The Trail Hunt Smokescreen
Clearing away the 'trail hunt' smokescreen
In 2004 the passing of the Hunting Act made fox hunting illegal. Since then hunts have claimed to be following artificial scent trails rather than deliberately hunting wild mammals. This is nothing but a lie.
So-called ‘trail hunting’ didn’t exist before the passing of the Hunting Act. It’s a smokescreen used as a means to continue to illegally hunt wild foxes.
Indeed, in November 2020 hunting official Mark Hankinson along with other senior hunters spoke of this ‘smokescreen’ during a Hunting Office webinar which was leaked to the public.
The leaked Hunting Office webinars
November 2020
October 2021
July 2022
"it’s a lot easier to create a smokescreen if you’ve got more than one trail layer operating"
In November 2020, the Hunt Saboteur Association released leaked webinars hosted by the Hunting Office (the central organisation which is delegated to run the administrative, advisory and supervisory functions of the Hunting Associations)
The now infamous videos showed showed Hankinson, who was then Director of the Masters of Fox Hounds Association, encouraging fellow hunters to break the law. In one video, Hankinson admitted how trail hunting could be used as a smokescreen for fox hunting. He said:
“it’s a lot easier to create a smokescreen if you’ve got more than one trail layer operating and that is what it is all about, trying to portray to the people watching that you’re going about your legitimate business.”
Another participant in the webinars, Phil Davies (Countryside Alliance police liaison officer) said the following:
“Now you know more about hunting than the saboteurs or courts will know but what it [laying a trail] will do is create that smokescreen or that element of doubt that we haven’t deliberately hunted a fox, so if nothing else you need to record that and it will help us provide a defence to huntsman.”
"what it will do is create that smokescreen or that element of doubt that we haven’t deliberately hunted a fox"
A Trail of Lies
In 2022 Protect the Wild released the ‘A Trail of Lies’ animation to expose this smokescreen once and for all. Narrated by Chris Packham, the film documents key moments in the campaign to end fox hunting for good.
However, don’t just take our word for it. In 2021/22 we supported the Hunt Investigation Team in two ground-breaking exposés in which both the Beaufort Hunt and VWH Hunt proved beyond any doubt that ‘trail hunting’ is nothing but a lie.
The Beaufort Hunt hound shooting exposé
The footage secured from the investigation is the first time that a hunt has ever been caught on camera shooting their hounds, but this is not to say that the incident is a one off.
It is yet further proof of the ‘trail hunt’ lies. If hunts were genuinely following trails there would be no need for them to kill young hounds in this manner.
You can read more about this investigation here.
The VWH exposé
On January 5th, 2022, Protect The Wild supported the Hunt Investigation Team (HIT) with their first investigation of the year, which saw the Vale of White Horse Hunt deliberately and intentionally hunting a fox. The below footage is what was captured (not graphic).
You can read more about this investigation here.
Clearing away the smokescreen
The Hunting of Mammals Bill
To clear away the smokescreen of so-called ‘trail hunting’, we must clear away the exemptions and loopholes that allow it.
There must be clarity. And our Bill is clear.
It will be an offence to direct a dog to “find and/or follow an animal-based scent” and it will be an offence if a landowner or occupier “knowingly causes or permits another person to engage or participate in trail hunting on that land“.
