Trail hunting is set to be banned in England and Wales as part of a new animal welfare strategy to be published by the government on Monday.
The practice sees an animal-based scent trail laid for dogs to follow rather than a real animal, while a group of hunters follows the pack on horseback.
It has remained legal since the 2004 hunting ban came into force, because it does not explicitly involve the killing of animals.
The government says it is acting on a manifesto commitment to outlaw a practice being used as a “smokescreen” for the hunting of wild animals. But hunting and countryside bodies say the move was unnecessary and could hurt rural communities.
Hunting with hounds has been a tradition in parts of the UK for centuries, but the 2004 Hunting Act placed restrictions on the practice.
The act banned the use of dogs to hunt wild mammals – including foxes, hares, deer and mink – across England and Wales.
Trail hunting involves laying a trail using a rag soaked in animal scent for hounds to chase. The intention is to replicate the pursuit of an animal across the countryside, without the need to kill anything.
In April, anti-hunting group the League Against Cruel Sports said that nearly 1,600 incidents, including 397 reports of foxes being chased, were recorded nationwide during the prior hunting season.
But the chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, Tim Bonner, said revisiting the issue of trail hunting was “completely unnecessary”.
He said: “It is unbelievable that the government wants to waste more parliamentary time on hunting.
“This issue was settled 20 years ago as far as Labour was concerned but it does not seem to be able to leave it alone.”
Mr Bonner also spoke about the Labour party’s relationship with rural constituents, adding: “People across the countryside will be shocked that after Labour’s attack on family farms and its neglect of rural communities it thinks banning trail hunting and snares used for fox control are a political priority.”
The British Hound Sports Association (BHSA) has previously said trail hunts were “vital” to rural communities as they not only bring in money into the rural economy, but also support mental and physical wellbeing.
One farmer told the BBC: “I would be shunned if I publicly rejected hunting.”
They added that banning trail hunting “reinforces the narrative [Labour] don’t care and are imposing urban values on people they don’t understand”.
Ministers will consult on the details of the ban in the new year.
The minister for animal welfare Baroness Hayman said: “In our manifesto we said we would ban trail hunting, and that’s exactly what we’ll do.
“There are concerns that trail hunting is being used a smokescreen for the hunting of wild animals, and that’s not acceptable.
“We are working out the best approach to take the ban forward and will run a consultation to seek views in the new year.”
But Conservative chairman Kevin Hollinrake called the ban an “attack on rural Britain and British culture”, accusing the government of “punishing the law-abiding majority who support legal trail hunting”.
Meanwhile, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage described Labour as “authoritarian control freaks”.
Trail hunting is already banned in Scotland. Hunting with dogs remains legal in Northern Ireland.
