Hunting of Mammals Bill Overview
We need a proper ban on hunting, which is why Protect the Wild commissioned Advocates for Animals to help us develop new legislation – The Hunting of Mammals Bill.
Our new Bill is far more than just an update of the Hunting Act 2004.
It is based on years of campaigning against hunting and the understanding that until the loopholes and exemptions inserted into the Hunting Act are removed and legislation banning hunting is absolutely clear, wildlife will never be safe from the hundreds of packs that still go out thousands of times a year.
Hunting of Mammals Bill
Arranged in twenty detailed and carefully worded sections, the Hunting of Mammals Bill will ban the hunting of all mammals with dogs. The Bill will:
- Make it a crime to ‘intentionally or recklessly’ hunt a wild mammal with a dog.
- Ban so-called ‘trail hunting’ by making it a crime to use dogs to follow an animal-based scent trail (so hunts will no longer be able to claim it is a ‘legal activity’).
- Make it a crime for a landowner to ‘assist’ a hunt by ‘knowingly causing or permitting’ a hunting crime to take place on their land.
- Increase ‘search and seizure’ powers meaning that police will have the power to take vehicles and mobile phones from hunts in the field.
- Make relevant ‘organisations and bodies corporate’ (such as hunts registered as businesses) and officers within those organisations legally liable for crimes committed by hunts.
- Give courts powers to ‘deprive’ hunts of any horses or dogs used to commit hunting crimes (with provisions to ensure the welfare of any animal taken).
- Allow the ‘forfeiture’ of any ‘hunting article’ used to commit a hunting crime.
- Enable courts to ‘disqualify’ individuals committing hunting crimes from owning or transporting animals used in hunting or making any arrangements in connection with hunting.
- At last include ‘searching’ for an animal in the definition of hunting.
- Tighten legal definitions, for example, of who is responsible for any dog used in hunting, who owns or is responsible for land used by hunts, and removes any ‘Royal Clause’ loophole by stating that when passed the new Act will apply to ‘anything done on or in respect of land irrespective of whether it belongs to or is used for the purposes of the Crown or a Duchy’.
The Hunting of Mammals Bill will stop hunting in its tracks, and finally give wildlife much-needed protection from illegal hunting. Please support it and help us make it law.
You can read the Bill in its entirety by downloading a pdf version here.
