Trail hunting is a legal, although controversial, [1] alternative to hunting animals with hounds in Great Britain. A trail of animal urine (most commonly fox) is laid in advance of the 'hunt', and then tracked by the hound pack and a group of followers; on foot, horseback, or both.
By 2005, most forms of hunting animals with hounds had been made illegal across Great Britain, [2] although many remain within the law in Northern Ireland. [3] [4] To preserve their traditional practices, most registered hunts switched to trail hunting as a legal alternative. [5] [6]
Trail hunting, while superficially similar to the established sport of drag hunting, was an entirely new invention in 2005 and one which hunts claim is designed to replicate the practice of hunting as closely as possible, but without the deliberate involvement of live prey. [7]
Trail hunting should not be confused with drag hunting; where hounds follow an artificial scent, usually aniseed, laid along a set route which is already known to the huntsmen. [8]
In trail hunting, a scent trail is laid using the 'prey' animal's urine (foxes, hares, or other animals) and deliberately laid in areas where those animals naturally occur; ostensibly to recreate the experience of chasing a real animal. The trail does not follow a pre-determined course and those controlling the hounds do not know the route in advance. [9] [10]
Anti-hunt organisations claim trail hunting is a smokescreen for illegal hunting and a means of circumventing the Hunting Act 2004, which applies in England and Wales, and the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002, which applies in Scotland. [11]
Because the trail is laid using animal urine, and in areas where such animals naturally occur, hounds often pick up the scent of live animals; sometimes resulting in them being caught and killed. [12]
It has also been alleged that trail hunts rarely lay an actual trail; therefore encouraging hounds to pick up live animal scent. The League Against Cruel Sports has claimed that, of 4,000 monitored hunts, someone was seen laying a possible trail in an average of around only 3% of occasions. [13] The Malvern Hills Trust, which banned trail hunting on its land in 2021, has said that, during the monitoring of ten separate hunts, only one trail was seen being laid. [14]
In recent years several major landowners including the National Trust and Natural Resources Wales have banned trail hunting on their land. [15] [16] [17] [18]
Hounds follow an artificial scent, usually aniseed, laid along a set route which is already known to the huntsmen. [19]
Similar to drag hunting, but in the form of a race; usually of around 10 mi (16 km) in length. [19] Unlike other forms of hunting, the hounds are not followed by humans.
Clean boot hunting uses packs of bloodhounds to follow the natural trail of a human's scent. [19]
The beagle is a breed of small scent hound, similar in appearance to the much larger foxhound. The beagle was developed primarily for hunting hare, known as beagling. Possessing a great sense of smell and superior tracking instincts, the beagle is the primary breed used as a detection dog for prohibited agricultural imports and foodstuffs in quarantine around the world. The beagle is a popular pet due to its size and good temper.
Fox hunting is a traditional activity involving the tracking, chase and, if caught, the killing of a fox, normally a red fox, by trained foxhounds or other scent hounds. A group of unarmed followers, led by a "master of foxhounds", follow the hounds on foot or on horseback.
Beagling is mainly the hunting of hares and rabbits by beagles using their strong sense of smell. A beagle pack is usually followed on foot, but in a few cases mounted. Beagling is often enjoyed by 'retired' fox hunters who have either sustained too many injuries or lost the agility to ride horseback, or who enjoy the outdoors and the camaraderie of the hunt. It is also traditionally a way for young men and women to learn how to handle hounds on a smaller scale before they go on to hunt with foxhounds.
The Hunt Saboteurs Association (HSA) is a United Kingdom organisation that uses hunt sabotage as a means of direct action to stop fox hunting. It was founded in 1963, with its first sabotage event occurring at the South Devon Foxhounds on 26 December 1963.
Drag hunting or draghunting is a form of equestrian sport, where mounted riders hunt the trail of an artificially laid scent with hounds.
The Hunting Act 2004 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which bans the hunting of most wild mammals with dogs in England and Wales, subject to some strictly limited exemptions; the Act does not cover the use of dogs in the process of flushing out an unidentified wild mammal, nor does it affect drag hunting, where hounds are trained to follow an artificial scent.
The Duke of Beaufort's Hunt, also called the Beaufort and Beaufort Hunt, is one of the oldest and largest of the fox hunting packs in England.
The American Foxhound is a breed of dog, closely related to the English Foxhound. They are scent hounds, bred to hunt foxes by scent. United States Founding Father George Washington was key to the breed's early development.
Hunt sabotage is the direct action that animal rights activists and animal liberation activists undertake to interfere with hunting activity.
A red herring is something that misleads or distracts from a relevant or important question. It may be either a logical fallacy or a literary device that leads readers or audiences toward a false conclusion. A red herring may be used intentionally, as in mystery fiction or as part of rhetorical strategies, or may be used in argumentation inadvertently.
The Berkeley Hunt is a foxhound pack in the west of England. Its country lies in the southern part of Gloucestershire, between Gloucester and Bristol.
Hunting the clean boot, also called clean boot hunting, is a term that has been used in the United Kingdom to refer to the use of packs of bloodhounds to follow a natural human scent trail.
Hound trailing, or hound racing, is a dog sport that uses specially bred hounds to race along an artificially laid scent trail over a cross country course.
The bloodhound is a large scent hound, originally bred for hunting deer, wild boar, rabbits, and since the Middle Ages, for tracking people. Believed to be descended from hounds once kept at the Abbey of Saint-Hubert, Belgium, in French it is called, le chien de Saint-Hubert.
The Cottesmore Hunt, which hunts mostly in Rutland, is one of the oldest foxhound packs in Britain, with origins dating back to 1666. Its name comes from the village of Cottesmore where the hounds were kennelled.
A limer, or lymer, was a kind of dog, a scenthound, used on a leash in medieval times to find large game before it was hunted down by the pack. It was sometimes known as a lyam hound/dog or lime-hound, from the Middle English word lyam, meaning 'leash'. The French cognate limier has sometimes been used for the dogs in English as well. The type is not to be confused with the bandog, which was also a dog controlled by a leash, typically a chain, but was a watchdog or guard dog.
The Adelaide Hunt Club is an Australian fox hunting club founded in the 1840s.
The British Hound Sports Association (BHSA) is the governing body for many hound sports associations in Great Britain. However, it is not the governing body for either draghound packs or bloodhound packs who are governed by the Master of Draghound & Bloodhounds Association (MDBA). The BHSA is responsible for setting standards and rules to which members and registered hunts are supposed to adhere. A sister organisation, the Hound Sports Regulatory Authority (HSRA), is responsible for regulatory and disciplinary matters for members and member hunts, in accordance with rules set by the BHSA.