Mark Hankinson, former director of the Masters of Foxhounds Association, has had his appeal against his sentence for teaching hunts how to break the law upheld by His Honour Judge Gregory Perrins at Southwark Crown Court.
Giving his ruling, HHJ Perrins said that while Hankinson’s words were capable of encouraging hunts to break the Hunting Act, he couldn’t be satisfied that the evidence met the threshold to prove that was Hankinson’s intention.
Only by strengthening the Hunting Act by closing its many loopholes and outlawing so-called trail hunting can illegal hunting be properly stopped.
Additionally, landowners must not allow this barbaric practice to continue. Now is the time to tell them that the public will not accept any more excuses for allowing animal cruelty on their land.
Major landowners such as the National Trust and Natural Resourses Wales have already put an end to 'trail' hunting on their land. But many are yet to commit to a solution.
These landowners include: