Trail hunting faces ban on National Trust land as members threaten rebellion

National Trust members will vote on Saturday on a landmark motion to ban trail hunting on more than 600,000 acres of land in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, in a move hailed by animal rights campaigners as a significant step towards curtailing blood sports across the UK.

Activists have threatened to tear up their National Trust membership cards if the organisation continues to license trail hunts, in which the hunting group follows the scent of a fox along a pre-determined route without a fox being chased, injured or killed.

The practice is permitted under the 2004 Hunting Act, which banned traditional hunts of wild animals, but has faced growing opposition from campaigners who say wild animals – and the dogs that hunt them – are still being killed, often deliberately.

They say there is evidence that trail hunting is being used as a “false alibi for the hunting of foxes, deer, mink and hares with dogs, all of which take place on National Trust land”.

If Saturday’s non-binding vote at the organisation’s AGM goes the way of the anti-hunting lobby, it will fall to the board of trustees to make a final judgement.

But after the National Trust advised its members to vote against the motion, there are mixed feelings among campaigners about whether the ban will come into force.

“They need to see that we mean what we say and that they are going to lose members if trail hunting continues,” said Helen Beynon, a National Trust member who organised the motion.

Speaking from Swindon, home to the National Trust’s headquarters, where a demonstration by anti-hunt campaigners is scheduled for Saturday morning, she told The Independent: “If we lose, we will become a thorn in their flesh. They are going to have a real fight on their hands.”

The stakes are higher for Ms Beynon and her supporters as the trust stipulates that motions on a similar topic can only be presented at the AGM every three years, meaning their next chance to end the licensing of trail hunting by Britain’s largest private landowner will not come until 2020 at the earliest.

The trust has said the policy remains under review, but also insisted there was no evidence the hunts are “any more or less damaging to conservation than many other outdoor pursuits that we license”.

The controversy surrounding trail hunting on National Trust land follows a row over a decision by the organisation to ban volunteers from performing front-of-house duties at a stately home unless they wore gay pride badges.

The chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, Tim Bonner, was sceptical about the significance of the upcoming vote.

“It is very unlikely it will be representative, with less than 1 per cent of members voting in it,” he said. “Tomorrow’s vote won’t be a mandate for change.”

He also dismissed claims of illegal hunts on trust land by Ms Beynon and the League Against Cruel Sports as “false information”, and said the trust imposed tougher rules than were required by law.

His comments relate to changes made in August banning the use of fox-based scents, which the Trust acknowledged was a “major contributor to the potential for accidental fox chases”.

Philippa King, acting chief executive of the League Against Cruel Sports, said: “The National Trust claims no illegal hunting takes place on their land but we believe they are either being deceived or not paying attention.

“This motion was brought by a National Trust member who witnessed illegal hunting on Trust land. The League and others have produced over 400 pages of reports and evidence to support this motion.

“The National Trust is a treasured institution which does wonderful work, but it has allowed itself to be embarrassed by the hunting fraternity.

“We hope enough members have had access to the facts to enable them to make an informed choice.”

Last year the National Trust issued 79 annual licences granting hunts access to their land in England and Wales to trail hunt.

Earlier in October the Malvern Hills Trust, which manages about 3,000 acres of land between Gloucester and Hereford, produced a set of guidelines restricting the activities of trail hunts.

The new rules require hunts to provide details of where their trails will be laid in advance, to keep routes away from thickets and other areas where foxes are likely to be, and to only allow hunts in which the huntsman knows where the trails have been laid, so he can stop the hounds if they deviate from it.