Boxing Day hunting battle rages

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Nearly four years on from the ban on hunting in England and Wales and nearly seven years since the ban was passed in Scotland, opposition over the killing of foxes, deer and hares in organised chases is as fierce as ever.

More than 7,700 people have backed a new petition to support the repeal of the Hunting Act and the number is growing, said the Countryside Alliance.

Launched last week, it invites people to scrap the "confusing, unnecessary and divisive" Act, which came into force on February 18 2005.

But as hunts up and down the country prepared for the Boxing Day events, anti-hunt campaigners said the hunters were exploiting loopholes to act "with impunity" in killing animals.

More than 300 hunts, including 194 fox hunts with packs of hounds, are expected to take place across England, Wales and Scotland, the Countryside Alliance said.

The majority will use "trails" - a scent of the quarry laid down artificially. An already dead fox is often the reward for hounds at a hunt's end.

But a number will use the Act's exemptions.

Up to 50 hunts will use the "bird of prey" exemption, which allows the flushing out of a fox by hounds for a bird of prey. Many of the hunts now have their own eagle owl or golden eagle. And a number of hunts use an exemption that allows the use of two dogs to flush out the quarry from woodland for shooting.

The Hunt Saboteurs Association wants the Hunting Act to be strengthened, with a recklessness clause added for the prosecution of hunts where animals are chased and killed "by accident".