Alliance calls for rural solidarity in trail hunting consultation

Consultation launched with outcome already signalled

The Government has launched its consultation on banning trail hunting in England and Wales, and the Countryside Alliance is calling on the entire rural community to respond. With proposals to license gamebird shooting and restrict shotgun ownership already live, the message is that the countryside’s best defence is a united one.

Defra published the consultation on 26 March, with a 12-week window ending 18 June. The consultation is clear from the outset that it seeks the answers to how, not whether, a ban should be implemented. It covers how the activity should be defined in law, whether extra measures are needed to make a ban effective, the use of animal-based scents in training dogs, and what becomes of the 12,000 hounds currently kept by hunts across England and Wales. 

Animal welfare minister Baroness Sue Hayman said: “We pledged to ban trail hunting in our manifesto and that is exactly what we intend to do. The nature of trail hunting makes it difficult to ensure wild and domestic animals are not put at risk of being killed or injured – that is clearly unacceptable. We understand that this is a complex issue and so we are seeking views from everyone with an interest to help shape how we bring this forward.”

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Call for wider countryside response

Roger Seddon, shooting campaign manager at the Countryside Alliance, said the shooting community had as much reason to respond as hunt supporters. “While it may seem that this issue only affects trail hunters, the attack on rural Britain very much affects shooters and deer stalkers too,” he said. 

“The influence behind this consultation is set on ending all forms of country pursuits, no matter how beneficial for society and biodiversity they may be. This consultation has a specific question which covers training dogs to track deer and other game, so take the chance to speak up. The more people that respond to the consultation, the better the chance we have of protecting our way of life for generations to come.”

It is not the only consultation demanding the countryside’s attention. Defra’s proposals to change the quarry species list are already under consultation, with implications for wildfowlers and rough shooters. A consultation on aligning Section 1 and Section 2 firearms licensing is expected to land at any time now, and separate proposals to license gamebird release in England and Wales remain in the pipeline.

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Alliance warns of wider rural divide

Alliance chief executive Tim Bonner said: “A ban on trail hunting is unnecessary, unjustified and unfair. At a time when the countryside is on its knees as a result of misguided policies and a cost-of-living crisis heightened by war, the Government has again chosen to attack rural communities with another assault on rural life. 

“With two in three voters believing that the Government does not care about the countryside, Sir Keir Starmer is running the very real risk of causing a permanent schism between Labour and the countryside.”

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How to respond

The Countryside Alliance and the British Hound Sports Association have built a response tool at FutureForHunting.co.uk that takes minutes to complete and copies submissions automatically to local MPs. The consultation closes at 11.59pm on 18 June. Respond at FutureForHunting.co.uk.