ANTI-HUNT campaigners dressed up as foxes for a demonstration outside Home Secretary Jack Straw's office in Blackburn.

Two supporters of the National Anti-Hunt Campaign began a 24-hour hunger strike outside the Richmond Terrace office yesterday to protest against the Government's failure to ban bloodsports.

Niel Hansen, chairman of the NAHC, said: "We have chosen Jack Straw's office because it is the Home Office that is ultimately responsible for issues like banning hunting.

"It is a barbaric practice, especially cub hunting, when young hounds are taught to kill foxes by teaching them to maul fox cubs. It's also a tragic waste of hounds, as they are shot through the head at the age of six when they are considered too old to hunt." The protesters displayed a skeleton dressed as a huntsman in a coffin and copies of a letter from Tony Blair to fellow MP Tony Banks written just before the 1997 election pledging to give enough parliamentary time for a Bill to ban hunting.

But the Government has not yet given the Bill enough time to survive time-wasting tactics by pro-hunt MPs despite widespread public support and a majority of MPs voting against hunting in a free vote soon after the election.

The NAHC is touring the country targeting 14 other politicians including Tony Blair, Tory leader William Hague and MPs who oppose a hunt ban.

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