Why banning trail hunting won't help the stags

In Devon and Somerset, stag hunts openly chase and kill stags in hunting season. Unlike fox hunts, they are not pretending to be trail hunting. Intead, they are pretending to be ‘Exempt Hunting’.

What is ‘Exempt Hunting’? The Hunting Act allows for some kinds of hunting to continue. One of the exemptions states that it is legal to hunt a wild mammal using no more than two dogs, if the reason for the hunt was ‘Research and Observation’. Another exemption states that it is legal to hunt a wild mammal using no more than two dogs if the hunted animal was injured or sick, and the purpose was to humanely dispatch it. A third is that it is legal to use no more than two dogs to ‘flush a wild mammal to guns’. 

How are the stag hunts using these exemptions? Actually, they aren’t really using them. What they are doing is avoiding challenges by the police because they appear to be using only two dogs for the chase. More on this in a minute. But, because police rarely challenge them, they actually don’t need to prove anything at all. Additionally, legal precedence determined that it is for the prosecution to prove that a hunt IS NOT exempt hunting. There are many reasons why we believe that it would be straightforward to prove the hunt isn’t exempt hunting, but police generally just leave the hunts to do what they like to stags.

Now and then, stag hunts have claimed they are trail hunting. But this has only ever been in some throwaway comment to a sab, and has never been used in court. A couple of weeks ago, a sab repeatedly asked stag hunters what exemption they were using, and not one of them came up with an answer.

In fact, stag hunts come up with their justification for hunting stags only after they have been challenged (which is rare). They twist the events of the day to fit the law.

How are the hunts using ‘two dogs’? In fact, they are using more than two dogs. They use pairs of hounds in relay. Two dogs chasing the stag and a dozen more dogs waiting in the van. In many ways, the dogs don’t contribute a great deal to the hunt. Hunt followers and terrier men on quadbikes are instrumental in chasing the stag, and preventing it from escaping. People on quad bikes could probably manage without any dogs at all (maybe), meaning the hounds are really only there for show. However, hunting a deer with a moving vehicle is illegal anyway – Deer Act 1991

What changes in the Hunting Act will stop stag hunting? We (and all the other anti hunting groups) want ALL the exemptions removed. There should be no circumstance at all where a wild mammal can legally chased by dogs.

Further reading

Article by James Hart, from Wildlife Justice. He examines the ‘research and observation’ exemption and looks closely at the stag chase on Forestry England (FE) land on 22 April 2025. Stag hunting is banned on FE land, and if the landowner hasn’t given specific permission for the hunt to be on the land, ‘exempt hunting’ is illegal. 

https://wildlifejusticejames.substack.com/p/hunted-to-death

https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/hunting-act-2004