Imagine the sensation of being pursued across the English countryside by a baying pack of hounds. While this scenario is often used to highlight the cruelty of hunting, a growing number of people are now volunteering for exactly this experience.
The Rise of Clean-Boot Hunting
This new form of pursuit, known as clean-boot hunting, involves bloodhounds and horse riders chasing human runners instead of foxes. It is gaining significant interest as government plans aim to outlaw trail hunting, where dogs follow an animal-based scent. The proposed tightening of the unworkable 2004 foxhunting ban could make clean-boot hunting the only legal way to hunt with dogs in England and Wales.
Remarkably, this country pursuit has the rare distinction of being supported by both the League Against Cruel Sports and some former fox hunters. Matthew Weaver, a Guardian journalist, recently joined the human quarry of the New Forest Hounds (NFH) to experience it for himself.
A Day with the New Forest Hounds
Assured that it is not a blood sport, the nervous reporter was introduced to the hounds by Will Day, joint master of the hunt. Despite their ghoulish name, bloodhounds are very soft and friendly, unlike foxhounds which tear their quarry to pieces. The hunt is based at a Victorian kennels, now home to 40 bloodhounds, and is managed by professional huntsman Danny Allen.
Allen, who leads the hunt in a bright green jacket and calls the hounds with a horn, stated, This is the future of hunting. His role also includes the less glamorous task of running a knackerman business, retrieving dead livestock to feed the hounds, which helps fund the hunt.
Before the hunt, runners are advised not to shower or use deodorant to ensure they are at their smelliest. Weaver was asked to stand inside the hunt lorry to allow the hounds to get a good whiff of his body odour. The initiation was bracing, as the boisterous hounds, which can weigh up to 11 stones (70kg), bounded towards him.
The Chase Through the New Forest
The meet began outside the Bold Forester pub, with all the trappings of a traditional hunt except for the hunt saboteurs and a fox. After the 2004 ban, NFH switched from foxhunting to trail hunting. In 2020, Forestry England suspended trail hunting on its land, which includes the New Forest, prompting NFH to switch again to clean-boot hunting. It is now one of 22 clean-boot hunts across the UK.
Will Day, a zealous convert, commented, Society moves on and you have to move with it. We were all very pleasantly surprised with how well it went and how fun it is. The hunt's volunteers even include former hunt saboteurs fervently opposed to hunting any animals – except human volunteers.
The runners were given a head start, scrambling across thick bracken, heather, and gorse to avoid confusing the hounds with other scents. The ominous sound of deep barking grew closer, making the heart pump faster. Bloodhounds, used worldwide for tracking missing people and criminals, can run three times as fast as a human on rough ground and do not give up.
Weaver and the other runners – Day, Meghan Clarke (the hunt’s treasurer), and Rich Shirley (the quarry captain) – had no chance of escape. They hunkered down in the heather, and with unerring skill, the hounds found them in a flash. Any irrational fears of being gobbled up were instantly allayed by the hounds' wet snouts and slobbery jowls.
Over the course of the day, they ended up running more than eight miles in five separate hunts, across bogs, through rivers, and clambering through woods. The hounds always caught them, their ability to follow a scent uncanny and awesome to witness firsthand.
Despite the initial nerves, being hunted by hounds proved to be strangely exhilarating and certainly more exciting than a Parkrun, offering a unique glimpse into what could be the future of legal hunting with dogs.
