Enforce your ban on stag hunting!
On 22 April 2025 the Quantock Staghounds killed a young stag in the Quantock Hills. The Hunting Act 2004 clearly prohibits the hunting of mammals with dogs, although stag hunters misuse several loopholes in the law to evade this.
The Quantock Staghounds committed several blatant breaches of the Hunting Act on the day. Forestry England does not issue licences for hunting on its land (a policy change which came about after years of hard campaigning by wildlife defenders), and the hunt used more than two dogs to tire out and flush the stag.
There is plenty of evidence that the Quantock Staghounds routinely break the law. The vast majority of the public is opposed to hunting with hounds. This appalling act has been widely reported and has elicited widespread anger and disgust.
Yet Forestry England has failed to take a strong stance against both the trespassing and the killing, instead insisting that the onus is on the public to report incidents to the police.
We are asking Forestry England to take strong action to protect wildlife on your land:
- Take out injunctions against any hunts that trespass on your land.
- Send each hunt a warning letter, complete with property maps and property boundaries;
- Monitor and penalise tenants supporting and hosting hunts, evicting them if necessary;
- Report incidents to the police to ensure that charges are brought against hunt staff;
- Deploy staff on hunting days to act as a visible deterrent, to gather evidence, and to compile a dossier which can be used for civil proceedings or legal actions.
Thank you