A hunt which can trace its roots back 194 years has emphasised North Yorkshire’s farming community will be damaged if trail hunting is banned.
Published 24th Oct 2026, 06:00 BST
Updated 24th Oct 2026, 07:50 BST
Members of The Bedale Hunt said they had marked National Farmers Day by committing to keep its free fallen stock collection service running for livestock farmers, to underline the hunt’s traditional role in, and contribution to, Yorkshire’s agricultural output.
The government’s response to a consultation on banning trail hunting closed is awaited, anti-hunting campaigners, including the League Against Cruel Sports, have urged Labour “to complete one of its landmark animal welfare reforms and ensure that hunting with dogs finally ends for good”.
The Hunting Act 2004 banned chasing and killing wild mammals, but campaigners argue trail hunting, where a scent is dragged along ground for hounds to follow, leads to animals, including deer and foxes, falling victim.
However, Bedale Hunt members said its pack of hounds and fallen stock service, from which the dogs are fed, represents the practical core of a relationship between the hunt and farms that goes back generations. Hunts have warned a ban would close kennels, and with them the services kennels provide.
Since 2003 farmers have had to take carcasses to, or have them collected by, an approved knacker’s yard, hunt kennel, incinerator or renderer. North Yorkshire Council lists hunt kennels among the approved routes.
From its kennels near Northallerton, the hunt collects at least 50 dead sheep, cattle and horses a month, rising during lambing time, from farms across the hunt’s country, which runs from Northallerton and Bedale across to Leyburn and Masham.
Ross Crawford, Huntsman of the Bedale Hunt, said: “Providing a fallen stock service is an important part of our relationship with the farming community. We work closely with farmers across the Bedale country, offering a practical, reliable and cost-effective way of dealing with fallen livestock.
"It is about supporting the people who support us, understanding the realities of farming and providing a service that has been part of the relationship between the hunt and local farms for generations."
Last month, Lord Blunkett and Lord Cameron both described the proposed ban as a mistake at the Westminster launch of the Countryside Alliance’s Campaign for the Countryside.
The hunt says dead animals are a disease risk and its collection vehicle, which can access yards and fields larger commercial lorries cannot, is usually on the farm within two hours of a call.
Pedigree Beef Shorthorn farmer Ed Page, who is also a joint master of the hunt, said: “When an animal dies on the farm, it needs to be dealt with promptly and properly. Having the hunt available to provide this service makes a real difference to us. Without it, we would have to arrange alternative collection and disposal, which comes at a cost and can be less convenient. The hunt provides a valuable service to farmers, and it is important that people understand that. If the kennels went, the service would go with them, and it is farmers who would pick up the bill.”