Hunting Act 2004

Hunting Act 2004^[1]

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long title	An Act to make provision about hunting wild mammals with dogs; to prohibit hare coursing; and for connected purposes.
Citation	2004 c. 37
Territorial extent	England and Wales[2]
Dates
Royal assent	18 November 2004
Commencement	18 February 2005[3]
Status: Current legislation
Text of statute as originally enacted
Revised text of statute as amended

The Hunting Act 2004 (c. 37) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which bans the hunting of most wild mammals (notably foxes, deer, hares and mink) with dogs in England and Wales, subject to some strictly limited exemptions; the Act does not cover the use of dogs in the process of flushing out an unidentified wild mammal,^[4] nor does it affect drag hunting, where hounds are trained to follow an artificial scent.^[5]

The Act came into force on 18 February 2005. The pursuit of foxes with hounds, other than to flush out to be shot, had been banned in Scotland two years earlier by the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002. Such hunting remains permitted by the law in Northern Ireland, where the Act does not apply.