Nine pets killed and 22 road accidents counted in fox cub-hunt season

Nine pets were killed and 22 road-traffic accidents were recorded by anti-fox hunting activists in the last three months.

Hunts and hounds also caused hundreds of cases of "hunt havoc" and at least 106 foxes were chased, according to a tally of reports by hunt opponents during fox cub hunting season, which ran from 1 August to 31 October.

Hunt havoc is when riders or hounds disturb or obstruct the public, such as hounds running loose on roads and disrupting traffic, running onto railway lines, chasing farm animals or attacking people's cats and dogs.

The term also covers threatening behaviour; livestock worrying; damaging badger setts to dig up foxes or blocking them up to stop foxes from escaping and causing distress to the public.

The figures, compiled by the League Against Cruel Sports and seen by The Independent, show that monitors reported 127 cases of suspected illegal fox cub hunting and 315 cases of hunts wreaking havoc on rural communities in England and Wales during the three months.

They also said they saw 69 meets with evidence of illegal hunting and 46 cases of "threatening or irresponsible" behaviour by hunts.

The league said the figures were likely to be an underestimate because many hunt meets go unmonitored, but that the tallies indicated "the shocking scale" of fox-cub hunting, which continues despite the hunting ban that took effect in 2005.

Cases of hunt havoc, foxes being killed, road interference, trespass, worrying livestock, injury or abuse of horses or hounds and badger sett interference were all higher than last year, but the campaigners said this was likely to be because of greater monitoring and higher public awareness of illegal hunting.

This week a cross-party group of 18 MPs wrote an open letter to environment secretary Steve Reed asking for a series of legal loopholes to be addressed in law and for him to set out a timetable for action.

Cub-hunting is when hunts train hounds to kill foxes by targeting fox cubs, in preparation for the main fox hunting season.

Other cases documented included foxes being pursued by hounds or terriers being used to flush out a fox that had fled underground.

Gloucestershire, Dorset, Somerset, Nottinghamshire, Devon and Warwickshire are cub-hunting hot spots, the figures suggest.

Hunts say they follow scent trails laid in advance across the countryside to stay within the law.

But a League Against Cruel Sports spokesman said cases where hounds run on main roads show they are following a fox, not a trail.

John Petrie, of the league, said: "As we approach the 20th anniversary of the Hunting Act coming into force, these figures evidence why the law needs to be strengthened.

"Foxhunting is going on as it did before the ban and we need the government to act."

Labour promised in its general election manifesto to end trail-hunting. But a report by the Action Against Foxhunting organisation warned such a ban would be ineffective because hunters would find other ways around the law.

A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: "This government was elected on a mandate to introduce the most ambitious plans to improve animal welfare in a generation - that is exactly what we will do. We will ban trail hunting that allows for the illegal hunting of foxes, deer, and hares."

The British Hound Sports Association, the governing body for hunts, did not respond to a request to comment.