Doomsday for hunting with dogs could well be approaching. If Labour gets into power, it has pledged to strengthen the hunting ban, closing loopholes that were deliberately included in Tony Blair’s Hunting Act 2004. So it’s no surprise that the hunting industry is trying to pull at the public’s heartstrings when it cries crocodile tears of “what will happen to all the hounds? Do you want them to be put down?”
Labour confirmed last week:
“As we set out in our manifesto, the next Labour government will strengthen the Hunting Act to end trail hunting that is used as a smokescreen for the illegal hunting of foxes, deer, and hares.”
What about the dogs?
On 28 June, the CA released a video on social media, using a small child – who says that he takes beagle puppies for walks – to try to suggest to the public that hunting is an affectionate rural pastime for the pleasure of humans and hounds alike.
The British Hound Sports Association (BHSA), meanwhile, wailed that it “WILL NOT GIVE UP” (capital letters are the BHSA’s) as it opposes Labour’s “mean and vindictive assault on the countryside in general and on hounds in particular.”
And the Chair of the BHSA, William Astor – a Tory member of the House of Lords, and former Master and Chairman of the Old Berkshire Hunt – penned his own piece for The Telegraph on 15 June.
He said:
“Hounds are pack animals, difficult to rehome. They are more likely to eat a sofa than sit on one. Does an incoming Labour government really want to be responsible for the unnecessary euthanasia of 12,000 animals?”
His argument was a predictable one, used by the hunting industry time and time again. It is a simple tactic, to appeal to a speciesist public – which tends to care far more about dogs and cats than it does other animals – that the end of hunting would mean the inevitable murder of thousands of hounds.
An industry that shoots and abuses dogs
Don’t be fooled by Astor’s narrative. Innumerable evidence over the years has shown that hunts routinely abuse their hounds – despite their social media posts gushing about their adorable canine friends. There are multiple news stories of hounds being killed on roads, knocked down on railway tracks, and even repeatedly falling down a mineshaft. If hunts truly cared about the welfare of their dogs – and they’re obliged to by law with a duty of care – we wouldn’t see these news headlines again and again.
Protect the Wild has previously funded undercover investigations by the Hunt Investigation Team (HIT), exposing how hunts treat their dogs. One investigation revealed harrowing undercover footage showing the notorious Beaufort Hunt shooting dead four of its hounds. The videos show men shooting the animals and carrying them off for disposal in wheelbarrows. This was the first time that a hunt had ever been caught on camera shooting their hounds, but this is not to say that the incident was a one-off.
HIT also filmed footage over the winter of 2022/23 of the Border Hunt’s kennels. The team captured videos of frightened hounds in filthy conditions, proving that despite their claims on social media, as far as hunts are concerned ‘their’ dogs are not ‘loved’ or ‘looked after’ – they are little more than tools to chase and kill wildlife.
On top of all this, in November 2020 Herefordshire Hunt Sabs posted a photo on Facebook of a dead North Herefordshire Hunt hound in a bin, and Wildlife Guardian has posted archival images of shot hounds belonging to the Cambridgeshire Hunt and Ludlow Hunt.
Killed before each season
We know that before the start of each season, hunts kill any hounds they deem useless – that is, too old, too slow, or too unpredictable. Former huntsman Clifford Pellow admitted back in the late 90s that “out of a pack of 60 animals, eight to ten are disposed of every season” – approximately 15% of hounds in a pack killed.
Pellow said:
“Those [pups] that fail to make the grade get the bullet; they are taken round the back and shot.
Dogs past their prime (generally, older than five or six years) are also killed.”
And the Countryside Alliance admitted during the Burns Inquiry, which concluded in the year 2000, that:
“The hounds that are put down are those that are unable to keep up with the rest of the pack.
No hunt can afford to keep any hound that is prone to “riot” (hunting non-target quarry). Some toleration can be afforded to young hounds in their first year of autumn hunting. Persistent offenders have to be put down, but in practice they are extremely rare.”
Anti-hunting group Protect Our Wild Animals (POWA) has previously estimated the number of hounds killed per season. Protect the Wild’s Glen Black wrote of the findings:
“POWA’s calculations suggested between 4942 and 7302 foxhounds killed per year across 195 packs, with approximately 3250 to 4500 of those in English and Welsh hunts. These approximate to 15% of hounds killed per pack. For one specific example, Hunting Leaks’s 2020 documents from the Mendip Farmers Hunt describe the hunt having killed 6.5 couple, or 13 hounds, between April and June of that year. This translates to roughly 16%.”
So, what can be done?
Clearly, hunters – and former hunters like Viscount Astor – can not be trusted when they claim to care about the welfare of hounds.
If and when Labour does ban hunting, and if and when hunts begin to fold, there will indeed be a huge number of dogs that need rehoming. But hunting won’t suddenly be banned overnight if Labour gets into power. It will take months of wrangling in parliament for any change of the Hunting Act to pass. If hunts truly loved hounds, they would stop breeding more of them, make arrangements to wind the business down, and take the steps necessary to find homes for the hounds. And, have no doubt, a great number of animal welfare campaigners would be happy to take in a dog who has been exploited and mistreated by the hunting industry their whole life.
- Shutting down the abusive hunting industry is the only option to ensure that hounds are safe. Together we can make that happen. You can join almost 120,000 people and sign our petition calling for a proper ban on hunting, calling for Labour to bring in new legislation that would close ALL loopholes for good. Add your signature here.
