Hunting licenses on National Trust land could be revoked as members debate the legality of trail hunting in a vote scheduled for October.
National Trust members have voiced concerns that hunting with hounds on trust estates could be providing a loophole to the 2004 hunting ban.
Licenses can still be granted on trust lands for trail hunting, which involves an artificial scent of an animal for hounds to chase.
But animal rights campaigners say that live animals inevitably get caught up in these hunts and little is done to stop it.
Trail hunting could be providing a loophole to the 2004 ban on foxhunting, pictured, say some members of the National Trust. A vote in October could see the revocation of licenses issued on National Trust estates
Explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes is one of 50 National Trust members backing the motion to revoke all hunting licenses.
He told The Observer: ‘These hunts are still killing foxes, hares and stags – and are being allowed to do so on National Trust land. Hunting is despicable, cruel and has no justification in modern Britain. If the National Trust wants to truly preserve and protect our environment, it needs to stop condoning hunting, in any guise, immediately.’
The majority of people in Britain support the Hunting Act and the ban on fox hunting, according to a recent YouGov poll, and earlier this year, Theresa May axed plans for a vote on repealing the legislation.
According to The Observer, the League Against Cruel Sports are working with trust members in preventing any violation of the Hunting Act on trust grounds. They believe that trail hunting offers an ‘exception’ for hunting to carry on as normal – a total of 79 licenses were granted by the National Trust last year.
But others, like the Countryside Alliance, believe that those that are being granted trail hunting licenses are not the ones breaking the law.
Countryside Alliance’s head of Hunting told The Observer: ‘To ban legal hunting activities on the grounds of protecting flora and fauna would suggest that dog walking and exercising horses across National Trust land should also be banned.’
Between 2004 and 2011 there were 341 convictions under the Hunting Act, Countryside Alliance telling The Guardian that only 21 of these incidents involved people associated with hunts.
The motion to revoke all licenses will be debated at the National Trust’s AGM in October.