300,000 at Boxing Day Fox Hunts in Britain
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LONDON, Dec. 26 (AP) — "More than 300,000 people thronged the British countryside on Tuesday for the annual Boxing Day fox hunts, organizers said, two years after Parliament passed a law banning traditional fox hunting in which dogs chase and kill the prey.
Under the Hunting Act, which took effect in February 2005, dogs can be used to locate a fox and drive it into open ground, but not to harm the animal, which is shot instead.
Many hunts have since been reformed into trail or drag hunting, in which dogs track an animal scent that has been artificially laid out through the woods.
Fox hunting, which dates back centuries in Britain, once involved groups of riders following a pack of hounds trained to track down and kill foxes. The new law followed a bitter fight in Parliament and raucous street demonstrations.
The Countryside Alliance, a group that represents hunting enthusiasts, said more than 300 legal hunts took place on Tuesday, the day of the traditional post-Christmas hunt.
An antihunting group, the League Against Cruel Sports, said it had no objection to the hunts if they were kept within the limits of the law".
www.nytimes.com/2006/12/27/world/europe/27britain.html
Retrieved 3/25/2008
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