Trail hunting is a legal, although controversial,[1] alternative to hunting animals with hounds in Great Britain. A trail of animal urine (most commonlyfox) is laid in advance of the "hunt", and then tracked by the hound pack and a group of followers, on foot, horseback, or both.
By 2005, most forms of hunting animals with hounds had been made illegal acrossGreat Britain,[2] although many remain within the law inNorthern Ireland.[3][4] To preserve their traditional practices, most registered hunts switched to trail hunting as a legal alternative.[5][6]
Trail hunting, while superficially similar to the established sport ofdrag hunting, was an entirely new invention in 2005 and one which hunts claim is designed to replicate the practice of hunting as closely as possible, but without the deliberate involvement of live prey.[7]
In trail hunting, a scent trail is laid using the prey animal's urine (foxes, hares, or other animals) and deliberately laid in areas where those animals naturally occur, ostensibly to recreate the experience of chasing a real animal. The trail does not follow a pre-determined course and those controlling the hounds do not know the route in advance.[8][9]
It is distinct fromdrag hunting, where hounds follow an artificial scent, usuallyaniseed.[10]
Anti-hunt organisations claim trail hunting is a smokescreen for illegal hunting and a means of circumventing theHunting Act 2004, which applies in England and Wales, and theProtection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002, which applies in Scotland.[11]
Because the trail is laid using animal urine, and in areas where such animals naturally occur, hounds often pick up the scent of live animals, sometimes resulting in them being caught and killed.[12]
It has also been alleged that trail hunts rarely lay an actual trail, therefore encouraging hounds to pick up live animal scent. TheLeague Against Cruel Sports has claimed that, in 4,000 monitored hunts, someone was seen laying a possible trail on only 3% of occasions.[13] TheMalvern Hills Trust, which banned trail hunting on its land in 2021, has said that, during the monitoring of ten separate hunts, only one trail was seen being laid.[14]
In recent years several major landowners including theNational Trust andNatural Resources Wales have banned trail hunting on their land.[15][16][17][18]
In December 2024,Keir Starmer's Labour government affirmed its commitment to ban trail hunting in England & Wales.[19] In response, supporters of trail hunting called the proposed ban "completely unjustified" and an "act of spite".[19]
Hounds follow an artificial scent, usually aniseed, laid along a set route which is already known to the huntsmen.[20]
Similar to drag hunting, but in the form of a race, usually around 10 miles (16 km) in length.[20] Unlike other forms of hunting, the hounds are not followed by humans.
Clean boot hunting uses packs ofbloodhounds to follow the natural trail of a human's scent.[20]