Hunts maintain festive tradition (From Tewkesbury Admag)

Hunts maintain festive tradition

TRADITIONAL Boxing Day hunts will ride out across the north Cotswolds next Monday for the first time since the ban on hunting with dogs came into force.

Last year hundreds of people turned out to support hunts across the area before the ban, which became law on February 18, and huntsman are hoping to see similar turnouts this Christmas.

Sam Butler, joint master of the Warwickshire Hunt and former chairman of the Countryside Alliance's Campaign for Hunting, said: "I think support is 10 per cent up on last year and we'll have 1,000 people out for certain."

Mr Butler admitted that the hunt, which will meet at Upton House between Stratford and Banbury at 11.45am on Boxing Day, had killed foxes since the start of the new season in November but insisted that the Warwickshire Hunt had been acting legally.

"We have killed some foxes by mistake because we've flushed a fox and the hounds have accidentally killed it," he said, adding that the police were informed of such incidents.

"We seek permission to cross farmers' land and we inform the police what we are doing. Our intention is to hunt within the Hunting Act," said Mr Butler.

Liz Wills, joint master of the Heythrop Hunt, which will be gathering for its traditional Boxing Day meet outside the Fox Hotel in Chipping Norton Town Square at 10.45am next Monday, said the hunt had been trail hunting since the start of the season.

"It's a tradition and we we'd like to show the public we are still here," she added.

"We try and hunt the trail in as authentic a way as possible."

She said that the hunt, in common with others, had killed foxes under the exemption in the Act allowing foxes to be flushed out if they are threatening wild birds or game birds.

Penny Little, regional spokeswoman for anti-hunt campaigners Protect Our Wild Animals (POWA), which monitors hunts across the area, said that information being provided by monitors nationally suggested there had been widespread flouting of the legislation.

They had reported hunts to the police but the response had been "slightly patchy" so far.

Gloucestershire police spokesman Matt Ford said police were aware of the situation surrounding Boxing Day hunts but were unlikely to be going out looking for breaches of the Act. "If there are any issues the public can call us on the usual numbers," he added.