HUNDREDS of supporters turned out for the annual Boxing Day meetings in Cheshire, in a show of defiance against laws banning hunting.

The Boxing Day hunt meets are usually the largest of the year, and record numbers had turned out in 2005 to show their support for the blood sport, banned in February of that year.

Hunters in the North West claimed even more had turned out this year to support 314 registered hunts across the region.

Several hundred people watched Cheshire Forest Hunt leave Malpas and Joint Master of the Cheshire Hunt, Richard Thomas, said over 2,000 people gathered in Tarporley High Street to see 80 riders set off.

He added: 'We use a mixture of hound exercises and trail-laying and other ways of staying within the law.

'It was a peaceful day, I think the anti-hunting protesters understand what we are doing now to stay within the law.'

Mr Thomas, Chief Executive of Chester Racecourse, added there was no police presence at the meet.

In November, hunt supporters complained after a Cheshire Police car and helicopter followed a group of riders training hounds at Aldford.

Mr Thomas said: 'Since that incident I have approached the police and explained to them how we work within the law.'

Simon Ashworth, Cheshire Hunt secretary, said: 'People love to come and see the horses and the riders, and indeed the hounds. It is a very popular spectacle and the law has not made much difference to that.'

Around 400 people turned out at Lach

Dennis to see 35 Cheshire Forest Hunt riders in their red coats and the hounds set off across the Cheshire countryside.

Trails had been left using rags soaked in fox urine and then dragged across the fields, laying down a scent for the dogs to follow.

Hunt Joint Master Richard De Prez said: 'We have laid several trails and gone for a good gallop across country to give the hounds a bit of exercise, all within the confines of the law - but the law is silly.'

He said the ban on hunting had probably made more people realise 'the importance of hunting to the countryside and history'.

He added: 'There are more people supporting hunting now than for many years.

It is part of our heritage.

'Despite, or perhaps because of, these laws, we have more involved in hunting and supporting it than for quite a few years.'

The Countryside Alliance's regional director for North Wales and Cheshire, Barry Henderson, said the hunts were a big part of traditional Boxing Day celebrations for many country communities.

Mr Henderson added: 'In some ways, the ban has boosted support for hunting, and all we have to do now is get rid of this Act, which does nothing for animal welfare, and replace it with something more sensible.'

The 2004 Act made hunting with dogs a criminal offence, although exercising hounds, chasing a scent trail and flushing out foxes to be shot are all still legal.

Loopholes in the law are continually being exploited.

Anti-hunt campaigners the League Against Cruel Sports said it did not object to the Boxing Day hunts if they stayed within the law.

YOURSay

Is hunt legislation working? Telephone: 01244 606424/5 Fax: 01244 606498 E-mail: news room@cheshire news.co.uk