The law, hunts and landowners

Hunting wild mammals with hounds was made illegal in 2004, and that position has not changed since.  Landowners, who allow hunts to use their land, are also involved.

Section 3 (i) of the Hunting Act 2004 states this:

“A person commits an offence if he knowingly permits land which belongs to him to be entered or used in the course of the commission of an offence under Section 1”

Section 1 of the Hunting Act states:

“A person commits an offence if he hunts a wild mammal with a dog”

This means that if a hunt is caught breaking the law on your land, and you have given them permission to be there, you may also be prosecuted.

Most hunts are now being monitored by the police, members of the public, anti-hunt groups. With improved technology (drones, high-powered video cameras, trail cameras), more and more hunts are being caught red-handed. At the time of writing, fourteen hunts are facing prosecution. For details of these, click here. One of those is a landowner, charged under Section 3 of the Hunting Act.

Hunts claim to be “trail hunting”. However, there is significant doubt about trail hunting. We know that the hunts themselves have described trail hunting as a “smokescreen” for fox hunting. For more information about this, and how we know hunts are hunting live quarry, please look at “how do we know they are hunting foxes” link above.

If you need help and advice about how to keep the hunt from trespassing on your land, please email us.

We therefore urge you as a landowner to stop hunts from using your land.  For years the hunts have routinely broken the law (they still do) and some landowners have been complicit in this. Please take the step and ban the hunt from using your land to commit wildlife crime.