TRAIL Hunting
explained
What is trail hunting?
Trail hunting involves hounds following a pre-determined, pre-laid trail made from an animal-based scent, like fox urine.
Trail hunting emerged after the 2004 Hunting Act so cannot be considered traditional.
HOW DOES TRAIL HUNTING ENABLE ILLEGAL HUNTING?
Many believe trail hunting was purposely devised to circumvent the law to allow for illegal hunting to continue.
The scents used in trail hunting have all too often been laid in wildlife-sensitive areas which raises the chances of finding live animals. Trail hunters can claim that any pursuits of live animals are accidental. This makes it difficult for prosecutors to secure convictions under the Hunting Act.
wHAT EVIDENCE IS THERE THAT TRAIL HUNTING LEADS TO ILLEGAL HUNTING?
why is it so hard to secure successful prosecutions?
Successful prosecution is a well-noted weakness in the current law despite numerous documented instances of foxes being chased and killed during Trail Hunts.
Prosecutors have to prove intent to secure a conviction under the Hunting Act 2004. This has allowed Trail Hunting to operate as a cover for illegal hunting activities as hunts can claim that any animal deaths are the result of accidents. Difficulty in proving intent also comes from trail hunts often taking place on private land away from public scrutiny.
Difficulty in securing prosecution has led campaigners to call for legislative reforms which include the addition of a 'recklessness clause' that would allow for prosecution even when intent is difficult to prove.
A Case Study of Bovine Tuberculosis (bTB) in Hunting Hounds
Between December 2016-July 2017 there was a bTB breakout within a kennel associated with the Kimblewick Hunt. Eight hounds became clinically unwell, with the first two dying, and others later euthanised. When a third, previously healthy dog, had to be euthanised due to severe sudden illness, testing was undertaken through a post mortem examination. The tests confirmed the presence of the mycobacterium that causes bTB.
Results from subsequent bTB testing on all the kennel hounds found that 85 out of 164 of the hounds tested positive for a mycobacteria similar to that which causes bTB. After further testing, 97 out of 164 of the hounds were euthanised under concerns of them being ill with or carrying bTB. This was 59% of the pack [1].
How might this outbreak have occurred?
There are several high risk areas in hound management which might have allowed for the potential infection and spread of bTB in the hounds.
Flesh Feeding:
- The hounds at the site of the 2016/17 outbreak were predominantly fed through flesh feeding which included raw meat, offal, and bone from fallen stock [1]. Fallen stock can include farmed animals but also horses that get sick and cannot be saved. This is a common method of feeding with the number of fallen stock collected by hunts and fed to hounds across the UK predicted to be several hundred thousand [2].
- Following the outbreak, offal was no longer a permitted source of food for the hounds as it was deemed to pose too great a risk to another potential outbreak of TB [1].
Hounds at Agriculture shows
- Hounds often come into contact with livestock, other packs of hounds, and members of the public at events where hound owners and enthusiasts can compete in agricultural shows. There are strict biosecurity rules for livestock including advice to farmers to quarantine stock returning from shows. However, there are no regulations for the hounds that also attend these events [2]. Packs from different bTB risk areas could infect each other after coming into contact with infected cattle and prior to the quarantining of cattle.
Hounds kept in high density housing
- Once a hound is infected, widespread transmission through horizontal transmission (hound to hound) can occur within kennels. Large packs tend to be housed intensively, such as was the case within the 2016/17 outbreak and can result in a high rate of transmission. Notably, there can be up to 1000,000 M.bovis colony-forming units per ml of urine when kidneys are infected [1]. This makes horizontal transmission extremely high.
- Furthermore, the kennel stocking density in this particular case was higher than the recommendations from the Masters of Foxhounds Association and a number of the kennels were in a state of repair that meant once the kennels became contaminated it was practically impossible to effectively disinfect them.
- The type of high density housing these hounds were kept in could have also resulted in physiological stress which made the hounds more susceptible to infection [1].
- In Verify Humanity's opinion, the intensive housing of hunting hounds can create welfare standards that allow for an increased risk of disease transmission, once introduced to a pack. If hunts are allowed to operate, there will continue to be cases where hounds are likely be housed in poor conditions.
Contact with wildlife
- A further option for infection for hounds is via contact with infected wildlife whilst out on a hunt. Hunts travel across large swathes of the countryside. For example, the hounds from the 2016/17 outbreak worked across 6 counties. When the area that the hounds hunted across was assessed, 85% of the geographical area the hounds were exposed to had low cattle TB incidence and no indication of wildlife infection [1].
- Kennel staff reported that direct contact between wildlife and working hounds was unlikely, however encounters between an infectious badger or carcass could have been missed [1].
References
[1]O’Halloran, C., Hope, J. et al., 2018. An outbreak of tuberculosis due to Mycobacterium bovis infection in a pack of English Foxhounds (2016–2017). First published 30 July 2018. Article Link Copyright Link
[2]Harris, S. & Dorning, J., 2018. Hunting with hounds and the spread of disease. University of Bristol. Report commissioned by League Against Cruel Sports, December 2017. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322356464_Hunting_with_hounds_and_the_spread_of_disease (Accessed: 3 October 2025).