Fox hunters ‘should be protected under equality laws’ like Roma and LGBTQ+ people, campaign group claims as it seeks legal protection for those who have pro-hunting views

Fox hunters ‘should be protected under equality laws’ like Roma and LGBTQ+ people, campaign group claims as it seeks legal protection for those who have pro-hunting views

By Colin Fernandez For The Daily Mail

Published: | Updated:

Fox hunters say they should be protected under equality laws in the same way as the Roma community and LGBTQ+ people.

Pressure group Hunting Kind says it has been advised by a human rights lawyer that it could secure legal protection for those who hunt under the UK Equality Act 2010.

While the status would not overturn the hunting ban, it would mean employers would not be able to discriminate against employees with pro-hunting views.

It could also protect hunt fundraising balls in the face of pressure from animal-welfare activists, or of hunters having their bank accounts closed down.

Hunting Kind says it favours ‘natural hunting with lurchers, hounds, terriers, ferrets and gundogs’.

Fox hunters should be protected under equality laws in the same way as Roma and LGBTQ+ people, campaigners have said

Pressure group Hunting Kind says it has been given legal advice that hunters could be protected under the UK Equality Act 2010

The group said a senior barrister has advised them that a legal challenge could get them the same status as an ‘ethnic group’ as they have a long shared history, distinct customs and common ancestors.

Ed Swales, the chair of Hunting Kind, told the Fieldsports Channel podcast: ‘The qualifications of an ethnic group, there are five of them, and we hit every one straight in the bullseye.’

He added that he has spent three years in preparation of a legal challenge that has been reviewed by a human rights KC ‘who sits on the council of the European court of human rights’.

Mr Swales said: ‘The outcome of that from the human rights silk is that as a protected minority group under the Equality Act, we qualify, undoubtedly 10 out of 10.’

Being a protected minority would not overturn the foxhunting ban, but would offer protection for the holding of ‘foxhunting balls’ which might otherwise be subject to calls for cancellation by animal rights groups.

The protected minority status may strengthen the case against banning trail hunting – a pledge in the Labour Manifesto.

In a video on the group’s website, Mr Swales claimed Sir Keir Starmer would understand the legal challenge.

He said: ‘Keir Starmer, in his position as prime minister with a legal background, would one hopes understand the detail and the plain fact of the matter that we are a minority ethnic group of British people that hunt.’

Mr Swales added: ‘We see it as a really important part of wildlife management… We’re actually doing people a service. We’re picking up the foxes or the hares or the deer or the rabbits that are either old, they’ve got no teeth, they can die of starvation, or they’ve got the disease, or they’re just not adapted to outperforming a dog in that chase. So we’re happy with that natural selectivity.’

He also said hunting was not cruel. ‘I can tell you for a fact it is not cruel because I take no delights in the suffering of an animal. I am as animal welfare friendly as anyone I have come across, and my hunting compatriots are the same.’

The group says they could get the same status as an ‘ethnic group’ as they have a long shared history, distinct customs and common ancestors

Fox hunters also claim to be part of ‘wildlife managment’ and to be ‘doing people a service’

In the video Swales said the group was committed to reversing the ‘Bambi effect’.

He added: ‘Animal rights unfortunately are coming at it from a very uneducated and anthropomorphic point of view, and they’re blinkered to what we see as rural reality and wildlife management reality. And they’re also deaf. They don’t want to listen.’

Critics on X said the group had ‘lost the plot’.

A former Labour minister, Mike Foster, wrote: ‘Show me an example of people who have lost the plot,’ the hunt lobby never fails to disappoint.’

And Chris Packham, the BBC presenter asked his followers on X, what they thought of hunters. He said: ‘What shall we call them – I’ll go first: ‘barbaric savages’.

Mr Swales said that the comments were ‘yet another example of the discrimination and prejudice that our community has experienced for decades’.

Prejudice against hunters has a long history. Oscar Wilde famously said ‘The English country gentleman galloping after a fox: the unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable’.

Read More

  • Related Posts

    Should you worry about overfunding your 529 plan?

    This page either does not exist or is currently unavailable. From here you can either hit the “back” button on your browser to return to the previous page, or visit…

    Should we all stop eating salmon? Why it’s suddenly become endangered

    Atlantic salmon populations in England and Wales have plummeted to unprecedented lows, according to the Atlantic Salmon Stock Assessment for 2024, a report published this month by the United Kingdom…

    You Missed

    Girl footballers defend their right to have short hair after match is stopped when opponents accuse some of them of being boys

    • By poster
    • March 13, 2025
    • 1 views
    Girl footballers defend their right to have short hair after match is stopped when opponents accuse some of them of being boys

    Fears British couple murdered at their home in France could have been killed by UK gangsters as it’s revealed one victim was former organised crime financial investigator

    • By poster
    • March 13, 2025
    • 1 views
    Fears British couple murdered at their home in France could have been killed by UK gangsters as it’s revealed one victim was former organised crime financial investigator

    Supermodel Naomi Campbell was the victim of a ‘concerted deception’ by a colleague which led to her being banned from being a trustee of her own fashion charity

    • By poster
    • March 13, 2025
    • 1 views
    Supermodel Naomi Campbell was the victim of a ‘concerted deception’ by a colleague which led to her being banned from being a trustee of her own fashion charity

    Bombshell report finds error-riddled ABC investigation into war crimes in Afghanistan was ‘not acceptable’

    • By poster
    • March 13, 2025
    • 1 views
    Bombshell report finds error-riddled ABC investigation into war crimes in Afghanistan was ‘not acceptable’

    Haiti gang-rape horror as girl, 16, is drugged, beaten and ‘raped relentlessly for a month in a warehouse’ amid 1,000% increase in sexual violence against children on crime-ravaged island

    • By poster
    • March 13, 2025
    • 1 views
    Haiti gang-rape horror as girl, 16, is drugged, beaten and ‘raped relentlessly for a month in a warehouse’ amid 1,000% increase in sexual violence against children on crime-ravaged island

    Police warn locals to keep away from Jeremy Clarkson’s pub due to a large gathering of pony and traps

    • By admin
    • March 12, 2025
    • 2 views
    Police warn locals to keep away from Jeremy Clarkson’s pub due to a large gathering of pony and traps