Hunting Booms as Britons Defy Hunt Ban
Britain, Drag Hunting, Field Sports, Fox Hunting, Trail Hunting
The Exmoor Foxhounds
The Telegraph reports that turnout at this year’s opening meets and sales at hunt-oriented businesses are booming, despite the Labour Party’s Hunt Ban.
Part of the hunting boom is attributable to sportsmen’s success in devising ways of working around the Ban, such as a more realistic kind of drag hunting termed “trail hunting,” but resistance to the Ban is also a factor.
As the season gallops into action on Saturday, William Little finds that the post-ban hunting world is booming.
According to the Countryside Alliance, there has been a 10 per cent increase in people who pay full subscription – ie go out every week or more.
This represents an increase of 5,000 people on the number that hunted before the fox ban. On Boxing Day, popular with fair-weather riders, an estimated 30,000 more people take part than before the ban.
There is also anecdotal evidence to suggest a considerable increase in the number of people who follow hunts in cars and on foot. …
Instead of the law causing the demise of hunting and its supporting trades, such as farriers and liveries, the upsurge in newcomers has brought a rural economic boom.
