Pro-hunters defiant at Boxing Day meets

Pro-hunting groups claimed 300,000 people attended the traditional Boxing Day meets - held a day late, as meets are never held on a Sunday.

With a ban set to come in on February 18, many wondered whether this year’s meets would be the last.

But the defiant attitude of huntsmen and followers at the Beaufort Hunt along the Gloucestershire-Wiltshire border was typical yesterday.

Joint hunt master Ian Farquhar said: "It would never be the last Boxing Day hunt because we will always keep it going. I think the latest move from the government is very interesting. If you get a bad bill you get in a muddle.

"This is a bad bill that puts outside the law a large section of the rural community - sensible family people who mind about animals and look after them. It doesn’t benefit wildlife at all. It doesn’t benefit the wellbeing of the fox."

Kitty Bishop, 19, who lives on a local farm, said the majority of people in the countryside were "very optimistic" about the situation.

"We are not going to let it drop," she added. "Whatever happens, we will be here next year."