PROTECT Our Wild Animals urges the Prime Minister to reject the call for repeal of the Hunting Act by Farming Minister Jim Paice and to denounce and clampdown on the ‘cynical subterfuge’ being employed by hunts nationwide to flout the spirit and letter of the ban on hunting with hounds.

Many hunts exploit weak enforcement and the act’s many loopholes to chase and kill live quarry much as pre-ban.

They pretend to be using certain exemptions or ‘trail hunting’, pretend they lost control of their hounds by ‘accident’ every time they are seen chasing forbidden quarry.

Many hunts mock the authorities and the popular will. They behave as though above the law, as innercity gangs did in August. Like looters, these rural gangsters should be brought to heel.

Alan Kirby, Associate, Protect Our Wild Animals.