Police make rare decision to charge beagle pack with illegal hunting

Northamptonshire Police have brought charges against the Pipewell Foot Beagles

Northamptonshire Police have brought charges against the Pipewell Foot Beagles after a member of the public caught the hunt chasing and killing a hare.

Footage of the incident, which occurred on 25 January 2025, circulated widely on social media, subsequently bringing landowner Boughton Estate into disrepute as well. Amongst Northamptonshire Police's charges is the rare decision to levy the Hunting Act against the hunt as a body corporate.

Charges against the Pipewell Foot Beagles were announced on 26 June. In an email seen by Protect the Wild, Northamptonshire Police said it was bringing Hunting Act Section 1 charges against the "Master, Whipper In and also the company". All three charges are unusual in their own way. The first two join just a handful of charges that hare-hunting foot packs have faced since the Hunting Act was introduced.

Despite its similarity to hare coursing, hare hunting has largely escaped scrutiny with few facing charges and even fewer successfully prosecuted. Since 2005, only two prosecutions directly related to illegal hunting by beagle packs are known to have occurred: the Warwickshire and District Beagles in 2010 and the Royal Artillery Beagles in 2013. At present, a 19-year-old man from the Dorset and Somerset Bassets is also facing a charge of illegal hunting.

However, it is the third charge that is the most unusual. The Pipewell Foot Beagles are a registered company, making it eligible to face prosecution as a corporate body rather than prosecuting just the individual members, and it appears Northamptonshire Police have enough evidence to show that the actions were the responsibility of the hunt as a 'body corporate'. As a result, this is only the third such case known to Protect the Wild following the successful conviction of the Heythrop Hunt as a body corporate in 2012 and the unsuccessful charge levied against the Warwickshire Hunt in March 2025.

Boughton Estate has remained tight-lipped on the incident since its initial statement that distanced itself from the incident. However, as Protect the Wild covered at the time, the estate is also host to the notorious Pytchley with Woodland Hunt (as described on our bloodbusiness.info website), thereby undermining its claimed innocence.

Photo by Vincent van Zalinge on Unsplash

'Delighted with the charges'

Speaking to Protect the Wild, the member of the public who captured the footage said:

I’m delighted with the charges. I didn't think the case would get this far and it's taken a lot of work, so I'm elated.

People need to back the campaign to end hunting as the current legislation has not been and is not fit for purpose. We need to be lobbying our MPs because, after all, Labour stated they would bring in the ban and that needs to actioned urgently.

Meanwhile, Northants Hunt Saboteurs said on its Facebook page that:

It is rare for organised hare hunts to be brought before the courts due to their secretive behaviour. The Boughton Estate has been a venue that illegal hunters have previously felt free from prying eyes, not anymore.

Hare hunting is no less bloody

Although hare hunting is overshadowed in the public consciousness by both fox hunting and hare coursing, it is no less despicable. In our report on the 2024/25 hunting season, Protect the Wild found that the average rate of wildlife persecution by beagle and basset packs far outstripped that of fox hunting. Sab and monitor groups reported 26 incidents of hare persecution across 15 meets, or roughly 1.73 incidents per meet.

Were these figures scaled up to the likely total number of beagle and basset pack meets throughout the season, Protect the Wild estimates that at least 6522 hares faced persecution. However, given that the concrete figures we have came from meets where hunts packed up once activists were sighted, this is likely a huge underestimate of the true number.

Nonetheless, hare hunting comes under the same laws as fox hunting. That means the very real possibility of new and stronger anti-hunting legislation has the opportunity to end hare hunting at the same time as fox hunting. It is therefore essential that we all continue maintaining pressure on both the hunting industry and government to end hunting and put an end to this cruel activity forever.

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Help us truly end hunting for good

We’re approaching a once-in-a-generation opportunity to end hunting with hounds — and it all comes down to people power. In the coming months, the government will launch a public consultation on hunting for the first time in over 20 years, and we’re preparing for ten intense weeks of national mobilisation: up to 1 million leaflets, a short film on cub hunting, targeted ads, city-wide actions, and giving the public everything they need to speak out.

This will not be won with money — but we do need funds to make it happen. We’re aiming to raise £25,000 to power the campaign, expose the cruelty, and strike the final blow to a bloodsport that has plagued our countryside for centuries. If you can, please chip in. Every pound will help us end hunting — for good.