We are winning the fight to end hunting for good

For the last ten years I have dedicated virtually every day of my life to one goal: ending the hunting of wildlife in Britain.

I started as a pretty naive 16-year-old with a Facebook page. Since then, I have campaigned through successive Conservative governments, helped fight off repeated attempts to weaken or overturn the Hunting Act, and now, finally, we are here with a government commitment to bring an end to hunting with hounds.

For the first time in a very long time, it genuinely feels like years of relentless pressure, exposure, evidence gathering and public campaigning are beginning to break through.

I could not feel happier. But this did not happen overnight. And it did not happen because politicians suddenly saw the light. It happened because thousands of compassionate, brave and stubborn people refused to give up.

Over the last decade, Protect the Wild has:

• Conducted undercover investigations exposing terriermen and secretly filmed the royal family’s favourite hunt shooting their own hounds dead, while supporting dozens of frontline groups sabotaging and monitoring hunts

• Produced groundbreaking reports documenting everything from wildlife persecution to the suffering of foxhounds at the hands of hunts

• Created thousands of pieces of online content, from viral animations seen by tens of millions to articles read by millions more

• Exposed Covid grants handed to hunts, pressured major landowners to cut ties, and shone a light on sickening incidents almost as soon as they happened

• Kept hunting firmly in the public eye for over a decade

This work has become an obsession, and I am happy to admit that. But it has been necessary. Hunting has survived not through legality, but through silence, ambiguity and weak enforcement. That is why this moment matters.

In Monday’s Animal Welfare Strategy, the Government committed to:

• Banning trail hunting

• Banning snares and snare traps

• Banning the shooting of hares during the breeding season

These are moves we welcome, even while recognising their limits.

On hares in particular, let us be clear. There should be no season for shooting them at all. But acknowledging harm, even partially, is still a step away from the current free for all that treats wildlife as disposable.

Most importantly, a commitment to banning trail hunting finally acknowledges what campaigners, saboteurs, monitors, investigators and whistleblowers have said for years. Trail hunting is a sham.

It was never about following a scent. It was about preserving fox hunting under another name. And while this announcement should absolutely be celebrated, we cannot forget that, for now at least, hunting is still very much alive.

That is why, as always, I will be working over Christmas. Because while politicians make announcements, hunts will still be out. Foxes will still be chased. Wildlife will still be killed. And the public still deserves to know the full extent of what is happening, right up until the day it truly stops.

We are not done. But we are closer than we have ever been.

And for the first time in a long time, it feels like the balance of pressure is finally shifting in the right direction.

Thank you to every single one of you who has supported Protect the Wild and the campaign to end hunting for good.

We will win this.

Rob

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