The annual Boxing Day hunt in Tavistock was greeted with a crowd of anti-fox hunt protesters today.

Yet despite this, hundreds of pro-hunt supporters from across rural West Devon, easily outnumbered the placard-waving opponents on both sides of the road in Bedford Square.

The Spooners & West Dartmoor Hunt gathered in a roped-off area surrounded by supporters and residents who had come to enjoy what is a three-hundred-year-old spectacle.

The traditional rural pursuit could be the last as the government has promised to ban trail hunting, with a consultation in the new year.

Before they galloped up to Dartmoor, the Spooners & West Dartmoor Hunt was addressed by the hunt master Ryhs Bould Lynch who was drowned out by chants a few members of Plymouth & West Devon Hunt Saboteurs, members of Devon Against Hunting and other opponents of hunting.

Supporters of hunting say a ban on ‘harmless trail hunting’ would damage the local economy and a culture and way of life unique to the countryside. They point to the consultation on a possible ban on trail hunting being another example of Labour being anti-countryside.

Robert, a trail hunting supporter, said: “I can’t see the harm in trail hunting. I was all for fox hunting years ago, but now I see the harm. Also, its now illegal.

“It seems Labour is anti anything to do with the country way of life, what with the family tax. It’s just ideology and not necessarily to do with animal welfare.

“Also, to stop any hounds hunting will stop sales of horse gear, trailers and all local businesses which rely on what is important to the rural economy.”

Hunt protester Andrew Smith was waving a plain-speaking placard. He said: “There’s so much evidence that the ban has not stopped these hunts killing foxes, even though trail hunting is only supposed to follow a scent and not chase foxes as a sport. It’s plain animal cruelty.

“I used to live on a farm and the hunt disregarded my parents’ rights as landowners, they just rode over our land. This is still a sport which often ends in the poor fox being ripped apart for entertainment.”

Jane Mayes, of Tavistock, said: “Fox hunting, whatever it’s called by its supporters is a barbaric sport and immoral.”

George shouted ‘shame on you’ with other campaigners. He said: “The huntsmen and people who support it say fox hunting is part of their culture and way of life, but then so was slavery at one time. Trail hunting is a pretence to cover up the fact foxes are still being terrorised.”

Hunting with dogs to kill foxes has been illegal in England, Wales and Scotland since the 2004 Hunting Act.

Spooners’s Boxing Day outing today, is therefore, trail hunting – where horse riders and dogs follow a fox scent laid across the countryside.

However, hunting opponents believe foxes are still being hunted down and killed illegally, with trail hunting meets providing a smokescreen for this.

With this in mind, the government is to consult on banning trail hunting early in the new year.