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Original poster

Trail Hunting or Fox Hunting?

214 replies

wantmorenow · 01/01/2025 09:28

Just read a random pop up post in Facebook about hunting with hounds in the UK which I naively thought had been banned. I am shocked and quite amazed at my own ignorance. I genuinely didn't realise this still goes on and despite the law banning hunting. There is footage of the fox being pursued and the data shared is an eye opener.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
17
fivebyfivebuffy · 01/01/2025 14:27

Here is a bit about clean boot

www.facebook.com/share/1DNdGbzfs4/?mibextid=wwXIfr

CaptainBeanThief · 01/01/2025 14:28

Myself and my husband were driving through a village to get somewhere and out of nowhere a stamped of dogs and horses on a hunt came bolting across the road.
No signs around to drive slowly at a time, no diversion or anything.
These "hunters" are a law onto themselves 😑

BurntBroccoli · 01/01/2025 14:29

liveforsummer · 01/01/2025 09:51

I think initially when they first banned hunting they just tweaked a few details and 'accidentally' happened upon foxes (at least some hunts did which spoiled the rep for others). These days, and obviously I can only speak for our local packs, the dogs are entirely retrained. Some of the old school hunt folks won't entertain going out with them now. My dd goes out with a bloodhound pack which is different again. Known as clean boot hunting. Bloodhounds were never trained to kill animals and have entirely different instincts to fox hounds so there is no fear of mistake. There is no scent dragged, they simply follow the path of the human runner (and jump all over them and get treats at the end). It's not for the faint hearted though, as it's a planned route with little interruption so very fast and furious

I wish the local fox hunts would change to this form.
They rampage through crops, along main A roads and are clearly not following a trail.

They also pull fox cubs out of their dens and throw them to the hounds to 'train' them. Absolutely horrific.

BurntBroccoli · 01/01/2025 14:33

HonorHaymaker · 01/01/2025 10:10

They are doing it here. They always congregate outside our house and have done for years. Naively I thought they were obeying the law but apparently not. A frightened fox ran across our garden and an acquaintance who knows them confirmed that they still hunt foxes.

I was fuming and contacted our local hunt sabs- I won't be making it easy for them to congregate outside our house next time!

Good for you. Yes I have the local hunt Sabs on my messenger and tip them off when I can with photo evidence.

If I was younger I would be sabbing with them.

Many of the sabs are now using drones which adds to evidence when a hunt is prosecuted.

Whatevershallidowithmylife · 01/01/2025 14:34

No issues with culling to keep numbers down but absolutely no need to be done in this barbaric fashion. Makes you wonder what kick these weirdos get.

BurntBroccoli · 01/01/2025 14:38

Vinorosso74 · 01/01/2025 10:35

Even if no fox is killed by trail hunters, others are. It may be other wildlife or people's cats particularly where they have trespassed onto other land.
It is an outdated barbaric practice.
It's also worth reading up on the treatments of the hounds too.

Edited

Yes it's truly horrible that they shoot the dogs in the head when they reach 5 or earlier when they don't perform.

fivebyfivebuffy · 01/01/2025 14:38

To add I've only ever been on a hunt ride which isn't hunting, it's a pleasure ride
I wasn't meant to be on it either, it was accidental

Megifer · 01/01/2025 14:38

Whatevershallidowithmylife · 01/01/2025 14:34

No issues with culling to keep numbers down but absolutely no need to be done in this barbaric fashion. Makes you wonder what kick these weirdos get.

I know, you wouldn't trust one to babysit your kid would you?

2dogsandabudgie · 01/01/2025 14:41

BurntBroccoli · 01/01/2025 14:29

I wish the local fox hunts would change to this form.
They rampage through crops, along main A roads and are clearly not following a trail.

They also pull fox cubs out of their dens and throw them to the hounds to 'train' them. Absolutely horrific.

Show quote history

Have you seen them do this?

Stirabout · 01/01/2025 14:43

When fox hunting was banned by Labour the Hunts were up in arms. They were all over the News on TV complaining they’d have to kill their dogs. Dogs which had been bred down the centuries..blah blah…. Just excuses to make animal lovers feel sad and as if they were hypocrites

Now here we are twenty years after the ban and still the hunt has all these dogs. What for
Why didn’t they allow the dogs of 2004 to die naturally
Obviously so they can continue this cruel sport.

If you train animals to follow a scent they will follow it. Whether it’s been laid by a rag or is from a real animal the dogs will hardly know.
That’s why so many foxes are ripped to pieces in this disgusting idea of having fun

BurntBroccoli · 01/01/2025 14:48

CarobyBlobs · 01/01/2025 11:42

Drag hunting is where they follow a human runner, with a synthetic or a human scent. Trail hunting is done with animal scents so there are a lot more “oops” moments.

id be interested to see videos of sabs attacking children at a hunt - it apparently happens all the time so there must be lots of evidence.

I have seen videos of hounds chasing foxes, sabs taking control of hounds when the huntsmen are nowhere to be seen, terriermen removing fences so the hunt can keep chasing the fox, a hound being hit by a car when it ran across a main road (why was the trail laid near a main road?), uncontrolled hounds killing cats, chasing calves, hunting through thick patches of brambles where a runner couldn’t possibly go (so there would be no trail), and bagged foxes running for their lives. A bagged fox is one that has been deliberately released for the hounds to chase.

Yes I've never seen a single video of a child being pulled from a horse by a sab and I'm sure I would have if true as it would be all over the Mail...

aodirjjd · 01/01/2025 14:49

Pat888 · 01/01/2025 14:11

Since the fox hunting ban the numbers of foxes has plummeted -farmers shoot them and if you’re naive enough to think they are killed humanely by a marksman than you are a mug.
I see lads out at night with spotlights on their vehicles hunting down foxes ,often before the spring lambing, trained marksman they ain’t.
There’s a handful of hound packs who trail hunt -leave them alone and find something else to complain about -as I said there are few foxes now thanks to do gooders banning hunting.

Edited

I’ve just googled this and unsurprisingly no one is surveying fox populations so the idea that “numbers of foxes are plummeting” appears to be made up bollocks.

They are actually increasing in urban areas!

Stirabout · 01/01/2025 14:51

Then there’s these bunch of low life’s that dig up the animals from their sets

Trail Hunting or Fox Hunting?
Stirabout · 01/01/2025 14:54

Images too big to post all at once
throwing a fox out from his set …… what part of trail hunting is this!!

Trail Hunting or Fox Hunting?
CurlewKate · 01/01/2025 14:55

Trail hunting is used by some packs as a cover for fox hunting.

Stirabout · 01/01/2025 14:55

More of the same article

Trail Hunting or Fox Hunting?
BurntBroccoli · 01/01/2025 14:56

@2dogsandabudgie

I used to work with a woman who was close to the hunt and she told me it goes on. I was horrified as I had no idea before that.
It's called 'cubbing'.

JT69 · 01/01/2025 14:58

Ex hunt Sab and monitor here. No I’m not cute and cuddly - just out saving lives and documenting evidence.

I was out in the field before and after the ban and nothing has changed. Hunts operate as they wish torturing and murdering wildlife and pets. It’s so incredibly hard to get a conviction but there are many.

Trail hunting was devised by hunts to circumvent the Law and they train their hounds with fox scent . Drag hunting /clean boot is the only form of legal hunt as many have said on here.

So glad so many on here think it’s abhorrent and vile. If you want this stopped once and for all contact your local sabs and wildlife groups, question your local police response (some officers known to ride with the hunt or check out the Warwickshire constabulary colluding with hunters 🙄) write to your MP. Get a proper and complete ban.

DuckDuckG00se · 01/01/2025 14:59

There are good and bad both hunters and sabs.

This. Illegal fox hunting still goes on but that doesn't mean every meet hunts illegally.

namechangeGOT · 01/01/2025 15:00

Stirabout · 01/01/2025 14:54

Images too big to post all at once
throwing a fox out from his set …… what part of trail hunting is this!!

@twistyizzy Care to comment?

namechangeGOT · 01/01/2025 15:02

DuckDuckG00se · 01/01/2025 14:59

There are good and bad both hunters and sabs.

This. Illegal fox hunting still goes on but that doesn't mean every meet hunts illegally.

There is not a single good hunter. They're all scum.

DuckDuckG00se · 01/01/2025 15:02

Stirabout · 01/01/2025 14:43

When fox hunting was banned by Labour the Hunts were up in arms. They were all over the News on TV complaining they’d have to kill their dogs. Dogs which had been bred down the centuries..blah blah…. Just excuses to make animal lovers feel sad and as if they were hypocrites

Now here we are twenty years after the ban and still the hunt has all these dogs. What for
Why didn’t they allow the dogs of 2004 to die naturally
Obviously so they can continue this cruel sport.

If you train animals to follow a scent they will follow it. Whether it’s been laid by a rag or is from a real animal the dogs will hardly know.
That’s why so many foxes are ripped to pieces in this disgusting idea of having fun

Some are trying protest they're ethnic minorities now 🙄

Gem359 · 01/01/2025 15:03

I grew up on a farm and think it's vile. I remember back in the 90's there was one girl in my year at school who was pro hunting, it was literally her vs every single other person in our year 😂.

Stirabout · 01/01/2025 15:05

DuckDuckG00se · 01/01/2025 14:59

There are good and bad both hunters and sabs.

This. Illegal fox hunting still goes on but that doesn't mean every meet hunts illegally.

The only way to legally hunt is not to use dogs as they will chase the scent whatever it’s on.

No one is stopping a meet for a hack.

twistyizzy · 01/01/2025 15:06

namechangeGOT · 01/01/2025 15:00

@twistyizzy Care to comment?

Show quote history

This is not a hunt. It is a group of terriermen.

Take it you don't live rurally, there is lamping most evenings around here. Just as cruel as fox hunting but happens 365 days a year. Farmers now just shoot foxes so they often die slowly and painfully.

I don't support fox hunting any more hence why I don't do it. All I'm saying is that sabs aren't whiter than white and I've seen violence against kids etc.
I support legally abiding trail hunting, it is one of the only ways of accessing the countryside now that so many bridleways have gone thanks to house building.

I just hope you don't eat meat/dairy etc.