A new hunting association was launched in July 2024 called “Forward with Hounds.” It recognises that a repeal of the Hunting Act is unlikely in the current political climate. Considering this, the association is promoting the ‘evolution’ of trail hunting to ensure that hunting has a future. But can trail hunting evolve? More to the point, are hunters capable of evolving? Protect the Wild takes a look.
In its mission statement, Forward with Hounds (FWH) points out that it launched at Peterborough in July last year. Presumably, FWH is referring to launching at the Festival of Hounds, which was the major event in the hunting calendar that took place in Peterborough that month.
FWH says that it “received a warm and enthusiastic reception” at the festival. However, the Festival of Hounds’ own detailed write-up of the event did not mention the association’s launch. The Countryside Alliance (CA) also failed to call attention to FWH’s launch in its post on the festival. What is more, the CA’s Campaign for Hunting director, Polly Portwin, neglected to spotlight the new association in a recent article for Horse and Hound, which she wrote to mark the 20th anniversary of the Hunting Act coming in force. This article was almost entirely about how to safeguard trail hunting with a government poised to ban it.
These omissions do not exactly suggest that the hunting community is brimming with enthusiasm about FWH’s vision for the future of trail hunting. It’s not hard to see why. As FWH itself explains, hunts have long viewed trail hunting as a “stopgap measure to be endured” while they push for a repeal of the Hunting Act. The association says it wants to change this and evolve trail hunting into a “much-loved sport” in its own right, a treasured activity that happens without “the controversy or antagonisms of recent years.”
Trail hunting is a measure to be exploited
It’s clear to us at Protect the Wild that most hunts treat trail hunting not just as a measure to be endured, but as something to be exploited so they can continue with real hunting. Indeed, this is why the Labour government has vowed to ban trail hunting, precisely because it is used as a smokescreen to continue chasing and killing wild animals.
So, who makes up the FWH team and have they demonstrated a will to the develop the “excellence” in trail hunting that they are promoting?
Unfortunately, it’s hard to know as details about the FWH team are scant. Its website lists only their names, with no biographies. In the Q&A section of the website, meanwhile, the team answers the question “Who is involved with FWH?” with an incredibly vague response. “We are hunting people,” it says, without declaring which hunts they are connected to, before going on to describe the group’s aims.
FWH holds up the New Forest Beagles as a case study of good trail hunting practice. On its website, the group explained what trail laying for this hunt involves:
“The trail layer usually runs in a hare-type circle which he has adapted to make sure that the hounds ¬– and their followers – don’t go anywhere they shouldn’t, or anywhere that there is a risk of something going wrong.”
In 2020, however, South Hampshire Hunt Saboteurs shared a video of hounds from this hunt chasing a hare. Writing on the incident, the sabs explained:
“Within minutes of catching up to the pack, sabs had a clear view – and ample video evidence – of the hounds going into cry and chasing another hare across an open field. Not only did the huntsman fail to call off the hounds in a timely manner, but his eventual attempts to do so were lacklustre and reluctant at best. It’s also worth noting that the pack doesn’t go into cry when following a laid trail, only when tracking a real scent. Which begs the question: what, exactly, have the dogs been trained to pursue?”
Those who monitor this pack do not appear to believe that much has changed over the years since. On 31 December 2024, monitors reported on a joint meet that they believed involved the New Forest Beagles and the Radley College Beagles. Describing the scene, Wildlife Guardian wrote:
“The hunt were found casting hounds in a field next to Manor Farm, with support spaced out around the edge of the field should a hare break. No luck in this field and they pushed south. Maybe the trail layer forgot to lay a trail in this field??
As they were now being filmed on all sides, the hunt stopped in a field refusing to carry on. This is despite their Radley Master Dr Timothy Morris proudly wearing his trail layer armband. Why not carry on and prove us wrong?”
Blatant hunting
A search of the names listed under “our people” on FWH’s website leads to a number of other hunts. In addition to the New Forest Beagles, these are the High Peak Harriers, Belvoir Hunt, Vale of the White Horse (VWH) Hunt, Cheshire Forest Hunt, and the Surrey Union Hunt.
Protect the Wild does not know whether FWH’s people are linked to these hunts. It’s entirely possible that in some instances there are people involved with these hunts – past and present – that simply share the same name as FWH’s “our people.” So, we will just take the opportunity to use these hunts as a random snapshot of the hundreds of hunts in Britain today to see what their behaviour tells us about the broader industry’s willingness to ‘evolve’.
The Belvoir Hunt chased and killed a fox in 2022. The then huntsman was charged over the incident but found not guilty in July 2023. As Protect the Wild said at the time, this case was a prime example of why the Hunting Act is not fit for purpose and why glaring loopholes, such as trail hunting being permitted, need to be closed.
As Wildlife Guardian has documented, the Belvoir Hunt has been involved in several incidents over the years, including assaults on hunt monitors. In February this year, meanwhile, Calder Valley Hunt Saboteurs reported on a day’s monitoring of this hunt. It described the Belvoir’s current huntsman as being “incredibly blatant” by “drawing the many plantations and copses” in certain areas. Drawing means a hunt sending hounds into covered areas, which is where foxes are likely to be found.
The VWH Hunt, meanwhile, was the subject of an undercover investigation by the Hunt Investigation Team and Protect the Wild in 2022. The probe revealed the hunt to be illegally hunting with no intention of laying a trail.
Cheshire Forest Hunt used to be notorious for chasing and killing foxes. As we pointed out in our latest hunting report, however, saboteurs regularly report that it follows laid trails in more recent times. Nonetheless, Cheshire Against Blood Sports reported that the hunt rioted onto a hare in a meet in December 2023. This incident illustrates the risk that hunts pose to wildlife by their mere presence in the countryside, as we argued in the hunting report.
Surrey Union Hunt has also been accused of killing foxes on several occasions over the years, as highlighted by Wildlife Guardian. What about their more recent behaviour? Surrey Hunt Sabs clearly does not consider the hunt to be embracing trail hunting in earnest, regularly reporting that the hunt casts hounds into areas where wild animals typically are found, such as woodland. In a monitoring report from November 2024, for instance, the saboteur group wrote:
” We soon heard the huntsman’s calls, encouraging the hounds into the undergrowth. We watched as a fox and deer fled the area, with hounds soon on the scent of the deer.”
The law must evolve
In 2020, Derby Hunt Saboteurs also reported that the High Peak Harriers chased hares, a cow, and her calf. The hunt essentially claimed that the calf-chasing incident was a freak occurrence during lawful trail hunting.
Although this incident is now somewhat dated, it points to another problem with hunts galavanting around the countryside: their hounds often do become out of control. Out of control hounds are not only a danger to others, such as wildlife and farmed animals, but to themselves. This is especially true when they are out of control on roads.
Overall, hounds are subject to several welfare challenges due to their use in hunting, including being injured or suffering mistreatment. Analysis by Protect the Wild has found that over 500 incidents involving neglect and mistreatment of hounds occurred in the first half of the current hunting season. The most common incident by far was hounds being lost or out of control, which happened on a massive 287 occasions.
Typically, hounds are better controlled when hunts stick to actual trail hunting. But the evidence suggests that legitimate trail hunting remains the exception for hunts, not the norm. In Protect the Wild’s last hunting report, we highlighted that saboteur and monitor groups attended 2267 hunt meets in the 2023/24 season. Yet out of these thousands of attended meets, the groups only reported witnessing 42 trail hunt meets, i.e. instances where hunts laid trails throughout their entire meet.
