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Countryside Alliance claim trail hunting ban is a ‘political’ decision

19 Nov 2021 3 minute read
Ray Bird / Berkeley Hunt & Beaufort Hunt, Joint Meet, nr Kingscote, Gloucestershire 1988 / CC BY-SA 2.0

The Countryside Alliance has claimed that the decision of Natural Resources Wales (NRW) to ban trail hunting on its land is a “political one”.

The pro-fox hunting group has responded to the move by the Welsh Government-sponsored body, which it says is part of an “ongoing attack on the rural way of life”.

NRW, which is one of Wales’ biggest land owners, made the decision after a court ruled that a leading huntsman had encouraged the practice as a smokescreen for illegal foxhunting.

It said it decided to ban train hunting completely because it could not be sure that it was not still being used as a “cover” for illegal activity.

Rachel Evans, the Countryside Alliance’s Director for Wales said: “We are concerned that the decision taken by NRW today is a purely political one, fuelled by the Welsh Labour Government’s ongoing attack on the rural way of life,”

“This decision comes after a similar ban was implemented on game shooting, an activity which is incredibly important to the Welsh rural economy.

“It is indeed disappointing, but not wholly surprising that, NRW have again channelled the political wishes of the Labour government in Cardiff.”

The group has suggested that this decision is not going to have an impact on a huge number of packs.

‘Loss of confidence’ 

Dominic Driver, the head of land stewardship for NRW, said: “The outcome of the court case against a senior leader of the MFHA has resulted in a loss of confidence in the organisation’s ability to ensure its activities are carried out within the law and terms of its agreement.

“In order to assure ourselves properly that trail hunting on our estate wasn’t being used as a cover for illegal activity, we would have to invest in skills and resources that we currently don’t have, to police it properly.

“Given what has historically been a minor use of the land we manage, this does not represent good use of our limited resources. All trail hunting activity on the NRW-managed estate will end with immediate effect.”

The decision by NRW was welcomed by opponents of fox hunting and animal rights campaigners.

Lee Moon, spokesperson for the Hunt Saboteurs Association, said: “The fallout from the leaked webinars continues and these landowners now realise they’ve been duped by the hunting community.

“It’s only a matter of time before more large landowners follow suit leading to the loss of millions of acres of land and the total demise of some hunts.”


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Richard
Richard
2 years ago

Oh Dear ! Simon H will do doubt bite his tounge on this one 😩

Pob lwc
Pob lwc
2 years ago

The “rural way of life”? A tiny fraction of people who live in rural areas have anything to do with hunting. And shooting for sport makes almost no positive impact on the rural economy. The CA are just showing themselves as a bunch of toffs again, out of touch with normal people who live in rural areas.

Jeff
Jeff
2 years ago
Reply to  Pob lwc

Spot on.

Geoff Horton-Jones
Geoff Horton-Jones
2 years ago

The Fox is now an urban animal living quite happily in all major English towns and is often seen sleeping on shed roofs.
The seagulls migrate between nightly roosts on the coast and the inland slurry coated fields in the daytime where they live on a rich diet of paddled earthworms -the main daily source of food for foxes
.Simones solution is to shoot all seagulls and release the foxhounds in Reading,Slough etc

Grayham Jones
2 years ago

No more hunting I’m wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 stop being little Englanders and be proud to be welsh start fighting for your children and grandchildren future in wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 kick all English party’s out of wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 it’s time for a new wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

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