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Ministers should not to try to bring back fox hunting, a report will warn.

With the new season about to start, the League Against Cruel Sports is putting pressure on the Government not to again attempt to amend the Hunting Act.

Rules allow two dogs to flush out a fox but the Government wanted to let an unlimited pack root them out before they are shot.

The SNP and Labour blocked the controversial move in July.

Animal rights campaigners will release a report outlining how the measure would weaken the current ban.

(Image: Getty)

Professor Stephen Harris, of the University of Bristol, said fox welfare would be severely compromised if a full pack of dogs was allowed to flush the fox to waiting guns.

He said: “Using two hounds to flush foxes is likely to ensure higher levels of welfare, since the hounds are easier to control, and flushing a fox more slowly reduces the risk that it will be wounded rather than killed by the waiting guns.”

Packs of dogs are difficult if not impossible to control in dense cover, Prof Harris warns.

(Image: Getty)

Foxes find it harder to evade the hounds the more they are, and foxes are often caught and wounded or killed by the hounds or driven to ground, his report reveals.

His inquiry, which focused on how the law works in Scotland - where hunts can use a pack of dogs to flush out foxes - analysed data from a range of independent studies from the past 60 years.

It examined fox numbers, behaviour, the effects of “pest control” and welfare issues.

(Image: Getty)

The report was commissioned by the League Against Cruel Sports and comes three months after the SNP and Labour joined forces to block the controversial Tory attempt to amend the Hunting Act.

Desperate David Cameron was forced into a humiliating climbdown following a huge public outcry spearheaded by veteran animal welfare campaigner and rock star Brian May, the Queen guitarist.

The League fears the proposed changes - which the Prime Minister could try and reintroduce any time - would weaken the ban so much that, in practice, hunts would be able to chase foxes again.

The charity’s campaigns director Tom Quinn said: “Prof Harris provides solid scientific evidence that there would be serious welfare consequences for foxes if the Government amended the Hunting Act to bring it into line with Scottish anti-hunting laws.

“The Government is trying to present an increase in the number of dogs allowed to flush a fox to guns as a good thing.

“But the research shows that this would be a backward step and just a cynical sop to the pro-hunt lobby to re-introduce traditional hunting via the back door.”