Trail hunting ban must not snare working dogs, says Moorland Association

A proposed ban on trail hunting could criminalise lawful working dogs unless it is tightly drawn, the Moorland Association has warned in its response to Defra’s consultation. The Association stressed it took no position on trail hunting itself, but raised concern for the everyday use of dogs across the uplands its members manage.

What is the Moorland Association worried about?

Its members manage more than a million acres of England and Wales, where dogs are used daily for shooting, deer recovery, pest control, gamekeeping and conservation. Many such dogs are trained on animal scent, the Association said, but that does not make their work trail hunting.

On the ground that means familiar sights: a spaniel flushing birds to standing guns, a labrador sent to pick up shot game, or a terrier used lawfully against rats, all of them dogs working to scent or command. The fear is that a ban written too loosely could sweep up those everyday tasks, leaving keepers and stalkers uncertain whether long-standing, lawful work with dogs had suddenly become an offence.

Hunting a live wild mammal with dogs is already illegal under the Hunting Act 2004, the Association noted, and it called for any new definition to be written onto the face of the Bill rather than left to guidance that could later shift.

Which exemptions does it want protected?

The Association urged ministers to enforce existing law rather than impose a blanket ban, and to leave the Act’s exemptions untouched. Those exemptions allow lawful activities that rely on dogs, including flushing a wild mammal to a gun, stalking and flushing out, the use of dogs below ground, the retrieval of shot quarry and the control of rats and rabbits.

Several of those exemptions are central to legitimate predator and pest control on shooting and farming ground, which is why bodies including BASC have raised the same concern in their own responses, warning of unintended consequences for working dogs.

The intervention follows Defra’s consultation on prohibiting trail hunting in England and Wales, which opened in March and closed on 18 June. Trail hunting, which involves laying an animal-based scent for dogs to follow, grew in popularity after the 2004 ban as an alternative to hunting wild mammals.

What happens next

Defra is now weighing the consultation responses. A spokesman said: “When there is a Bill to read, we will read every word of the drafting, and we will say so plainly if it strays beyond trail hunting.” The Moorland Association’s full response is available on its website at moorlandassociation.org.