ANIMAL welfare campaigners welcomed a government consultation launched today to ban fox hunting with hounds.

The League Against Cruel Sports called on members of the public to respond to the survey which will be open for 12 weeks as they revealed new data showing illegal hunting is “rife” in England and Wales.

From August 2025 to March 25 this year, the charity recorded 488 instances of foxes being pursued and 1,220 reports of “anti-social behaviour and havoc” in rural communities by fox hunts.

Its chief executive Emma Slawinski welcomed the consultation as the “start of a process which should lead to more effective legislation” and could allow courts and police forces to “tackle persistent and prolific illegal hunting.”

She said: “The time for change is now – 21 years after the original hunting ban came into force, we are now finally on the brink of consigning this old-fashioned blood sport to history.”