While 79% of Britons believe the fox hunting ban should remain in place two decades on, wider attitudes vary on what, why and how you’re hunting
Twenty years ago, the Hunting Act was signed into law, largely banning the hunting with dogs of wild mammals – most notably foxes. It was a clear display of Britain’s complex relationship with hunting, leading to heated debates both outside and inside parliament, with it being one of only seven times that the House of Commons has explicitly overruled the House of Lords.
Despite continued opposition, the ‘fox hunting ban’ remains in place, with recent YouGov tracker data showing that eight in ten Britons (79%) believe the ban should stay, against just one in eight (12%) who believe hunting foxes with dogs should be made legal again. However, Britons’ attitudes to hunting more broadly are not always as clear cut and are highly dependent on the circumstances.
Why you are hunting, for instance, drives hugely different reactions. Seven in ten Britons (71%) believe it is acceptable to hunt for food, which just one in five (21%) see as unacceptable. Most Britons (53%) also support allowing farmers to hunt animals deemed to be agricultural pests.
However, only one in ten Britons (10%) support allowing hunting for purely recreational purposes, while trophy hunting is seen as acceptable by just 4% of the public, with nine in ten Britons (92%) viewing such behaviour as unacceptable.
More divisive is allowing restricted hunting licenses to be sold to fund wider animal conservation, something supported by 37% of Britons and opposed by 41%.
How commonplace the species that is being hunted is also matters. Most Britons believe it is acceptable to hunt overpopulated (53%) and invasive species (55%). But with general non-endangered species, less than a quarter of Britons (23%) see it as acceptable, against two-thirds (68%) who believe hunting such animals is unacceptable. When it comes to endangered species, Britons are near unanimous in their view that hunting is unacceptable (95%).
Britons are also more likely to see hunting with guns as acceptable (32%) than hunting with dogs (15%).
Who is doing the hunting can also affect the acceptability of it, with 53% of Britons see it as okay for indigenous populations to hunt for traditional reasons, against only a third (34%) believing it is unacceptable.
Where the public do not draw a distinction is whether the animals are wild or bred with the intention of being hunted, hunting either is seen as acceptable by 19% of Britons and as unacceptable by just over seven in ten (72-73%).
Which animals do Britons see as acceptable to hunt?
Which animal is being hunted also determines whether Britons see it as acceptable. Most of the public believe you should be able to hunt pigeons (58%) and rabbits (55%) in at least some circumstances, with around half (48%) also seeing it as okay to hunt pheasants. Of the animals polled, these are the only three which Britons are noticeably more likely than not to say are ever acceptable to hunt.
By contrast, whether you should or should not be allowed to hunt grouse splits the public 42% to 41%, while for the 44% who feel you should be able to hunt deer in some circumstances, 48% believe it should never be allowed.
That only one in eight Britons (12%) support a lifting of the ‘fox hunting ban’ is clearly somewhat down to the particular practice of hunting them with dogs, as 36% of Britons believe hunting foxes should be allowed in at least some circumstances. A majority (54%), though, do still believe foxes should be completely off limits to hunters.
Less popular still is badger hunting, which only three in ten Britons (31%) see as ever permissible, while only a quarter of the public view hunting rooks (26%) or mink (25%) as allowable in any circumstances.
Britons draw a clear distinction with more exotic animals, with few (3-7%) believing you should ever be allowed to hunt zebras, lions, chimpanzees or elephants and the vast majority of Britons (85-92%) thinking hunting such animals should be totally forbidden. Whale hunting is held in similar disregard, with nine in ten Britons (90%) believing the practice should never be allowed.
Women consistently see hunting as less acceptable than men
A clear gender divide exists in attitudes towards hunting, with women consistently less likely to see it as acceptable. For instance, while 45% of men see hunting with guns as acceptable, only 19% of women do; and while men divide 65% to 28% in favour of hunting overpopulated species being okay, women divide 49% to 41% against it being acceptable.
Hunting also divides voters, with Reform UK and Conservative voters consistently more likely to see hunting as acceptable than Labour voters. For example, Reform UK voters split 63% to 31% and Conservatives 58% to 34% in favour of hunting overpopulated species being acceptable, while Labour voters are divided 47% to 46%. When it comes to hunting with guns, it is Reform UK voters who are evenly split 46% to 47% over whether it is okay, while just 24% of Labour voters see it as acceptable against 69% who believe it’s unacceptable.
Perhaps surprisingly, though, there is no massive urban-rural divide in opinions on hunting. While there are a few cases with small gaps, such as 40% of those who live in rural areas believing it is acceptable to hunt with guns, compared to 29% of those who live in urban areas, the difference is typically only a few percentage points.
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Photo: Getty
