End fox hunting for good and stop celebrating this brutal activity

Campaigners from national animal welfare charity the League Against Cruel Sports were in Peterborough today to highlight the brutality associated with fox hunting.

Their visit to the city was aimed to coincide with the so-called Festival of Hounds – formerly known as the Festival of Hunting – taking place in the East of England Showground.

A film playing the chilling sounds of the hounds as they closed in on a fox was played on a mobile digital advertising billboard touring the city throughout the day, while elsewhere in the city campaigners highlighted the scale of cruelty to both wildlife and the hounds that hunters were supposedly celebrating with their festival.

Emma Judd, the League’s head of campaigns, said: “Every season the League receives hundreds of reports relating to suspected illegal hunting, as well as reports of hounds being killed and injured during this so-called sport.

“Rebranding the event as the Festival of Hounds is simply a tawdry PR exercise designed to put a respectable face on animal cruelty.

“It’s time for change – nearly 20 years after the original fox hunting ban we are calling on the Peterborough public to sign our petition and support our campaign to strengthen hunting laws so this sport is properly banned for good.”

The Hunting Act came into force in February 2005 but figures released by the League following the end of the most recent season showed a huge number of suspected illegal hunting incidents in England and Wales.

In total, there were 1,396 incident reports recorded in the five months between November 2023 and the end of March 2024, which include 526 relating to suspected illegal hunting, and 870 incidents of hunt havoc – including trespass, hounds loose on roads, badger sett interference, livestock worrying and antisocial behaviour.

In Cambridgeshire and the surrounding counties of Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk and Rutland there were 47 incidents, comprising 12 reports relating to suspected illegal hunting - including foxes being chased and killed - and 36 reports of hunt havoc, including hounds running loose on busy roads in the region. There was also two reports of lost hounds and one report of a hound being kicked by a horse.

Emma added: “Rebranding the festival doesn’t change the fact it is celebrating an illegal activity and sanitising the brutal world of fox hunting.

“Today we took our message to the Peterborough public by showing them a film with the horrific sights and sounds of fox hunting and the reality of what is still taking place.”

Ends

Notes to editors

The full sets of data for the 2023/2024 fox hunting season are available on request.

Polling commissioned by the League and conducted independently by Find Out Now and Electoral Calculus across Britain in March and April this year showed nearly three quarters of the electorate in the constituency of Peterborough (73%) were in favour of strengthening hunting laws.

Find Out Now interviewed 5,379 GB adults online from 26 March-2 April 2024. Data were weighted to be demographically representative of all GB adults by gender, age, social grade, other demographics and past voting patterns.

Find Out Now and Electoral Calculus are both members of the British Polling Council and abide by its rules.

A full breakdown of the data is available here: https://electoralcalculus.co.uk/blogs/DataTables_LACS_Jun2024.xlsx

Trail hunting, the excuse often used by fox hunts, has been described by Chief Superintendent Matt Longman, the most senior police officer in England with responsibility for fox hunting crime, as a “smokescreen for illegal fox hunting”. He also described illegal hunting as “prolific”.

Trail hunting was banned in Scotland in 2023 when the Scottish Parliament strengthened its own fox hunting laws.

For more information or interview requests please contact the League Against Cruel Sports press office on 01483 524250 or email pressoffice@league.org.uk

The League Against Cruel Sports is Britain's leading charity that works to stop animals being persecuted, abused and killed for sport. The League was instrumental in helping bring about the landmark Hunting Act 2004, the Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Act 2021, the strengthened fox hunting laws of the Hunting with Dogs (Scotland) Act 2023 and a ban on the use of snares created by the Agriculture (Wales) Act 2023.

We carry out investigations to expose law-breaking and cruelty to animals and campaign for stronger animal protection laws and penalties. We work to change attitudes and behaviour through education and manage wildlife reserves. Find out more about our work at www.league.org.uk. Registered charity in England and Wales (no.1095234) and Scotland (no.SC045533).