Hunt Demonstration a Success (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Hunt Demonstration a Success

A MASS meeting held at the weekend in protest at the Government's attempts to ban foxhunting attracted 15,000 supporters.

Saturday's event at Worcester Lodge, near Badminton, was one of 12 'Declaration Day' protest meetings held simultaneously across England and Wales.

It proved to be the largest number of visitors attending any of the regional meetings - held on the day the hunt season officially started.

Jo Aldridge, from the Beaufort hunt, which hosted the rally, said: "It went extremely well. We had 7,500 cars for a start, and that was verified by the police.

"Ours was the biggest in the country, the next biggest was Newbury where they had 12,000 people.

"Over 60,000 people across the country attended a rally somewhere.

"We had to delay the start by about half-an-hour because the cars were still coming in and we didn't want them to miss anything."

Members of the hunting and shooting communities brought working dogs, including terriers, greyhounds, lurchers and whippets.

Hunters and foxhound packs from the Berkeley, Beaufort and Vale of the White Horse meets also swelled the crowd, joined by representatives from other hunts across the West country.

An estimated 4,500 hunt supporters signed a 'Hunting Declaration' in protest at the Government's efforts to enforce the Hunting Bill, which calls for a complete ban on hunting with hounds.

Signatories to the document agree to continue hunting in the knowledge it could see them imprisoned should the Bill become law.

Anti-hunt group, the Cotswold Support Group for the Abolition of Hunting, condemned the move to defy a ban on hunting.

Supporter Dave Purser said: "The hunters are demonstrating very publicly how they have always reacted to opposition by resorting to intimidation.

"It's an approach that has worked in small rural communities in the past but they are making a big mistake by trying it nationwide.

"This will be their comeuppance."

The group's co-founder, Linda Graham, added: "This ban will set the standard of behaviour expected of everybody in the countryside and the hunts must accept that there cannot be one set of rules for them and another for the rest of us."

The Government has indicated it is prepared to use the Parliament Act to ensure the Bill becomes legislation even though the House of Lords has voted against it.

BLOB Hunt officials have remained tight lipped about reports that Hollywood star Liz Hurley has decided to permit the Vale of the White Horse Hunt onto the 72-acre land surrounding her £2.75 million home, Ampney Knowle, near Barnsley.

It has been reported that Liz has come out in support of the pro-hunt campaigners who congregated at Badminton.

But joint master of the VWH Hunt, Mark Hill, said: "Liz Hurley owns land and the hunt's dealings with land owners have always been confidential."