Anti-hunt campaigner calls for tightening of the laws.
ANTI-HUNT campaigner Gill Purser claims the ban is being ridden over roughshod.
Mrs Purser, a farmer at Clapton-on-the-Hill, near Bourton-on-the- Water, is backing a call to tighten the 2004 Hunting Act to ensure it is not violated by hunts who say foxes are killed "accidentally".
Now she is calling on animal lovers to add their voices.
Mrs Purser is working with the Cotswold Support Group for Protect Our Wild Animals to lobby MPs and Government to add a "reckless behaviour clause" to the Act.
This would make it an offence "to cause or permit a dog to hunt, attack, injure or kill a wild animal".
At present, the Act allows dogs to be used to follow a scent or flush a fox out of cover, but not to kill it.
The campaign has been backed by Labour MP John McDonnell, who has tabled an Early Day Motion calling for the amendment.
Hunts say they are following the law but are fighting to overturn it completely.
Mrs Purser, a hunt monitor and keen horsewoman, said: "The Act isn't strong enough in its present form.
"I've seen no evidence to convince me the hunts have retrained their hounds to follow a trail, they're still behaving in their old hunting habits.
"A genuine trail would not take a pack from wood to wood and cover to cover but keep them away from areas you know there's a fox.
"Hunts also spew out over main roads – that's not trail hunting and it's dangerous.
"If you take your pack to woods where you found foxes in years gone by, you can't then claim it's an accident if you find a fox."
Mrs Purser believes the ban is supported by the majority and was democratically decided.
She said: "It was debated over seven years and three General Elections.
"No one's saying hunts shouldn't be out there riding through the countryside but they don't have to base it on the unnecessary hounding of a wild animal."
Mr McDonnell has called on the Government to act to prevent "abuse of the spirit of the anti-hunting legislation".
Cotswold Hunt joint master Rosemary Vestey said hunts were doing what they were allowed to do.
"We're trying to keep the hunts alive and well and the kennels going," she said.
"We're very aware of the law and we're allowed to flush to a bird of prey and go trail hunting – but it's very difficult and occasionally mistakes are made.
"But we're being as careful as we possibly can."
5 Comments
by giles bradshaw, rose ash
Thursday, November 13 2008, 9:09PM
“If some one followed me round with a camera filming me I'd be pretty miffed. I think most people would.”
by Jon Burgess, Worcestershire
Thursday, November 13 2008, 7:53PM
“It's about time Gill Purser and friends stopped winging and produced the evidence they claim to have about illegal hunting.
To my knowledge there has only been ONE conviction for fox hunting with a pack of hounds since the Act came into force. No great success considering there have probably been eighty or ninety thousand hunting days to get this.
I hope they get their way and entice Gordon Brown to waste another seven hundred hours of Parliamentary time gold plating the Hunting Act . With the credit crunch, failure of social services, knife crime, inner city gang murders etc etc New Labour would never get elected again.
The Hunting Act cost the anti brigade a million pound bung to Labour Party funds and they got what they deserved, legislation that makes the Law look a fool and does nothing for animal welfare.
One question for the anti hunt brigade, can I come and video you (up close and in your face) in the supermarket doing your weekly shop - if your not shop lifting how can you object to this request .”
by Mrs J Cook, Minehead Somerset TA24 6JE
Thursday, November 13 2008, 3:02PM
“If hunts truly believe they are adhering to the law why do they squeal "unfair" if a member of the public tries to film their activities? If they have truly nothing to hide surely these videos would back up their claims of upholding the law? Mrs J Cook”
by John Campbell, Cardiff
Thursday, November 13 2008, 2:36PM
“I am writing in support of Mrs Purser, and K Watson of Stockport, in their condemnation of the activities of hunts and the number of so-calld 'accidents' that they have. It is indeed time that the practice of hunting wild animals in this fashion was put behind us as it has no place in, and degrades, a modern society.
I would be very interested to learn which birds of prey are used, and the results of their use, if any, as I believe this to be a ruse and an excuse.”
by K WATSON, STOCKPORT
Thursday, November 13 2008, 11:50AM
“Can the Cotswold and other Hunts ignore modern ethical thought? Bear baiters thought they could "do as they always did" behind pubs etc. but although the 1835 ban took time to take effect the practice was obsolescent by the 1850s. We have too much evidence of foxes and domestic pets falling victim to "accidental hunting" i.e. letting hounds get out of control and we have 30 convictions - and we have a recession needing sensible budget control, not extravagant blood sports! Itm is not rocket science to devise artificial controlled drag hunting.”