The new law on hunting with dogs will be tested for the first time this weekend after the Countryside Alliance lost its renewed attempt to overturn the ban in the Court of Appeal yesterday.
Hundreds of North hunt members are preparing for dozens of meets across the region on Saturday, being held in a mass show of defiance against the new legislation.
The Hunting Act, which outlaws fox-hunting, deer-hunting and hare-coursing with dogs, will come into force tomorrow after three senior judges rejected the argument that the Parliament Act, which MPs used to push the law through, was invalid.
Yesterday Richard Dodd, regional director of the Countryside Alliance, said hunts would be trying to keep within the law by drag hunting or flushing out foxes and shooting them. But he added: "I can see something going wrong.
"People aren't going out with the intention of killing foxes, but these hounds have been trained to kill.
"Accidents are going to happen and it remains to be seen how the police are going to deal with that.
"We're in a completely new situation so we can't predict what is going to happen. Saturday will be the first test of that."
Mr Dodd said, despite the Court of Appeal decision, the Countryside Alliance was not giving up.
"The fat lady hasn't sung yet," he said. "We always knew this was going to the highest court in the land and we'll now be taking this to the Law Lords and to the European Court on the human rights aspect of this.
"This is taking away our right to live how we want to live. It is a deeply flawed law and we won't stop until we have overturned it."
Last night Michael Jeans, hunt master at Morpeth, which is meeting at Meldon Park on Saturday, said: "I'm disappointed, but not surprised at the Court of Appeal decision. But we are not in the mood for giving up.
"Our view is if the Government won't change its mind, then let's change the government and that is what we are going to be concentrating on from May."
John Rolls, RSPCA director of animal welfare promotion, said: "Having presented its arguments to Parliament and the courts, the pro-bloodsports Countryside Alliance must now accept the outcome of the democratic process that hunting is cruel and unnecessary and that the Hunting Act is a perfectly valid piece of legislation.
"The Countryside Alliance would be better off instructing its members that they are duty bound to abide by the new law come February 18, rather than wasting money mounting futile challenges in the courts."
The Journal: Today's Voice of the North
Page 2: Support for law declines
