The National Trust will publish details of hunts in the run up to a vote to ban sport on its land.
The move has angered the Country Alliance who say it will make it easy for animal rights activists to sabotage legal trail hunts.
They fear posting details of times and locations on the National Trust’s website will increase the risk of violent disruption.
The National Trust will publish details of hunts in the run up to a vote to ban sport on its land
This comes as the charity is holding its annual general meeting next month where members will vote on a motion calling for an outright ban on all hunting on National Trust land.
The motion is being put forward by the League Against Cruel Sports.
Countryside campaigners accused the National Trust’s leadership of being influenced by social media campaigns by anti-hunt protesters.
The alliance’s chief executive Tim Bonner told The Telegraph publishing hunt details was ‘another example of an organisation that has drifted an awfully long way from its roots’.
A National Trust spokesman denied the claims and said it ‘deplored’ intimidation and abuse.
The move has angered the Country Alliance who say it will make it easy for animal rights activists to sabotage legal trail hunts
The call for a ban is supported by an online petition signed by 136,000 people, although nearly 68,000 are reportedly based outside the UK.
Since the ban on traditional hunting in 2004, large numbers of hunts have adopted trail hunting, where an animal scent is laid for a pack of hounds to follow.
Those wanting to operate over National Trust land are required to enter into a ‘licensing’ agreement.
The trust said yesterday that the terms of the licences had not been reviewed for several years and that it had ‘lost confidence that everything possible was being done to ensure that the law was everywhere being upheld’.
Among the new requirements is a ban on using ‘animal-based scents’ in trail hunting.
Eric Taylforth, a National Trust tenant farmer in the Langdale Valley who hosts four huntmeets a year, said the website requirement would ‘paint a target’ for saboteurs. ‘It can be very intimidating,’ he said.
A National Trust spokesman said hunts had always been required to provide details of their meets, when asked, under the terms of the licence. ‘The proposal to put the information in one place, where those who wish to avoid running into a hunt – of which there are many – or those who wish to watch the spectacle can find out the details, is a response to a malfunctioning system.’