The Government is under pressure over its manifesto pledge to ban trail hunting as hunts gather for the traditional Boxing Day meet. Anti-hunting campaigners are urging them to deliver on the promise to ban trail hunting – a practice in which a scent is laid across the countryside for hounds and riders to follow as an alternative to banned fox hunting, but which has been criticised as a “smokescreen” for illegal activity. But the Countryside Alliance has warned further changes to the law are “completely unjustified”, as people were carrying out a legitimate, legal activity that brought the rural community together.
Tim Bonner, the alliance’s chief executive, also said the issue of trail hunting was irrelevant to most people and it would be “extraordinary” for Labour to focus on it given the poor state of relations with rural communities. A spokesperson for the Environment Department (Defra) confirmed the Government planned to ban trail hunting, telling the PA news agency: “This government was elected on a mandate to introduce the most ambitious animal welfare plans in a generation and that is exactly what we will do. “We are committed to a ban on trail hunting, which is being exploited as a smokescreen to cruelly kill foxes and hares.
” The League Against Cruel Sports said figures compiled by its intelligence team found that since the beginning of August, 186 foxes were reported being pursued by hunts and there were 220 reports relating to suspected illeg.
