broken law – how the hunting act has failed
A report by Action Against Foxhunting.
This is an evidenced-based report connecting documented cases of pursuits and kills of wild mammals with their treatment under the Hunting Act 2004. It highlights the significant issues with the Act and its inability to prevent the hunting of wild mammals.
In the opinion of AAF, the Hunting Act enabled hunting with dogs, rather than banning it.
We are pleased that the Labour Government plans to ban “trail hunting”, but our report indicates that this alone will not solve the problem. Trail hunting is a non-existent sport only used as a defence for traditional hunting. Hence, all of the activities that lead to pursuits and kills of wild mammals by hunts must be banned.
Searching for mammals to hunt, “accidental” pursuits and kills, exempt hunting – every part of it must go. If this doesn’t happen, we believe that the hunts will look for other loopholes in any new law and use them instead.
Whatever happens now, we must never forget that many hard-core hunters are still campaigning for the Hunting Act to be overturned, and traditional hunting to be re-instated.
These people have no moral objection to terrifying and killing wild mammals for the pleasure and amusement of human beings. They have no empathy for the wild mammal, and no concern for its pain, terror or death. It is, in fact, quite the opposite: they enjoy the wild mammal’s torment.
They will not stop of their own accord, so we must stop them by law. For the last twenty years, hunting wild mammals for sport has not been illegal enough.
Our report looks at 25 documented and evidenced cases of incidents where wild mammals were chased by hunt hounds and/or killed. Some of these cases ended up in court, and others were dropped at the investigation stage. In all cases, the people responsible for the hunting and killing of the wild mammal avoided punishment because of flaws in the Hunting Act. We offer 24 “Recommendations” for amending the law – recommendations (if taken up) that will finish the pursuit and killing of wild mammals by hunts forever.
By Pip Donovan and Sarah Little.
11 October 2024 – UPDATED 19TH JUNE 2025
