England's most flagrant hunt removes all mention of foxes from its founding doc

A curious sign of the times as the trail hunting ban looms

The Blackmore and Sparkford Vale Hunt (BSV) is arguably the poster child for fox hunting diehards in Britain. In a curious sign of the times as the trail hunting ban looms, it has removed all mentions of foxes from one of its founding documents.

The BSV is a notorious hunt, accounting for almost 13% of the reported fox chases and kills in the 2023/24 hunting season, as highlighted in Protect the Wild's A Case for a Proper Ban on Hunting report. Moreover, wildlife protection groups that monitor the BSV, such as North Dorset Hunt Saboteurs, regularly report on how barefaced it is. In a meet at the close of 2024, for instance, the sab group reported that the hunt used "classic fox hunting signals right in front of us," namely "blatant hollering."

Image: North Dorset Hunt Sabs (You can support them here)

Recently, however, the BSV has edited the document that outlines its fundamental purpose. In particular, this most blatant of hunts has curiously removed any and all mention of foxes and fox hunting.

Purpose of the BSV altered

The BSV has registered a business entity called The Blackmore & Sparkford Vale Company Limited, which was incorporated in June 2004. Like all companies, the entity created a memorandum of association in its early days, which was completed in January 2005. This memorandum is a document that serves as a company's charter.

The Hunting Act that bans the hunting of wild mammals received royal assent in November 2004 and came into force the following February. As a result, the BSV company's original memorandum acknowledged the ban – and committed to campaigning for “the lawful reintroduction of hunting with hounds”. Foxes and fox hunting also featured prominently in the memorandum, particularly in relation to promotion of the bloodsport.

However, the company held an "extraordinary general meeting" in early September 2024. During this meeting, it "unanimously passed" a special resolution to alter the text of the original memorandum, some twenty years later. Most of the changes were concerned with removing references to foxes and fox hunting.

Removing foxes

In the original text, one of the company's "objects" – i.e. its purposes – was written as "to promote the sport and practice of fox hunting generally within the law". The words "fox" and "generally" were removed from this clause, so it now reads, "to promote the sport and practice of hunting within the law".

In a further three places, the phrase "fox hunting" was replaced with "hunting" and two clauses were removed entirely. One of the removed clauses read:

"to maintain a controlled and balanced fox population within the Country with a view to achieving environmental balance and conservation of the countryside and providing sport for the followers"

The other axed clause read:

"to carry on such other activities in relation to the control of foxes as may be permitted by law"

The company also removed a reference in the document to trail hunting and other alternatives to fox hunting. This was in the clause that laid out its commitment to campaigning for a reintroduction of hunting with hounds. The original text said that pending any reintroduction in England, the BSV company would:

"preserve the infrastructure of the Hunt by such lawful activities with horses and hounds as the Board may determine including mock hunting, trail hunting, cross country riding and hound exercise while hunting with hounds is illegal in England and Wales, or is otherwise curtailed or restricted"

In the changes, the company removed everything after the word "determine."

Photo by Scott Walsh on Unsplash

An extraordinary challenge

You're probably wondering what would possess the BSV to make these changes? On this question, we defer to Chris Packham. He and Megan McCubbin spent 3.5hrs following a 'trail' hunt involving the Cottesmore Hunt at the end of 2024 and broadcast the event live. During the broadcast, Packham asked:

"I'm not going to pontificate, but what goes on in someone's mind when they want to get up of a morning and come out in the mist and mud, galavant around the countryside with a pack of dogs, intent on tearing a fox to pieces?"

Packham didn't care to interpret hunters' mindset and neither does Protect the Wild. We don't know why the BSV does what it does, including why it decided to change its founding document.

But Protect the Wild is clear on what we hope the BSV's extraordinary meeting – and the changes agreed therein – signifies. We hope that the fact England's most blatant hunt has made these changes shows that the hunting industry recognises what an insurmountable challenge it will be to continue the brutal pastime of fox hunting at this juncture.

There is no doubt that the industry does face such a challenge. Thanks to the brave efforts of saboteur and monitor groups up and down the country, trail hunting has been exposed for the smokescreen it is. In turn, this has pushed the Labour government to promise to ban the practice.

In December, the government reiterated its commitment, with a Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs stating, "We are committed to a ban on trail hunting, which is being exploited as a smokescreen to cruelly kill foxes and hares."

Nevertheless, there are mumblings by unnamed Labour sources in the press about the ban not being a "priority" for the government.

We urgently need fox hunting removed from the countryside, not just from hunts' company documents. So, it is imperative that people opposed to the hunting of wild animals make it clear to politicians that dragging their heels on this issue is not an acceptable option. If you haven't done so already, signing Protect the Wild's petition would be a good place to start!

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