It is wrong to say the Hunting Act of 2004 is in disarray.

Every law which has gone through both houses of Parliament for centuries has been tweaked from time to time, or will be in the course of time, so there is nothing new here.

What I am seeing in the field are hunters, desperate to avoid monitors' cameras, losing control of their hounds time and time again, as hounds latch on to a fox scent and doing what they have been trained to do, pursue it.

Consequently, the hunt lets them get on with it so as not to be seen. Already this hunt season hounds have run amok, on roads, in gardens, across fields and so on.

If the hunt doesn't know how to train its charges to a different scent it should contact people who are experts in their field who train scent dogs professionally.

But the truth of the matter is, they don't want to. They need the rush and satisfaction they feel in killing a frightened animal, be it little bigger than a daffodil!

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