Dominic Dyer writes about his experiences of government ministers and the Hunting Act

Writer and wildlife campaigner Dominic Dyer said on an episode of his podcast Off the Leash that the Hunting Act remains a ‘political’ issue for the current government. As a result, in dealing with the problem of illegal hare coursing, it wanted to avoid looking at the Hunting Act.

Dyer kindly provided a more in-depth statement to The Citro about his experiences on this.

Fox hunting has become political poison for the Government, but they only have themselves to blame.

In December 2019 Zac Goldsmith contacted me for advice on how the Tory Party should deal with this contentious issue in their election manifesto.

I made it clear that it was not enough to simply rule out repeal of the Hunting Act, the Tories needed to prove they were serious about animal welfare by tightening enforcement of the Act through banning trail hunting and the use of terrier men on hunts and ending the use of loopholes in the legislation that allow the hunting of stags and deer with hounds for research purposes.

However, this proved a bridge too far for the Tory Party who came under intense pressure from the shooting & hunting lobby to maintain the status quo over the weak enforcement of the Hunting Act.

Following growing public anger over the release of the Hunting Office Webinars in December 2020, the Defra Secretary George Eustice finally met with a wildlife NGO coalition lead by the League Against Cruel Sports in April to discuss tighter enforcement of the Hunting Act.

This is the first time a Conservative Defra Secretary has ever met with wildlife protection groups to discuss the Hunting Act, since it was introduced in 2004.

During the meeting George Eustice refused to suspend trail hunting licences on public land and pushed responsibility for all enforcement issues onto the police.

He also stated his believe that politically the Government had gone as far as it could with its commitment to no longer repeal the Hunting Act.

He would not be drawn about the pending trial of the Master of the Foxhounds Association in September, but he clearly understood the implications for the Government if he is found guilty of criminal activity.

During the meeting, I told George Eustice that the Government had now put itself in an impossible position on the Hunting Act that threatened to undermine its wider animal welfare agenda.

I made it clear that any attempt to come down hard on hare coursing under pressure from farmers and landowners, whilst taking no action against hunts which also kill hares with hounds, would show the Government is hugely inconsistent when it comes to protecting wildlife.

This is a view increasingly held by Tory back benchers, Defra Minister Lord Goldsmith and the Prime Ministers wife Carrie Johnson, who was a key player in ensuring the Tory Party jettisoned the Hunting Act Repeal Commitment in the 2019 manifesto.

The League Against Cruel Sports have sent George Eustice an excellent working paper putting forward proposals for strengthening the Hunting Act and are keeping up the public and political pressure with their ‘no trail hunting on National Trust land’ campaign, in the run up to the National Trust AGM in October.

Next week might well see George Eustice given the push in a Cabinet reshuffle, as a result of losing favour with the Prime Minister and his wife on animal welfare issues.

The question for any successor will be how best to deal with the growing public and political pressure to tighten the Hunting Act, before more leading members of the Hunting Community end up in Court tarnishing the Governments efforts to be seen as a driving force for animal protection at home and abroad.

Part of this statement was used in The Citro’s article New coursing laws avoid the ‘H’ word.