More than just Badgers

The National Trust are panicking.

The (so called*) Countryside Alliance are panicking.

The hunts that use NT land are panicking – all 60 of them.

The reason behind their fears is the vote to ban hunting from all NT land which will take place at their AGM on the 21st October. The subject has been covered previously here with a guest blog from National Dis-Trust (see here) but there has been several important developments since.

In an effort to perhaps sooth the concerns of many of their voting members the NT published a set of rules for hunts to abide by in the coming season. These included:

Banning the use of animal-based scents as a trail for hounds or beagles to follow. This will reduce the risk of foxes or other wild animals being accidentally chased. 

Prohibit the presence of terriermen, who have no practical purpose on a trail ‘hunt’, and the use of their vehicles.

More active management of hunts and how they operate including: mandatory reporting requirements after each meet; the provision of specified maps/areas; and requiring at the time of application details of all proposed hunt days.

Probing the track record of each applicant and establishing a consistent charging regime across Trust land.

Greater transparency for our members and the public.  We will post on our website the agreed days and locations, in advance, for our members and supporters to view.  This will include a primary point of contact for each hunt.

We are exploring how we can work more closely with the Police’s independent National Wildlife Crime Unit, which is the proper authority for handling alleged breaches in wildlife legislation.

These changes would seem to be the answer many people were looking for however dig a little deeper and it would seem that this is nothing more than smoke and mirrors and an attempt to scupper the vote to completely ban all hunting.

The problem is many of these restriction were already in place. The hunts would simply ignore them and with no NT staff to police the laws laid down then they would become nothing more than a paper tiger. The League Against Cruel Sports even offered their support in the policing of these rules but were turned down. You have to ask yourself why would the NT do that? The simple fact is trail hunting was invented after the implementation of the hunting ban as a method to circumnavigate the new law. Hunts have been cynically exploiting this and killing foxes, hares and stags in much the same way as they did before. The rules put forward by the NT pretty much amount to drag hunting which is a completely different thing and has no bearing on real hunting at all, it is “clean boot”, they follow a scent or drag laid by a fit person like a fell runner or similar and largely use bloodhounds. No animals are hunted and there are no “accidental” killings.

Of course the CA immediately threw their teddies right out of the pram with Tim Bonner being his usual self and shooting his mouth off to anyone who’d listen with his usual mixture of lies, playing the victim card and claims of  intimidation from “animal rights extremists”.  All of this is of course, completely laughable and only serves to show once again how detached from reality with their own sense of self entitlement they really are. It sometimes makes me wonder if they realise what a tiny (but well funded and vociferous) minority they really are?

Of course this escalated into the mainstream press with reports coming in from generally pro-hunting papers like the Telegraph to the more moderate like the Independent and the Guardian. Much of what the CA complained about seemed to be centered on the fact that hunt meets would be publicised, something every hunt in the UK will only do to it’s members. The reason for this is of course to remain secretive so they can go about their dirty business without interference from sabs, monitors or indeed the police (where they aren’t in the pockets of the hunts). Of course if they were abiding by the law there would be no need for all the secrecy but this fact seems to have escaped them. Monitors & sabs pay no interest in drag hunts. These hunts also openly publish their meets as they have no concerns about being caught killing animals.

The NT then took the further step of writing to all their members to advise them on how to vote.

The campaign group Nation Dis-Trust responded to this email.

“To explain how ‘trail hunting’ works to members who have witnessed foxes being eviscerated by hounds is insulting. It also ignores the fact that ‘trail hunting’ is fictional (http://g.ifaw.org/2kD1orC) except as a false alibi for wildlife crime, despite Dame Helen Ghosh having read the report which proves this (http://bit.ly/2u8XKua).

The Trust don’t monitor the activities they licence; this is an outright lie. They have both said that they don’t have the resources to monitor as well as stating in a leaked internal memo to staff that the onus is on the hunts for adhering to the licence and the law (http://bit.ly/2eLfI01).

If the Trust now think terriermen are a redundant element of ‘trail hunting’, what do they think terriermen have been doing on their land for the last 12 years?

In a separate note, the Trust have also said that the vote at the AGM isn’t binding, implying that the Trust are preparing to ignore the wishes of their own membership. Putting aside how disrespectful this would be to their members as well as the wildlife that will soon be terrorised & slaughtered by hunts on their land, it also forgets that whilst a vote may not be binding, the law is. It is an offence to knowingly host illegal hunting with hounds (http://bit.ly/2wp0Ai4)”.

Of course should hunts be banned from using NT land it could spell the end for many of them. Having land to actually hunt animals on is a primary concern for all hunts. While there are still plenty of land owners who will accept them the tide is slowly turning and some hunts are feeling the squeeze. With no land, they can no longer hunt, if they can’t hunt they won’t make any money, with no money they, like any other business will cease to exist. There are several hunts which rely on NT land for the majority of their meets.

Of course should the NT ban hunting then it would also set a precedent for other large land owning organisations to do the same. The Forestry Commission and the MoD could follow suit along with utilities companies. This vote could potentially have a huge impact on how hunting is viewed in England today. The vast majority want to see and end to this barbarity and winning this battle would be a huge step towards that goal.

Final word from National Dis-Trust:
“The NT updated rules are a smokescreen to prevent members voting for the member’s resolution. If the resolution fails, another one cannot be proposed for 3 years. Therefore there will be another 3 years of illegal hunting on NT land. Leaked internal memos (see blow) have shown that the NT intend to allow hunts to self-regulate with regard to abiding by the terms of the licence. The leaked memo’s doesn’t mention giving out times and dates of meets but instead mentions an annual list of places that will be published.

On top of all this the hunts that are likely to be affected are threatening to hunt without a license from the NT, effectively trespassing on NT land, and lets not forget thousands of hunters signed a declaration to defy the ban when the law was passed in 2005, they will do the exactly the same to the NT”. 

National Dis-Trust

 

*We think this is a good idea. Thanks to Hounds Off for publishing.