many of us push past exhaustion and burnout because we refuse to give in, and we refuse to stop. But for you to offer us a glimmer of hope only to take it away is deeply disheartening.

Hunts continue to pursue stags, foxes, mink, and hares illegally, bringing disruption and misery to local communities. Landowners face trespass and damage to their property, while residents live in fear for their cats, dogs, and livestock, often forced to shut gates and stay indoors when the hunt appears —if they even know the hunt is coming, which is rarely the case. Hunts also create serious hazards on roads, putting all of us at risk. Despite repeated reports, there is little police enforcement, leaving communities feeling unsafe and ignored.

None of this is new. These concerns have been raised repeatedly over years, with clear evidence. You already know about the trespass, cruelty, and danger to the public—yet meaningful action has still not been taken.

While campaigners stand in the street handing out leaflets, spreading the word and encouraging people to take action, saboteurs and monitors are out in the field witnessing the cruelty first-hand and trying to protect wild animals from terror and painful death at the hands of the hunts. Some have been doing this for twenty years. As one saboteur recently said, “I don’t have another twenty years in me.”

We cannot carry on like this. Launch the consultation, end the delays, and strengthen the law to make hunting with dogs a thing of the past. Only then will rural communities and their animals finally be able to live in peace.

Yours sincerely and hopefully
Pip Donovan and… please add your name (COMPLETE THIS FORM)