FIELD sports enthusiasts in East Lancashire have vowed to step up their campaign against a ban on hunting with hounds.

After MPs voted overwhelmingly for a bill to ban fox hunting, the hunters have warned the move would put people out of work.

Lesley Ferguson of the British Association of Shooting and Conservation's Gisburn office said the vote came as no surprise.

But her organisation is concerned about the effect of a ban on the ability of deer stalkers using more than one dog and gamekeepers using terriers in fox control programmes to carry out their jobs.

"We are against the bill on general principles and are concerned about its affect on local rural workers," she said.

Jeff Olstead, the local spokesman for the British Field Sports Society, claimed urban MPs had failed to look beyond anti-hunt propaganda and prejudice. "The anti-hunting campaign has played all its cards," he said.

"It has got a symbolic majority from the new, predominantly urban intake of MPs.

"From here on, it has nothing new to say and nowhere left to go."

The chances of the bill becoming law are remote, because of a backlog of proposed Government legislation.

Mr Olstead said the campaign to defend hunting would now change into a higher gear.

He said: "We held the biggest, most peaceful political rally ever seen in London last July with an attendance of 120,000, including thousands from East Lancashire, and you haven't seen anything yet.

"At last year's Boxing Day meeting of the local Holcombe Hunt, only 15 protesters turned up, after warning of a massive presence. The fact is people aren't as bothered about fox hunting as the propaganda makes out."

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