Our story

The New Hunting Ban was founded out of frustration - frustration at the gap between public perception and reality. While my friends in the North London Hunt Saboteurs and I were in the field, often at personal risk, trying to prevent the killing of foxes, the public at large believed hunting with hounds had been effectively banned years ago.

To help address that misunderstanding, we began speaking to local community groups about what was actually happening on the ground. Those talks were consistently well received, with audiences engaged and often shocked by the evidence we presented. Encouraged by the response, we began to wonder whether there might be an appetite to hear these same firsthand accounts by people with the power to actually make change.

When Neil Duncan-Jordan MP invited us to host a drop-in session in the House of Commons and share this knowledge directly with parliamentarians, we realised our instincts were right. The New Hunting Ban was born, with Neil as our first prominent supporter.

Since then, we’ve worked hard to bring expert voices into Parliament, ensuring MPs and peers hear directly from those who understand the realities of illegal hunting. At the same time, we’ve kept pressure on the government to deliver on its manifesto commitment to ban trail hunting. In April, I watched from the gallery as Perran Moon MP, one of our supporting MPs, led a debate during which the government finally committed to a consultation on the long-promised ban. Although the deadline has since slipped, the letter coordinated by Neil Duncan-Jordan and co-signed by more than 60 parliamentarians secured a renewed commitment to begin the consultation in early 2026.

And so here we are - another hunting season underway, but perhaps an end now in sight. The work we’ve done this year, together with submissions from our Change Network, Hunting Briefings and Open Consultation, has brought us to this point.

Our recommendations for legislative reform are comprehensive yet straightforward, and they will be the benchmark against which the government’s own proposals will undoubtedly be measured. I’m confident in calling them the new gold standard in hunting law.

Rhys Giles
Director, The New Hunting Ban