Stag Hunting – A forgotten animal of the Hunting Act 2004.

What is stag hunting? 

To most people, the words “stag hunting” conjure up images of medieval kings in their regal slender galloping around deer parks shooting arrows at some entrapped deer. Surely, stag hunting is an activity that disappeared into the annals of history along with bull baiting and burning witches? 

Unfortunately, the reality is that from August to April, in the area of south-west England known as Exmoor and the Quantock Hills, a designated National Park and a Protected Landscape respectively, three hunts continue to use dogs to chase and kill red deer up to five times every week. 

How do the hunts get away with chasing and killing stags with dogs when it’s illegal? 

The hunts use a variety of excuses to try to justify their actions, such as they are carrying out research, or they are rescuing an injured deer (to kill it), or they were just exercising their hounds and the deer popped up in front of them, or they were following a trail when a deer popped up in front of them. The list of spurious defences is almost endless, but rarely are the hunters honest enough to say that they do it simply because they enjoy it. 

March and April see the hunts concentrate their attentions on hunting young stags, which at this time of year are gathered in male-only groups. Spring stag hunting attracts a lot of supporters, who come from all over the UK and abroad to witness the vile spectacle. 

What happens at a stag hunt? 

Hunt supporters tell the hunts where the stags are lying up and dogs are used to flush the stags out and get them running. Hunt followers on horseback, on quad bikes and on motorbikes then get involved in harassing the stags until one stag is separated off and the hunt can begin in earnest. 

Hunts can last for hours and cover many miles, and they will only end if the hunted stag manages to escape onto land where the hunts can’t go, or when the exhausted stag can run no further, stands at bay, and is shot. There then follows the grotesque ritual dismembering of the stag and the handing out of ‘trophies’ to hunt supporters. Even children are forced to take part in the barbaric ceremony. 

Despite the best efforts of hunt followers whooping and hollering and driving their vehicles at the deer trying to turn them away, every season hunted deer do escape onto the wildlife reserves owned by the League Against Cruel Sports and onto land where the League owns the hunting rights and are saved. 

What is the League doing to protect stags? 

League staff and members of other anti-hunt groups are present whenever possible to ensure that the hunts stop their dogs and do not trespass onto our land. Without this presence the hunts would run rampant. It is time that this savage ‘sport’ was stopped once and for all.  

The government has announced that it will launch a consultation on banning trail hunting later this year. This is welcome and must happen soon. 

But new legislation must protect all of these animals, not just foxes, by removing exemptions in the Hunting Act, not just banning trail hunting, and introducing prison sentences as a proper deterrent to lawbreakers. 

Join us in calling on the government to act quickly to protect all the animals cruelly hunted with dogs.