There are currently a number of prosecutions of ‘Trail Hunts’ going through or awaiting the courts. On Monday 23rd of August, Philip Watts a huntsman for the High Peak Hounds, pleaded guilty to livestock worrying after the hounds he was supposed to be controlling chased a calf.

Yesterday, 24th August, Leicester Magistrates Court heard prosecutors allege that huntsman John Oliver Finnegan, 36, and whipper-in Rhys Matcham 30, breached the 2004 Hunting Act in Leicestershire on February 4 last year by encouraging hounds to look for a fox after a trail hunt was set up as a charade. The case is continuing and both men deny any wrongdoing.

Several other cases involving hunts that claimed to be ‘Trail Hunting’ are currently awaiting court. It seems that prosecutors from the Crown Prosecution Service are starting to take a stronger line with ‘Trail Hunts’.

We watch this development with interest.