Oliver Hughes, managing director of the British Hound Sports Authority (BHSA), claimed there are about 12,000 days of trail hunting a year and that most take place “without incident”. However, data gathered by activists and analysed by Protect the Wild undermines this statement. The results point to an open secret about the BHSA.
In an article about the future of hunting under a then-potential Labour government, Horse & Hound (H&H) wrote on 29 February that Hughes:
told H&H there are about 12,000 days of trail hunting in England and Wales each year, “with the vast majority taking place without any problems”.
However, two of the statements in this brief sentence are wrong. Following on from Protect the Wild’s first Hunting: A Case for Change report, which covered the 2022/23 hunting season, it has continued to gather data on the most recent 2023/24 season. And the findings contradict Hughes’s statements.
Days of hunting
The first error is that of stating ‘12,000 days’ of trail hunting (following a pre-laid scent where no animals should be chased). Reports by hunt saboteur and monitor groups for 2023/24 turned up just 39 instances of legitimate end-to-end trail hunting, most of which were conducted by the same few hunts including the Badsworth, Bramham, York South Hunt and Dunston Harriers.
Even taking a charitable interpretation of Hughes’s statement and assuming by ‘trail hunting’ he means all hunting, this figure is wrong. Obtaining a precise figure for how many meets took place during the season is nearly impossible. Using estimates based on evidence, though, reveals not only much larger number but also a reason for why Hughes might want to downplay the figure.
Protect the Wild conservatively estimates that there were 19,048 days of hunting throughout the season. This is based on an assumed average of two meets per week per hunt during the main season, which for the total number of hunts in England and Wales equals 10,672 meets. In fact, this number may be low because many hunts go out three or more times – but the two day average was taken to account for missed days and hunts that meet just once a week. This figure is lower than Hughes’s but within its range, suggesting this is what the managing director is referencing.
What it doesn’t account for, though, is the cubbing season (the ‘season’ in late summer when hunts train hounds to kill by illegally setting them on fox cubs). Hunts can go out more frequently during the cubbing season than during the main season. Cirencester Illegal Hunt Watch said, for example, that the Beaufort Hunt goes out five times a week during this period whereas the hunt has four meets per week during the main season. Meanwhile, West Midlands Hunt Saboteurs said the Warwickshire Hunt cub hunts six days a week whereas it goes out seven days in 14 during the main season. Accounting for this higher frequency and assuming an average of three days hunting per week during the cubbing season, Protect the Wild estimates that there are 8361 cubbing meets.
Therefore there are an estimated 19,033 meets throughout the season. The remaining 15 days are by the three registered staghound packs after the last known meet of other types of hounds.
The discrepancy between “around 12,000” and around 19,000 is huge. But Hughes’s number appears to ignore the cubbing season entirely. That’s unsurprising given that the process of cub hunting isn’t adequately explained away by the myth of trail hunting. It’s better for Hughes and the BHSA to not draw attention to it at all.
Problems in the countryside
The second error in Hughes’ statement is that the “vast majority” of hunt meets occur without problems.
Protect the Wild read 2267 reports by 95 different activist and campaign groups during the 2023/24 season as well as an additional 45 reports from members of the public. These produced data on a range of incidents including hunts chasing and killing wildlife as well as acts of anti-social behaviour. This latter category includes but isn’t limited to road traffic offences, livestock worrying and attacks on activists or members of the public. As a result, there was a recordable incident at 1016 meets during the season, or at 43.94% of observed meets.
Even if we generously assume that these meets were the only ones at which an incident occurred, the figures show that 8.46% of Hughes’s 12,000 meets or 5.33% of Protect the Wild’s estimated 19,048 meets involved ‘problems’. However, this is unrealistically generous because there were regular reports from members of the public of hunts persecuting wildlife when no activists were present. Moreover, activists themselves have repeatedly shown that, at best, hunting outside of their presence is no less harmful and at worst is more prolific in its wildlife persecution. Nowhere is this clearer than when sabs and monitors arrive at beagle and basset meets to find the hounds already chasing a hare, only for the hunt to pack up once it realises activists have arrived.
Even using the most conservative figures, it’s difficult to find truth in Hughes’s “vast majority” statement. At the very least more than 1000 meets involved wildlife persecution or anti-social behaviour, but the figure is likely closer to 8370 meets. By comparison, just 18 hunts had legitimate trail hunting days attributed to them and only eight of those were seen doing it more than once. That means 7.79% of the 231 known hunts in England and Wales conducted a day of trail hunting and only 3.46% did it more than once.
Smokescreen
All of this points to an open secret about the BHSA.
The BHSA positions itself as a governing body for the hunting industry. It was created after the Hunting Office shut down following the Hunt Saboteurs Association’s leaking of internal webinars, exposing the Hunting Office as a front for criminal activity.
What Hughes’s comment on hunting days shows is that the BHSA is no different. The BHSA is blatantly attempting to suggest that hunts are always ‘trail hunting’ – ie they are not chasing animals – which is simply not accurate. Its claim about a vast majority of meets then passing off without incident is an outright lie based on even the most conservative figure. Finally, its attempt to disappear the unlawful ‘cubbing season’ altogether shows that it is knowingly covering for harmful and criminal activity.
