It comes as the Government’s new animal welfare strategy announced on Monday, outlines its plans to ban trail hunting
14:25, 26 Dec 2025Updated 14:32, 26 Dec 2025
Children taking part in the Vale of Clettwr Hunt on Boxing Day 2025(Image: Countryside Alliance)
Six Boxing Day hunts went ahead in Wales today as supporters vowed to fight a ban looming against the events. Tens of thousands of hunt supporters gathered to attend festive Boxing Day meets in their local area, with large crowds assembling on village greens and in town squares in support for the annual spectacle.
In Wales, events taking place, according to the Countryside Alliance, were the Cresselly Hunt, the Vale of Clettwr Hunt, the Banwen Miners Bloodhounds hunt, the Llangeinor Pentyrch Hunt, the Curre and Llangibby hunt, and the Monmouthshire Hunt.
It comes in the face of growing tensions between the countryside and the Government, which has pledged to ban trail hunting. For the biggest stories in Wales first, sign up to our daily newsletter here.
Polly Portwin of the Countryside Alliance said: “Today has demonstrated, yet again, that Boxing Day Hunt meets are a fantastic way of bringing people together, while supporting fragile local businesses.
“The government’s fixation on trail hunting is completely out of kilter with the priorities of voters, with many believing that ministers are unfairly neglecting rural communities.
Reform MS Laura Anne Jones shared a video of the Curre and Llangibby Hunt in Monmoutshire. She wrote: “Wonderful to see such huge numbers supporting The Curre and Llangibby Foxhounds Hunt this Boxing Day at the White Hart Llangybi. There are far bigger priorities facing our country than spending valuable time getting rid of legal drag hunting (scent not foxes).”
Laura Anne Jones’s post:
Trail hunting, introduced to comply with the Hunting Act 2004, involves a scent being sprayed onto a rag which is then dragged across the countryside by a human for the hounds to search for and then follow using their noses.
It replicates traditional hunting methods, but live animals are no longer being pursued.
One of the largest meetings in England takes place on the Duke of Beaufort’s estate near Badminton, Gloucestershire, where thousands watched to see dozens of horses and fox hounds go trail hunting.
The Monmouthshire Hunt which took place on Boxing Day(Image: Charlotte George)
Will Bryer, joint master of the Duke of Beaufort Hunt, said the countryside was “under assault and siege”, and said the Government would have a “fight” on its hands – warning it would get “messy”.
“We’re under assault, we’re under siege and like all fights it’s going to get messy. But we must, we must stand united. So, because of my age, I’m going to say take the words from that 1980s super-ballad, take the words from Journey’s song, Don’t Stop Believing. Hunting has a future, hunting will endure.”
Boxing Day is one of the most celebrated days of the hunting calendar among members of rural communities, who turn out in large numbers on high streets, town squares, outside pubs, and in fields across the country to greet riders with hounds before they set off.
Campaigners, who claim “hunts contribute more than £100 million a year to the rural economy and form part of the social fabric of rural Britain”, estimate tens of thousands of people have attended some 200 hunt meets this year.
Crowds pictured gathered at the Monmouthshire Hunt(Image: Charlotte George)
The new Animal Welfare Strategy announced on Monday, December 22, outlines the government’s plans to ban legal trail hunting as well as a ban on colony cages for laying hens and farrowing creates for sows under a flagship animal welfare strategy.
CEO of leading national wildlife charity The League Against Cruel Sports, Emma Slawinski, called for the Government to take even further action.
She said: “It has been 20 years since hunting wild mammals with dogs was banned in England and Wales and, while we applaud the government’s commitment to consult on trail hunting, ministers need to go further and close the many loopholes in the law that make prosecuting illegal hunting so difficult for the police and courts – to properly end hunting for good.
“If hunts were following trails, as they claim, they would not be trespassing, causing collisions on roads, worrying livestock and essentially being in places they shouldn’t be.
“By outlawing trail hunting they will no longer be able to claim in court that that is what they were doing. Instead when they chase and kill a wild mammal, as reports suggest they do, they will be held accountable.”
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) defended its policies, pointing to its response to a review of the agricultural sector carried out by former National Farmers’ Union president Baroness Minette Batters.
A Defra spokeswoman said: “This Government is committed to banning trail hunting, which it too often used as a cover for illegal fox hunting, and has strong public support across the country.
“This builds on previous animal welfare reforms delivered by this Government, including giving police greater powers to prevent dog attacks on livestock, protecting farmers and animals alike.”
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