End fox hunting on our national parks.

 Unpublished article for uniteLANDWORKER Winter 2023/24 

A coalition of charities led by the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) are campaigning to push National Park Authorities (NPA) in England and Wales to do all in their power to end fox hunting on our national parks.

When Labour did finally sweep away hunting with dogs in 2005 it needed the Commons Speaker Michael Martin to invoke the Parliament Act for only the fourth time since 1949, after Conservative peers in the Lords constantly refused to pass the legislation despite MPs support for it on a free vote. 

As the trade union for rural workers, the TGWU (now Unite) welcomed the legislation viewing fox hunting as unnecessary and cruel with foxes dying terrible deaths after being pursued over lengthy distances before being caught and ripped to death by the chasing pack. 

The Countryside Alliance (CA) was predictably hostile, predicted that the legislation would be unenforceable and threatened defiance. 

In the first two years there were just eight successful prosecutions under the Act but, thankfully, the numbers have risen consistently ever since. However, there is an overwhelming body of evidence – LACS recorded nearly 1,000 incidents in the last hunting season - showing fox hunting with dogs is still being pursued under the smokescreen of ‘trail hunting’, which involves a pack of hounds following an artificially laid scent.

LACS is calling on NPA to follow in the footsteps of the National Trust and Natural Resource Wales in banning trail hunting on their land. A petition to this effect is being handed into the NPA soon and other activities will follow.

Karen (*), (not her real name) a farmer with her husband in North Yorkshire who lives close to the North Yorkshire Moors and Yorkshire Dales National Parks. (NPs) supports LACS campaign.

“Fox hunting takes place regularly locally and this disturbs lots of wildlife. There have been prosecutions but anyone speaking up takes a serious risk of being harassed.

“Older farmers hunt because they see it as a tradition and a social event. But others are quite vile and enjoy witnessing a fox or a minx, as they also hunt those defenceless animals, being ripped apart.

“I am pleased LACS and other bodies have a campaign to get NPs to do everything in their power to end fox hunting across their regions. This won’t be easy as they don’t own the land and there are some big, powerful landowners within these areas.”

Only 4% of land in the Lake District (LD) Park is owned by the LD National Park Authority.

The Duchy of Cornwall – now Prince William - is one of the largest private landowners in England with an estate of 135,000 acres of which 13% is in Cornwall and half of which is on Exmoor National Park in Devon and where animal rights campaigners are seeking to have the law vigorously upheld.

The future King and his wife are keen hunters and William has spoken out in support of trophy hunting in Africa.

It is apparent therefore that it is not going to be an easy task to push the NP Authorities, which are legal bodies charged with maintaining a National Park, to act to help finally end fox hunting.

To take action go to: -  https://takeaction.league.org.uk/page/131959/petition/1?locale=en-GB