The National Trust’s leadership won 51 per cent of a member vote to continue to allow trail hunting on its land at its annual general meeting at the weekend.
A motion calling for the cessation of trail hunting, the practice of hunts ’chasing’ a synthetic scent, rather than an animal, had been put forward.
The trust introduced changes earlier this year to ban trail hunts which used animal-based scents, which increased the risk of animals being accidentally chased. But some members continued to push for a full ban and a resolution was tabled at its AGM calling for an end to all trail hunting.
There were 30,686 votes in favour of a ban but 30,985 against it.
But the National Trust won on discretionary votes, those where a proxy has been given the authority to vote in the way they think is fit. If just the specified votes had been counted the motion would have passed by just over 1,000 votes. There were 1,925 abstentions.
In a statement the charity said: “Prior to the vote, the charity’s trustees had recommended that the activity should be allowed to continue after recent improvements in licensing conditions to further safeguard conservation and access on the Trust’s land.
“The conservation charity has been carefully listening to both sides of a highly polarised and passionate debate for years.
“We are pleased members have had the opportunity to debate this issue and have voted to support the trustees’ position.”
Animal lovers ‘distraught’
Helen Beynon, a National Trust member who was one of those proposing the motion, said: “I started this with some other National Trust members because I witnessed the deceit of hunts which are claiming to follow trails but are actually chasing animals, and I couldn’t abide the thought of them getting away with it on National Trust land. I believe the only reason our motion has failed is because most National Trust members haven’t seen it with their own eyes.
She said she was “surprised” by the National Trust’s actions and that trail hunting is “disgraceful".
“The National Trust should be ashamed,” she added.
The member campaign to ban trail hunting had been supported by League Against Cruel Sports. In a statement the charity said that “animal lovers have been left distraught”.
Philippa King, acting chief exectuvie for the League Against Cruel Sports, said: “The National Trust could have played a major role in curtailing illegal hunting in this country, but they chose to ignore 400 pages of evidence and instead mislead their members into voting against this motion. Their justification is that there have been no prosecutions of hunts on National Trust land – but if you let a burglar wander round your house without supervision, then he’s unlikely to be arrested.”
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