Animal welfare charity the League Against Cruel Sports has appealed to Councillors across Somerset to back measures to end fox and deer hunting on Council-controlled land in the county.

Hunting is rife in the county, with stags, foxes, mink, and hare all hunted with hounds. Nearly 300 reports relating to illegal hunting in the county have been made to the League since 2019.

The league says there are 13 different hunts active in Somerset and the county is home to 15 hunt kennels. On top of this, it is in the top four counties for the number of incidents reported to the League and has a conviction rate for proceedings under the Hunting Act 2004 of just 12 per cent.

Now the charity has written to all 169 Councillors representing both Somerset Council and Bath and North East Somerset Council, sharing a report outlining both the extent of the suspected illegal hunting, and the scale of the havoc hunts are wreaking on rural communities in the county.

It has asked for a meeting with Council leaders to establish how best to end fox and deer hunting in the county.

Illegal hunting has recently been described as "prolific" by Chief Superintendent Matt Longman, the National Police Chiefs' Council lead on foxhunting crime, the campaigners say.

John Petrie, the League Against Cruel Sports regional campaign manager, said: "Somerset is sadly a hotspot for suspected illegal hunting and anti-social behaviour by fox and deer hunts despite the ban on hunting with dogs.

"It's time for change and for the Council to take a stand against this sordid activity by hunts which blights rural communities and the lives of local people, and brutally kills the wildlife that lives in the countryside."

The national report entitled Hunt Havoc: the human cost of hunting with hounds shows Somerset had the second highest number of incidents in the UK when broken down by county.

This shows the number of Hunt Havoc incidents across each county.

(Hunt Havoc report )

The campaigners say the incidents included "hunts marauding on private and public land, hunting dangerously on railway lines and busy roads, intimidating individuals and rural communities, and chasing and killing foxes, deer, livestock and people's pets."

They say a recent incident in Somerset on January 14th saw the hounds from the Mendip Farmers' Hunt rampaging through Chew Valley Animal Park, jumping into animal pens and terrifying camels and goats at this zoo in North East Somerset.

The League is proposing both Councils ban so-called trail hunting – where hunts say their hounds are chasing pre-laid trails, but which the League says is often used as a smokescreen by hunts to disguise old fashioned illegal hunting.

Polling commissioned by the League and conducted independently by Find Out Now. The Electoral Calculus showed three-quarters of the Somerset electorate (75 per cent) favour strengthening hunting laws.

Local residents are urged to sign a petition calling on policy makers to do all they can to end hunting in Somerset.

John Petrie added: "We urge Council leaders to sit down and discuss how we can work together to end barbaric deer and fox hunting in the county for good."