NEW figures released by the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) on Friday (April 24) show Somerset is a hot spot nationally for fox hunting.

The league said instances of fox hunting in the county were the third highest in England and Wales, 20 years since the Hunting Act banned the practice.

LACS figures showed hunts in Somerset were seen chasing 55 foxes during the most recent fox hunting season which finished at the end of March, and the cub hunting season which preceded it.

The charity said hunts in Somerset were also found to be some of the worst in the country for anti-social behaviour and wreaking havoc on rural communities, with 94 incidents during the same period.

LACS released its figures as the Government holds a 12-week consultation on banning trail hunting, which campaigners say hunts use as ‘a smokescreen’ to cover chasing and killing foxes.

The charity’s chief executive Emma Slawinski said: “These startling figures show the brutal blood sport of fox hunting is still rife in Somerset, despite the ban, and points to the desperate need for new, stronger fox hunting laws.

“The Somerset public have the chance to have their say and to help end fox hunting once and for all by taking part in the Government’s consultation to end trail hunting.”

So-called ‘hunt havoc’ reports include claims of trespass, other wildlife such as deer being chased, livestock worrying, and hounds running amok on railway lines and roads.

The charity said all of those activities were inconsistent with the idea of following a trail, as hunts claimed they were doing.

Nationally, the charity recorded 488 reports of foxes seen being pursued, along with 1,220 reports of ‘hunt havoc’.

Just 23, or 3.7 per cent of the 624 hunt meets monitored contained evidence of a trail being laid.

Within those 23 reports with a trail laid, there was still evidence of 22 foxes being chased.

However, the league believed the figures were just the tip of the iceberg, showing only those hunts which were being monitored, with hunt behaviour in many remote rural areas and incidents of animals being chased and torn apart going unreported.

Polling commissioned by the league and carried out independently in March and April of 2024 by FindOutNow, with further analysis by Electoral Calculus, found 73 per cent of the public in Somerset constituencies supported stronger fox hunting laws, with only seven per cent disagreeing.

A clear majority of voters in both rural and urban areas across the country backed new laws to stop foxes being chased by hounds and killed, with 70 per cent of people in the countryside supporting the proposal.

Ms Slawinski said: “The time for change is now.

“Trail hunting needs to be banned, the loopholes in the law removed, custodial sentences made available to judges to deter would-be hunters, and measures introduced to tackle reckless or ‘accidental’ hunting.

“Let us turn Somerset from a brutal fox hunting hot spot into a blood sports-free zone.”