Hunters seek to be ‘protected minority’
Campaigners could receive same status as gipsies and LGBT people to stop their events being cancelled
Hunters are preparing legal action to designate themselves a protected minority group. The community has been advised by a leading barrister that they have a case to seek “protected status”, including that they could be considered an “ethnic group” as a result of their shared history, or that they hold “protected beliefs”. If established in law, it would mean that events such as fundraising balls could not be cancelled as a result of pressure from animal rights activists.
HUNTERS are preparing legal action to designate themselves a protected minority group.
The community has been advised by a leading barrister that they have a case to seek “protected status”, including that they could be considered an “ethnic group” as a result of their shared history, or that they hold “protected beliefs”.
If established in law, it would mean that hunting events such as fundraising balls could not be cancelled as a result of pressure from animal rights activists. A number of groups, including travellers and LGBT people, and beliefs including religion, pacifism and ethical veganism, already receive protections under equality laws.
The campaign group Hunting Kind has received advice from a leading King’s Counsel that says they have a high chance of success, and the group are now looking for test cases to take to court.
Ed Swales, the founder and chairman of the group, said: “We are doing this because hunting is not just a hobby, it is our way of life, and currently we are looking at the end of that way of life.
“This has been the only strategy that I have seen in the last 20 years to get the law that has been used against us to work in our favour. I have been advised that we meet the criteria for a protected status, just like the traveller community or the LGBT community.”
In a legal opinion letter written for the hunters, a KC advised that they have a pathway to being considered as an “ethnic group” by dint of their longshared history, distinct customs and common ancestors.
Another option available to the groups is to demonstrate a “protected philosophical belief ”, lawyers have said.
Beliefs that have established legal protections recently include gender-critical feminists, who argue that a person cannot change biological sex. In a test case in 2021, an appeal tribunal ruled in favour of Maya Forstater and established the principle that gender-critical beliefs “must be tolerated in a pluralist society”.
Establishing protections under equality laws would mean that people with pro-hunting views could not be discriminated against by employers or those providing services, including pubs and hotels. In recent years, there have been a number of cases of hunt fundraising balls being cancelled after pressure from saboteurs, and of hunts being “de-banked” or refused payment services.
Last year, Wiltshire Police banned officers with links to hunting from joining its rural crime team after pressure from animal rights activists who objected to one of their officers, Pc Cheryl Knight, posting pictures of herself with hunts online.
The philosophical belief proposed by Hunting Kind includes that “humanity has a responsibility of stewardship towards the countryside and for sustainable wildlife management”.
They also believe that “natural and traditional hunting with animals for pest control and wildlife management is sustainable, ecologically sensitive, naturally selective and humane”.
Any test case would not affect the 2004 hunting ban brought in by Sir Tony Blair. But it comes as a time when Labour is promising a further crackdown on the practice, with a manifesto pledge to ban trail hunting.
The suggestion that hunting should be a protected belief has already received criticism from animal rights activists, including Chris Packham, the BBC presenter. He asked his followers on X, formerly Twitter, “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”.
“To come from a high-profile media personality shows just how far in the wrong direction this toxic and prejudiced anti-hunting rhetoric has travelled,” he added.