Jr. and I were going hunting today but he's gone down with the flu
The battle lines will be drawn as hunters and anti-hunt campaigners converge in the countryside across Britain for the traditional Boxing Day meets.
Boxing Day hunting battle rages 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".
Boxing Day Hunts 'A Huge Success'
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Fox hunters claim more than 300,000 turned up at their traditional Boxing Day hunts - saying it is evidence of growing public support.
Boxing Day Hunts 'A Huge Success' And the turnout, it is claimed, shows a groundswell of backing for their campaign to repeal the act banning hunting with hounds. . The bill made hunting with dogs a criminal offence, although exercising hounds, chasing a scent trail and flushing out foxes to be shot are all still legal.
Tim Bonner, spokesman for the Countryside Alliance, leading the campaign to change the law, said: "From the hunts I have talked to, there seems to be a very large turnout at all the meets today.
"Obviously the good weather has helped that, but also a feeling that people are coming out just to support their local hunt and the campaign for the repeal of the act.
"It is a very positive feeling across the country."
Mr Bonner said the Hunting Act was a "bad piece of legislation, apart from being passed for bad reasons", and said if the Conservatives won the next General Election the law would be changed.
Hunt Saboteurs Association spokesman Lee Moon was at the Essex Hunt where he said 20 fellow saboteurs saved two foxes from the hunt.
He says the Hunting Act needs to be strengthened with a recklessness clause added for the prosecution of hunts where animals are chased and killed "by accident".
"I think most of the 300,000 people or however many it is, very few will be up with the hunt to see what's going on.
"But saboteurs are and we can see animals being killed every week.
"At the moment hunts are killing foxes left, right and centre and no one seems to care. It is very difficult to get a conviction under the act, the law has so many loopholes."
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