More than 20 years after the Hunting Act 2004 promised to end hunting with dogs, hunts are still riding out across England and Wales. As the Government prepares its response to the trail hunting consultation, Adrian Ramsay, Green Party MP for Waveney Valley and the party’s spokesperson for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, has a clear message: if the new law is weak, the Greens will strengthen it.
Speaking exclusively to The New Hunting Ban, Adrian commits to bringing forward amendments based on our legislative recommendations, which he calls “the current gold standard for hunting law”. He explains why trail hunting has become a “smokescreen” and why better policing can’t fix a flawed law. He also describes what it would take to close the loopholes for good.
Adrian, as an MP for a rural seat (Waveney Valley, straddling the Suffolk/Norfolk border), how do you approach the topic of hunting with dogs with your constituents?
While taking every opportunity to pursue stronger hunting legislation through Parliament, I continue to listen to localised, practical concerns regarding the two hunt groups active in the constituency. I balance a clear personal and political position with listening and reacting to individual complaints. Naturally, I am committed to seeing the current hunt restrictions extended to ban trail hunting. Enforcement of the hunt ban has failed to protect wildlife, and the lack of continuity has fostered a deep sense of mistrust and division between groups.
Clean Boot hunts are increasingly popular where one follows a human rather than animal scent. I look forward to joining one soon.
When you talk to farmers, landowners, and residents about fox hunting and trail hunting, what are the main concerns you hear from them?
People come to me with a variety of concerns – the vast majority of correspondence is from local people in our rural community who strongly oppose hunting. Other concerns I hear about relate to the Boxing Day hunt meet in Bungay, experiences of road obstruction, public safety worries and access for emergency vehicles. I have pressed Suffolk Constabulary and local councils for answers on risk assessments, event management and road closures. When we work together there are often solutions to practical issues, but it relies on the cooperation and consideration of hunt participants.
In Parliament, you are the Green Party spokesperson for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs. What is the Green Party’s position on how we finally end hunting with dogs in England and Wales?
The Green Party emphatically supports banning all hunting with dogs. This includes what I have been pressing for: strengthening and extending the Hunting Act 2004 to include trail hunting.
More than 20 years after the Hunting Act was introduced, why do you think hunts have been able to continue operating?
The 2004 Hunting Act was flawed from the start, and the government of the day should have acted as soon as it became obvious that fox hunting hadn’t stopped.
Almost immediately, hunts created ‘trail hunting’ as a convenient legal cover. It’s still used as a pretence to hide fox hunting. I couldn’t put it better than Mark Hankinson, the former Director of the Masters of Foxhounds Association – it is a “smokescreen”.
As you’ll know, prosecutors must prove criminal intent. This allows hunts to claim every wild animal’s death was an accident. Combined with the statutory exemptions in the law, the Act created a maze of excuses that makes convictions almost impossible. And, in the rare case of a successful prosecution, the punishments are usually just a small fine.
It’s really a ludicrous situation, and that view is supported by animal protection experts and backed by polling showing the public want the Government to act.
Do you believe the Hunting Act needs to be strengthened, rather than simply better enforced in its current form?
Without a doubt.
You can’t enforce a law that has built-in alibis. Better policing can’t fix what was structurally flawed from day one. In fact, last year I heard first-hand from the two most senior police officers with responsibility for hunting [Chief Superintendent Matt Longman, National Policing Lead on Hunting with Hounds, and Chief Inspector Kevin Lacks-Kelly, Head of the National Wildlife Crime Unit] at an event in Parliament, calling for “a clear law” that gives police the tools to uphold public expectations. There aren’t many who know better than them what needs to change.
That’s why every Green Party MP co-signed Rachael Maskell’s [MP for York Central] open letter to the Prime Minister. Backed by over 30 parliamentarians and every major animal protection organisation in the country, including the League Against Cruel Sports and the RSPCA, our message to Andy Burnham is clear: a narrow ban on laying scent trails won’t end hunting with dogs or satisfy the public. We need a complete overhaul of the Hunting Act that permanently ends hunting with hounds.
If trail hunting is banned, what safeguards need to be put in place to make sure hunts cannot simply reinvent the activity under another name?
We can’t leave room in the next law for a new smokescreen. If Parliament only bans trail hunting, hunts will just switch alibis and keep hunting.
I’ve been working with The New Hunting Ban campaign group, and I’ve seen their legislative proposals, and I completely agree with what I’m hearing from colleagues: this is the clearest blueprint we have for a law that would deliver what’s needed to end hunting with dogs.
There are a lot of changes required, but the main issues could be addressed by legislating to make it an offence where chasing a wild mammal is a foreseeable outcome of someone’s actions – for example, bringing a pack of foxhounds to an area where foxes live.
It would also help to create an offence around ‘going equipped’ to hunt. Hunt monitors will tell you about ‘terrier men’ at hunts who bring terrier dogs and spades, which are used to dig out hiding foxes and would have no legitimate purpose at a hunt following a trail. A new offence could stop the hunt before it even begins.
Finally, all forms of exempt hunting should be removed, as these are being used to further muddy the waters and, in Devon and Somerset, are used as a weak excuse to hunt stags with dogs.
Are you concerned that drag hunting could become the next “trail hunting” used as a new smokescreen behind which illegal hunting can continue?
Yes – and it’s another example of why we’re worried that the Government will take the option of a narrow ban on ‘animal-based scent trails’. By doing so and falling into the trap of believing that trail hunting is anything but a legal fiction, they would allow for hunts to say that their trails now smell of something different – trails that were never laid in the first place!
It’s still important to say, however, that drag hunting is a distinct, legal, pursuit. While there aren’t many drag hunts compared to the number of so-called trail hunts, they’re typically well regulated, and don’t pursue or injure wildlife.
We believe that the best way to allow drag hunts to continue is by making their currently self-imposed codes of conduct – operating openly, sharing their meets and routes, etc. – legally enforceable, as well as banning wildlife crime offenders from ever taking part.
How would the Green Party support the delivery of better legislation on hunting?
The Green Party in Parliament is committed to fixing the law and finally delivering on the promises made – and broken – by the Labour Government 20 years ago. We hope Defra is now considering a comprehensive overhaul of the Hunting Act as part of its response to the trail hunting consultation. But if the Government doesn’t commit to the changes that are needed, we’re ready to act.
As I’ve mentioned, the legislative recommendations set out by The New Hunting Ban are considered the current gold standard for hunting law and would provide a clear ‘set menu’ of amendments for Green MPs to bring forward to strengthen a weak government bill. I was a co-sponsor of Neil Duncan-Jordan’s [MP for Poole] Private Members’ Bill - the Hunting Act 2004 (Amendment) Bill, which is based on these recommendations, further readying them for tabling if required by drafting them into a legal framework.
In other words, we have a ready-made set of amendments to close the loopholes and address the weaknesses that have allowed hunting to continue. If the Government doesn’t go far enough, Green Party MPs will be ready to table the amendments that would deliver a final end to hunting with hounds.