Time for change – ending fox hunting once and for all
The year ahead is going to be a hugely important one for animal welfare, with the League Against Cruel Sports campaigning to make our countryside a safer and kinder place for wildlife.
Later this month it will be 20 years since the landmark Hunting Act came into force and the brutal blood sport of fox hunting was banned.
Sadly, it has become crystal clear that the hunts are still callously chasing and killing foxes as they did before the ban by exploiting weaknesses in this law.
We will be using the 20th anniversary of the fox hunting ban to press yet again for stronger fox hunting laws and show the strength of public support for seeing an to end this sordid activity once and for all.
You can be part of this drive to consign fox hunting to the history books by signing our Time for Change petition.
Our aim is to deliver 100,000 signatures to the Prime Minister at number 10 Downing Street on February 18, exactly 20 years after fox hunting became illegal.
We have grounds for optimism that change is coming.
The environment secretary Steve Reed has called for a full hunting ban that will remove the loopholes in the Hunting Act that make it difficult for the law to be enforced and which allow the hunts to get away with killing wild animals with dogs.
This ban also would see so-called trail hunting outlawed, which is what the hunts claim they are doing in order to deceive the public, police and courts and conceal the fact they’re still killing foxes. In addition, we are asking that maximum sentences for illegal hunting include custodial tariffs as well as fines.
We will hold the government to its pledges and see a timetable set out for this law to be changed.
Tackling game bird shooting and the brutal use of snares
We will also be exposing the cold-blooded world of ‘game’ bird shooting.
We’ve already achieved a ban on snares in Wales and Scotland – used by shooting industry gamekeepers to kill wildlife simply to keep stocks of game birds artificially high.
This year we will be calling for the UK government to honour its undertaking to ban snares in England and put an end to the use of these thin wire nooses which kill animals indiscriminately – and 2025 will see our teams campaigning hard to get this ban over the line.
Campaigning to end the caged breeding of game birds
You can also help us to end the caged breeding of game birds. Currently tens of thousands of pheasants and partridges are kept in small, cramped cages for breeding purposes to provide the tens of millions of non-native game birds released into our countryside every year simply to be shot.
We have been working with partners in the sector and a new petition has been created calling for an end to the use of cages in farming. If you can sign the petition you can add your voice to those calling for an end to this cruel practice.
If you want to join our campaign, you can sign up here to be the first to know how you can get involved.
We will also send you a new animation we have developed showing the full horror of the caged breeding of game birds and how you can help put pressure on the government to end it.
Wildlife crime and bird of prey persecution
One of the dirty secrets the shooting industry tries to hide is their ruthless persecution of birds of prey.
Despite being illegal, it is widespread for gamekeepers on and around shooting estates to shoot, trap or poison raptors such as golden eagles, hen harriers and red kites as part of their bid to eradicate any natural predators.
More than 1,000 birds of prey have been killed since 2013, including rare, threatened and reintroduced species. And the link to the shooting industry is clear – 71 per cent of those convicted for crimes relating to raptor persecution between 2000 and 2022 were employed as gamekeepers.
The League’s intelligence team is launching a Bird of Prey Crime Initiative to encourage the public to report any incidents of raptor persecution to its Animal Crimewatch service.
You can report wildlife crime to the service by phone 0300 444 1234 or email crimewatch@league.org.uk or WhatsApp at 0755 278 8247.
Working with the police and other animal charities we will be at the forefront of tackling and attempting to end this shameful and outlawed activity.
Together we can keep up the pressure on blood sports in 2025 and achieve hard-fought but much-needed victories for wildlife.
You can use their new WhatsApp number on 07552 788247 to report incidents of animal cruelty.
