Rural Voices: Dispatches from the World of Hunting
Rural Voices is one of several products generated by the We Are Hunting project. This was established in 2024 in response to the Labour Party’s manifesto pledge to ban trail hunting, an activity which involves pursuing an artificially laid trail rather than the scent of a wild animal. The project’s main purpose is to show the political leadership of this country that further legislation, designed to “tighten” the 2004 Hunting Act, could have a severe, negative impact on rural communities, small- and medium-sized businesses and domestic animal welfare.
Public debates about hunting tend to be fractious, with a small number of people who represent the hunting community doing their best to counter what they see as the propaganda and misinformation peddled by animal rights activists. Seldom are the people mo
st closely involved in the practice of hunting – the huntsmen, the kennel staff, the farriers, the vets, the landowners and farmers, hunt followers from all walks of life – given much, if any, airtime.
Rural Voices challenges the lazy stereotype of hunters as an overwhelmingly wealthy, privileged elite enjoying an arcane tradition. “They came from various places, and from various walks of life, but they all had the same destination,” wrote Geoffrey Chaucer in the prologue to The Canterbury Tales. Like the 30 pilgrims embarking on a journey to visit the shrine of St Thomas Becket over 600 years ago, the hunting people whose testimony you can read here, in this beautifully illustrated book, represent a great many trades and professions, from undertaker to underwriter, farrier to philosopher, groom to gardener, barrister to builder. Like the Canterbury pilgrims, they share a common purpose. Trail hunting has enabled hunts to retain their infrastructure, membership and traditions within the confines of the law. They want to save it.
If you would like to buy a copy of Rural Voices, please use this link on the We Are Hunting website: Rural Voices – We Are Hunting
Alternatively, you can view the book at the link provided at the side of this page.
Please also look at the short film Hunting The Facts, made by Nico Morgan and Neil Kennedy: Hunting The Facts – We Are Hunting
The We Are Hunting team consists of:
Christophe Gailly de Taurines, financial entrepreneur and member of the Warwickshire Hunt Supporters’ Club
Charlie Pye-Smith, environmental writer and author of Rural Wrongs: Hunting and the Unintended Consequences of Bad Law
Neil Kennedy, advertising executive and co-founder of the Countryside Alliance
Nico Morgan, equestrian photographer and videographer
Jim Barrington, animal welfare adviser to the Countryside Alliance
We Are Hunting has received the endorsement of the Countryside Alliance and the British Hound Sports Association (BHSA). Anyone who wishes to use the information in this book is welcome to do so, providing they acknowledge the source.