Foxes, hounds and people at risk

11:50am Tuesday 9th January 2007

Hunts not only flout the law with impunity (Letter, January 2), they also put human lives at risk with their so-called sport.

On December 28, I was among anti-hunt monitors who spotted a hunting hound running loose on the busy A24 dual carriageway, causing cars to swerve and brake.

The monitors stopped the traffic and informed the police who attended the scene.

I was almost run down by a hunt steward driving at speed on the grass verge alongside the A24.

Police appeared to ignore this.

Previously that day, a fox which seemed to have been flushed out by a hunt ran out on to a busy road then along the grass verge next to the field where the hunt and the hounds were.

While I was filming it, I noticed a riderless hunt horse galloping towards the road.

I informed one of the hunt riders and we assisted them by closing the gate to the field while other monitors carried on up the road to stop the horse.

Also, on the same day, hounds were heard "in cry" and almost on to a fox alongside a busy lane in Coolham. The traffic was at a standstill again and hunters only called the hounds off when anti-hunt monitors began filming.

The police present that day did nothing to stop the law being broken but, on the contrary, appeared to treat anti-hunt monitors with disdain while fraternising with the hunt and its supporters.

If hunts really keep within the the law and are only trailhunting, why do they lay trails alongside busy roads?

Why are hunts allowed to put lives at risk in this way and escape the consequences?

• Margaret Hackney, Shoreham

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