England’s most senior police officer on foxhunting has said the law on the crime is not working because it permits trail hunts that have become a “smokescreen” for the continued illegal persecution of animals.
Ch Supt Matt Longman, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead on foxhunting, was speaking at the launch of a coalition against illegal hunting led by the League Against Cruel Sports and backed by more than 30 charities including the RSPCA.
Longman, the police commander for Plymouth, said: “The Hunting Act is not working effectively and illegal hunting is still common practice.”
Under the act, hunting mammals with hounds is banned but trail hunts using the scent of animals are allowed to take place. Longman said hunts were using trail hunts as a loophole to carry on hunting foxes and other animals.
He said: “The simplest reason for the lack of prosecution is that the law needs revisiting.
“Hunts are frequently trailing hunts in natural fox habitats, with hounds trained to locate and kill foxes. So-called terrier men are frequently present with shovels and terriers, while scent trails are often not present.”
In October 2021 the director of the Masters of Foxhounds Association, Mark Hankinson, was found guilty of encouraging and assisting people to evade the ban on foxhunting.
The conviction centred on recordings of Hankinson at webinars at which he had encouraged other huntspeople of using legal trail hunting as “a sham and a fiction” for the unlawful chasing and killing of animals.
But last July Hankinson’s conviction was overturned on appeal.
In reference to the case, Longman said: “There have even been online sessions that tell people how to avoid being caught by using trail hunting. I can only agree with the view that trail hunting has been used as a smokescreen for continuing illegal hunting.”
He suggested the act, which came into force in 2005, was unworkable. Longman said: “When new legislation comes to the police there’s generally an accompanying toolbox of powers the police can use to enforce the spirit of that law. When the Hunting Act came in, and that toolbox was opened, all it really contained was a leaky sieve. That’s been a significant challenge for policing.”
He said the act left police “caught in the middle” between both sides of the hunting debate.
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Concluding his speech Longman said: “Public confidence in town and country cannot be eroded any further, it is untenable. The Hunting Act is not working effectively and illegal hunting is still common practice. I know it, you know it, the public and the hunts know it. But just in case there’s anybody out there who doesn’t know it, that is why I felt it was so important to come and speak today.”
Tim Bonner, the chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, said: “Hunting remains an obsession for animal rights organisations, but the Labour party must not repeat the mistakes of the past and fall into the trap of alienating rural voters for the sake of cosying up to single issue, ideological obsessives.”
Longman’s speech was welcomed by Dan Norris, the mayor of the West of England and the chair of the League Against Cruel Sports’ board of trustees.
Norris said: “The Hunting Act, which as an MP I was so very proud to help create, now needs urgent updating to reflect modern public opinion and new evidence. The current loopholes that have become blatantly clear need closing and the police must be backed with the resources they require.”
Andy Knott, the League’s chief executive, said: “That such a diverse group of organisations has come together in such overwhelming numbers to finally end the senseless hunting of foxes, deer and other wild mammals tells of a growing sense of injustice that is undermining public trust. Any law that has as many exemptions and is so easy to circumvent as the Hunting Act is clearly not fit for purpose.
“The public want to see a broad range of long-promised animal protections introduced. We are asking our joint supporter base to ensure the next government is one willing to act in the interests of the many, not the cruel few.”