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Foxes descended on London to protest over continued illegal hunting

On Saturday 22 June, hundreds of foxes marched through Westminster. The skulk of campaigners-turned-canines were calling on the next government to clamp down on illegal hunting.

Illegal hunting campaigners at the Restore Nature Now rally

National animal welfare charity the League Against Cruel Sports organised the fox demonstration to highlight the prolific levels of illegal hunting that still goes on today. Significantly, this is nearly 20 years after parliament implemented the Hunting Act. This banned trail hunting – the practice of pursuing wild animals with dogs.

Fox campaigners turned out as part of the Restore Nature Now march and rally:

Extinction Rebellion with support from Chris Packham set up the event which brought together huge numbers of nature and environment groups. This included a mix of larger organisations, mingling with grassroots activist groups:

Around 80,000 to 100,000 people representing these organisations turned out for it. The crowd included former Green Party MP Caroline Lucas, and a menagerie of wildlife presenters and celebrities like Liz Bonnin, Steve Backshall, and Emma Thompson:

Outfox politicians at the ballot box

Collectively, the attendees raised their voices to call out politicians ahead of the general election. In particular, the march called on politicians of every stripe to prioritise the biodiversity crisis – or lose support on polling day:

The hundreds of anti-hunting campaigners saw the march as a (sly) opportunity to outfox the cruel industry’s biggest political voices at the ballot box. Specifically, the group had a series of demands for whoever forms the next government:

The League’s acting chief executive Chris Luffingham was among those marching for the foxes through London. He said that:

For years politicians have been getting away with sidelining their pledges on nature and climate, playing politics with issues that have a very real impact on our environment and our wild animals.

Hunting was one of those. When the Act was brought in hunting was supposed to be made illegal, but loopholes in the law has allowed foxes and other animals to continue to be killed purely for entertainment.

The next government needs to step up where previous administrations have failed: strengthen the hunting act as a matter of priority and renew pledges to safeguard other wild animals.

Our nature and environment urgently needs protecting, and British wildlife is part of that. It’s time for change.

Featured image via the League Against Cruel Sports

By The Canary

This post was originally published on Canary.