SHAMEFUL: Winchester Council to close road enabling Hampshire Hunt to parade

Astounding that in 2024 fox hunting is still being supported by councils

Wildlife defenders campaign every year to try to stop Boxing Day hunt parades, but Winchester City Council has announced that not only will it close a road for the Hampshire Hunt, but that police will be deployed to protect the parade.

It is astounding that in 2024, the archaic bloodsport of fox hunting is not only being celebrated but is being supported by councils across the country.

The notice can be downloaded from the council's website.

Boxing Day is the biggest day of the year for hunts across the country; a fundraising event where hunt staff parade in town centres and block streets, while their supporters get drunk. After trying to convince the public that the bloodsport is a quaint rural tradition, the hunts then go off to terrorise foxes, hares and deer in the nearby countryside.

Wildlife Guardian wrote about the news on Facebook, saying:

"We have just had sight of permission for the brand new Boxing Day meet of the Hampshire Hunt.

They have been slumming it at a farm in Shalden for the last couple of years since Alton Town Council banned them from the Butts in Alton.

Now Winchester City Council have granted a road closure of Station Road in Alresford for them to meet on BD 2024 and Hampshire Police will be deployed to help.

This is a predominantly Lib Dem council so we are aghast that they have granted the HH this."

However, the Liberal Democrats’ general election manifesto didn’t even mention hunting with dogs.

Decision follows more positive news

The news that Winchester City Council is supporting the hunt comes after much more positive news: Wymondham Town Council made the decision that it will not grant the Dunston Harriers, which hunts hares, permission for a Boxing Day parade this coming Christmas. One councillor stated:

“Times have changed, the town has changed, it’s a tradition that’s had its day, and we should not be supporting this.”

It seems that Winchester Council has a lot to learn from Wymondham Council.

Councils must ban hunts, not endorse them

The Hampshire Hunt recently took part in Smokescreen Saturday - an event where the hunting industry tried to convince the government, the police and the public alike that it doesn't actually break the law. But Surrey Sabs has noted:

"we have never seen the HH lay a trail, in fact every time we turn up to sab them, they abandon their plans and go home."

In the 20 years since the Hunting Act came in, the majority of hunts have basically ignored the law and continued to hunt wildlife. On the rare times that the police have investigated them, hunts have said that they’ve followed a pre-laid scent trail – known as trail hunting – when they have done no such thing – and that any kills have been purely accidental. Now that Labour has vowed to ban trail hunting, and some police forces have started to take hunting offences more seriously, a very small number of hunts do occasionally lay trails. In a previous article, we explained how councils, politicians and police alike shouldn’t be fooled: this is still a guise to get away with real hunting.

Councils need to know the risks they are taking – and what laws they might be allowing to be broken – if they allow hunts to parade in their parishes, towns, or districts.

• It can be certain that the Hampshire Hunt's Boxing Day parade will be met with resistance from those who care about the welfare of foxes. It is time that councils across the country stood up to wildlife criminals!

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