Britain: Defying law thousands ride to the hounds

Despite heavy rainfall the number of people attending some local hunts rose by a fifth after a cabinet minister admitted that David Cameron cannot repeal Labour's ban on foxhunting.

Tim Bonner, campaigns director for the Countryside Alliance, said people wanted to send a "direct message" to the Prime Minister that the law needs to be repealed.

However the League Against Cruel Sports said hunting is a "sickening blood sport" and that the majority of people do not want the ban lifted.

The animal rights campaigners yesterday employed former police officers and professional investigators to monitor fox hunts across the country.

Earlier this month Mr Cameron's local hunt, the Heythrop Hunt in Oxfordshire, was prosecuted by the RSPCA.

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BWAHAHAHAHA!

A remote-controlled aircraft owned by an animal rights group was reportedly shot down near Broxton Bridge Plantation Sunday.

Steve Hindi, president of SHARK (SHowing Animals Respect and Kindness), said his group was preparing to launch its Mikrokopter drone to video what he called a live pigeon shoot on Sunday when law enforcement officers and an attorney claiming to represent the privately-owned plantation near Ehrhardt tried to stop the aircraft from flying.

"It didn't work; what SHARK was doing was perfectly legal," Hindi said in a news release. "Once they knew nothing was going to stop us, the shooting stopped and the cars lined up to leave."

He said the animal rights group decided to send the drone up anyway.

"Seconds after it hit the air, numerous shots rang out," Hindi said in the release. "As an act of revenge for us shutting down the pigeon slaughter, they had shot down our copter."

He claimed the shooters were "in tree cover" and "fled the scene on small motorized vehicles."

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