Protests planned across the UK against Boxing Day Hunts
As communities across the UK brace themselves for the annual display of pro-hunt Boxing Day carnage, many wildlife defenders are organising to resist.
Protect the Wild has put together a handy list of the protests and events taking place to stick up for our wildlife. This list is a work in progress, so get in touch if we’ve missed out a demo in your area.
For hunts, Boxing Day parades are a crucial public relations exercise. Pro-hunt groups like the British Hound Sports Association present these yearly events as a noble British tradition. The Boxing Day parades typically begin with a speech by the huntmaster and are characterised by pomp and silly outfits. However, this ‘time-honoured’ pastime is also marked by arrogance, drunkenness, violence and, of course, wildlife crime. On top of that, Boxing Day meets are notorious for causing havoc and mayhem on the roads and in residential neighbourhoods, just as people are trying to take some much-needed rest on the bank holiday.
Polly Portwin, director of the pro-hunt advocacy group the Countryside Alliance, recently published a post on the organisation’s website saying that Boxing Day meets “offer the perfect opportunity to showcase trail hunting” She goes on to say that they also promote other (supposedly) “lawful hunting activities” too. Portwin even advises members of the public that they can stroke the hounds and horses if they want to.
Boxing Day parades are a charm offensive by hunts, who spend the rest of the year terrorising wildlife with a cold disregard for local communities. At Protect the Wild, we want to take this opportunity to urge the public not to make themselves complicit in the cruelty of fox hunting by attending Boxing Day parades. Instead, we recommend attending one of the many protests being organised around the UK.
This year, one local council has already passed a motion saying that the annual meet by Tiverton Foxhounds will not be welcome.
As the UK moves toward a public consultation on a new ban on fox hunting in early 2026, we hope that people will be emboldened to organise even harder in their local areas too.
Protect the Wild’s Rob Pownall:
“Boxing Day hunts are deliberately staged as tradition and spectacle, designed to normalise behaviour that would be unacceptable on any other day of the year. Resisting them isn’t about disrupting celebrations, it’s about refusing to let cruelty towards wildlife be rebranded as culture. When the law is weakly enforced and suffering is hidden behind ceremony, peaceful resistance becomes both legitimate and necessary”.
Protests:
Cholesbury (Bucks): Action Against Foxhunting is planning a protest against the Kimblewick Hunt on Cholesbury Common.
Helston (Cornwall): West Cornwall Hunt Sabs will protest the Cury Hunt.
Tavistock (Devon): Plymouth and West Devon Hunt Sabs will protest the Spooners and West Dartmoor Hunt.
Tiverton (Devon): Local Independents for Tiverton will protest the Tiverton Foxhounds.
Battle (E.Sussex): Individuals posted on Facebook promising to protest a meet by the Southdown and Eridge with East Sussex and Romney Marsh hunts.
Beverley (E.Yorks): Hull Wildlife Protectors and the Hull Animal Rights Team will protest the Holderness Hunt Boxing Day Parade.
Canterbury (Kent): East Kent Sabs will protest the Kent Hounds.
Abergavenny (Monmouthshire): Boxing Day Protest Against hunting and the Monmouth Hunt.
Kirkbymoorside (N.Yorks): Action Against Foxhunting will be protesting against the Sinnington Hunt.
Priddy Green (Somerset): Mendip Hunt Sabs will be protesting the Mendip Farmers Hunt from 10:30am.
Bungay (Suffolk): Action Against Animal Cruelty will protest the Waveney and Norfolk Harriers.
Hadleigh (Suffolk): Suffolk Action for Wildlife will be protesting at 10am on Boxing Day at Holbecks Park in Hadleigh against hunting and wildlife persecution.
Other events:
Great Torrington: The Great Torrington Events Safety Committee is running a campaign against the Torrington Farmers Hunt and the Stevenstone Hunt. They are calling on their supporters to complain to Devon County Council, Great Torrington Town Council, Torridge District Council and the Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Commissioner.
Denbigh - Community members have launched a petition against the Boxing Day meet of the Flint and Denbigh Hunt.
Don’t forget to put pressure on your local MP in the New Year too. It’s more urgent now than ever as the government has finally given a rough timetable for its long-promised public consultation on strengthening the ban on ‘trail hunting’. Let’s keep the pressure up to ensure that fox hunting is finally consigned to the dustbin of history. Use Protect the Wild’s automated tool to email your MP and demand a workable ban on hunting.
Check out these resources from Action Against Foxhunting to help you challenge Boxing Day and New Year’s Day hunt meets in your area.
Finally, why not make a New Year’s resolution to get involved with your local hunt saboteurs.
Header image: Blackmore and Sparkford Vale Hunt in Castle Cary on Boxing Day 2021, via Action Against Foxhunting.
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This government needs to get on with the ban.we need action not words.
Wishing all you good protestors the very best. If gov really mean what they've at last said they'll do this could, hopefully, be the last Boxing Day fiasco.