DEMONSTRATIONS of “trail hunting” by dozens of fox-hound packs and riders due to begin on Saturday have been dismissed as a “smokescreen” and a “lame PR exercise.” 

Trail hunting by traditional fox-hunting groups was introduced after the countryside “sport” was made illegal in England, Scotland and Wales by the Labour government of 2005.

But anti-hunt groups have long claimed that trail hunting is used as a cover for hunters to continue carrying out actual killings.

Filmed evidence has been produced showing foxes and their cubs being torn apart by hounds.

The League Against Cruel Sports said that almost every hunt hosting a trail hunt has been accused of either illegal hunting or causing havoc in communities.

Britain has almost 200 hunt packs.

The league’s head of campaigns Emma Judd said: “So-called trail hunting is a smokescreen invented by hunts after the fox-hunting ban to fool people into thinking the cruel blood sport had ended and to hide the fact that hunts are still brutally chasing and killing foxes.”

She said that 1,396 “incidents” of illegal hunting or chaos caused by hunters in communities were reported in the five months between November 2023 and the end of March 2024.

She called on the government to strengthen the Hunting Act, ban trail hunting, close legal loopholes and introduce custodial sentences for illegal hunters.

Rob Pownall of wildlife campaign group Protect the Wild said: “It’s like a gang of serial burglars walking around the neighbourhood and swearing they won’t steal anything.”