A trailblazing rewilding estate has come under fire from animal protection groups over its alleged hosting of “the UK’s most violent hunt". The Knepp Estate, near Horsham, has been owned and farmed by the Burrell family for over 220 years. Since 2001 the 3,500-acre estate has been subject to a rewilding project.
Protect The Wild, which says its mission is to “end hunting, end shooting and end badger persecution”, wrote to the Knepp Estate to ask why it allowed the Crawley and Horsham fox hunt on its land, alleging it had seen evidence and footage of the hunt “chasing and killing wildlife”. In 2021 the Crawley and Horsham was dubbed the most violent hunt in the UK by the Hunt Saboteurs Association. The Knepp Estate previously stated on its website that it continued to host the opening meet of the Crawley and Horsham Hunt, which adopted trail hunting following the ban on fox hunting in 2004.
It said: “The Knepp Estate would like to make categorically clear that it never has, and never would, allow illegal fox hunting to take place on its land.” The Horsham and Crawley Hunt practises trail hunting which is legal, though controversial (Image: West Sussex Hunt Sabs) Trail hunting is a legal, although controversial, sport in which a trail of animal urine, usually fox, is laid in advance of the hunt and then tracked by the hound pack and a group of followers. Protect The Wild argues that trail hunting is a “smokescreen to illegally hunt”.
On September 6, the Knep.
