ILLEGAL fox cub hunting across Somerset this autumn was prolific, anti-hunt charity the League Against Cruel Sports has alleged.

The league said incidents were on a ‘shocking scale’ during the ‘season’, which ran from August 1 to October 31.

It said Somerset had the third highest number of incidents of any county in England and Wales.

League senior campaigns manager John Petrie said: “Cub hunting is a barbaric practice in which hunts train their hounds to kill foxes by targeting fox cubs, in preparation for the main fox hunting season, despite the fox hunting ban being in place for almost 20 years.”

Mr Petrie said league figures showed 14 foxes were seen being chased in Somerset, while there were 16 incidents of suspected illegal cub hunting, and 32 incidents of hunts ‘wreaking havoc’ on rural communities.

He said: “As we approach the 20th anniversary of the Hunting Act coming into force, these figures are evidence why the law needs to be strengthened.

“Setting packs of hounds on fox cubs in the Somerset countryside so they can become accustomed to tearing foxes apart will simply horrify the vast majority of the public.

“It is time for change and for the exemptions in the law to be removed, so-called trail hunting outlawed, and custodial sentences introduced for those who commit the worst hunting crimes.

“If hunts were really following pre-laid trails, as they claim, none of the recorded incidents would have occurred.

“Tragically, fox hunting is going on as it did before the ban, and we need the Government to act and ensure the fox hunting season, which has just begun, is the last one we ever experience and that the savage practice of cub hunting is ended for good.”

The figures come as a new Somerset group became affiliated to the Hunt Saboteurs Association (HSA).

The Somerset saboteurs have been taking ‘direct action’ and documenting what it believed to be illegal activity to disrupt the West Somerset Vale Hunt, which has merged with the Weston and Banwell Harriers to cover an area from the Quantock Hills to the Somerset Levels.