Hunting Havoc
Hunt Havoc - it's everywhere the hunts go...
One reason we need to get rid of hunting altogether - not simply try to strengthen existing legislation and allow hunting to continue in a slightly altered form - is to stop what is known as 'hunt havoc'.
- Hunts routinely trespass. Gone where they wanted when they wanted and given absolutely no thought to how that would impact the lives of other people and other animals. Gone onto land they have been told – in writing – they must stay off. Even attacked animals in front gardens and killed much loved companion animals.
- Hunts ignore traffic rules, taking their dogs on to main roads and stopping or weaving in and out of cars so that they can carry on an illegal pursuit of wild animals. They have allowed out of control dogs to run down railway tracks risking a potentially catastrophic accident – and the lives of the hunt’s dogs, too many of which have been tragically killed.
- Hunts have assaulted monitors and sabs – even members of the public – in front of police officers with seeming impunity. They have vandalised vehicles, used their horses or own vehicles as weapons, threatened and abused. Partly because they are supported by some extremely violent individuals who are simply criminal anyway and partly because they feel protected by the ridiculous concept that so-called trail hunting is somehow a ‘lawful activity‘.
Hunting Havoc Report
In 2021 Protect the Wild tracked the reported incidents of reckless behaviour of hunts.
Our Hunting Havoc report logged the incidents dating from the beginning of the 2020 hunting season (October 1st 2020) to the 4th January 2021 when the hunting season was postponed. This report revealed how there had been an incident involving hunts terrorising domestic or farmed animals on average every two weeks.
The 2020 hunting season took place under unprecedented circumstances and the number of hunting days would have been considerably lower than in 2019/20!
We don’t believe anything has changed since. The only way to stop this sort of Hunt Havoc is stop hunts going out and causing it.
Read the full report (pdf): Hunting Havoc Report PTW
What have hunts done to deserve special treatment?
The answer of course is absolutely nothing!
If you or I break the law we should expect to be punished. If we attack people in the high street we should expect to be arrested. If we kill wildlife – or a family’s much loved cat or dog – we should expect to be fined or jailed.
Hunts are not special. They do nothing to deserve being treated differently to anyone else. If they can’t be trusted to behave like normal members of society – and they clearly can not – then they must be shut down and their menace removed so the rest of us – and the wildlife that surrounds us – can live in peace.
