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18
Nov 2023
North Yorkshire councillors reject call to ban trail hunts on council land
Councillors in North Yorkshire have rejected calls to ban trail hunting on North Yorkshire Council owned land.
This week, Labour councillor Rich Maw, who represents Weaponness and Ramshill, and Green councillor Arnold Warneken, who represents Ouseburn, tabled a motion at a full council meeting to prohibit the practice.
Trail hunting involves laying an animal scent, usually urine, for hounds to track and is followed by a group on foot or horseback.
The practice is legal, but organisations such as animal welfare charity the RSPCA and the League Against Cruel Sports have called for it to be banned.
Cllr Maw and Warneken said in their motion the hunts had been used as a “loophole to carry on hunting foxes and other animals”.
At a meeting on Thursday, Cllr Warneken said:
Read more:
- Call for ban on trail hunting on North Yorkshire Council land
- Call to ban trail hunting on North Yorkshire Council land ‘waste of time’, says former animal welfare campaigner
- North Yorkshire trail hunting ban ‘unenforceable, but the right thing to do’
Conservative and Independents Cllr Andrew Williams, of Ripon Minister and Moorside, said he had no desire to stop people undertaking a “legal pursuit” and called for the motion to be rejected.
The motion was rejected by 47 votes to 26.
Ahead of the vote, the Countryside Alliance, which previously described the call as a “waste of time”, contacted councillors urging them to vote it down.
Following the meeting, Polly Portwin, director at the Countryside Alliance, said:
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