A NEW anti-social phenomenon named ‘hunt havoc’ has affected Somerset residents more than almost anywhere else in the country, according to a report by the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS).

The league said Somerset was the second-worst affected of the 53 counties nationally with 22 incidents of ‘hunt havoc’ being reported. Devon was top with 25.

It quoted examples of alleged incidents involving the Minehead Harriers, Dulverton Farmers Foxhounds, West Somerset Hunt, and Tiverton Staghounds to support its claims of frequent anti-social behaviour caused by fox and deer hunts.

They said the report, ‘Hunt Havoc: the human cost of hunting with hounds’, is based on eye-witness reports and outlines 310 incidents nationally since 2018.

The league said it detailed how hunts were seen not only chasing and killing animals but marauding on private and public land, intimidating individuals and communities, hunting on railway lines and roads, and chasing and sometimes killing livestock and pets.

One case study quoted in the report was said to have happened in November last year when a Minehead Harriers hunt spilled out of fields onto the A39 near Porlock and a member of the hunt began shouting at cars to slow down. A woman driver was said to have left her vehicle to ‘exchange words’ with the hunt as a result of the disruption. During the incident, Exmoor ponies were also frightened by the hunt on to a road, the league claimed.

Another example alleges that, in January this year a pack of hounds from the Dulverton Farmers Foxhounds was witnessed near Exford spending an hour trying to access the grounds of a private house, and 15 hounds were seen in a private yard. The league said the hounds caused distress to a number of pregnant sheep in a nearby field.

LACS external affairs director Chris Luffingham said: “The report clearly shows how hunts impact people’s lives, their livelihoods and communities, simply for their own sordid entertainment. Every single week during the hunting season we are getting reports of hunt havoc occurring across Britain.

“We urge members of the public to get in touch if they have been the victim of a hunt to help us document their behaviour so we can strengthen the Hunting Act and end hunting with dogs once and for all.

“It is time for change. It is time for hunting with dogs to be stopped for good and the Government needs to strengthen the Hunting Act to achieve this.”

The league said ‘hunt havoc’ had put public safety at risk at least 145 times during the report’s study period, which it believed was only a small part of the true scale of the issue.

Countryside Alliance chief executive Tim Bonner said the league had spent the past 20 years ‘making ridiculous claims about hunting in a bid to justify its existence’, yet nearly every allegation to the police or a court had been found to be false.

Mr Bonner said: “There have been hundreds of thousands of days’ legal trail hunting carried out by hunts since the Hunting Act came into force. Only someone with extremely warped priorities could think that with the country facing a cost of living crisis, the consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and political instability, that now is a good time to start discussing hunting legislation.

“Hunting with dogs was banned in 2004 after 700 hours of Parliamentary debate and Labour subsequently lost nearly all of its rural seats. Any politician who sought to repeat that fiasco would be judged as completely out of touch with rural reality.”

The lcoal hunts have beena sked to comment.