Hounded by hunt

Jan 15 2006 By Sarah Robertson, The Sunday Sun

Furious residents on an estate dubbed Millionaires' Row, whose neighbours include football star Alan Shearer, have slammed hunt bosses after a pack of hounds chasing a fox rampaged through their gardens.

They say about 20 dogs ran amok on Runnymede Road and neighbouring Darras Road in posh Darras Hall, Northumberland, after bursting through hedges onto lawns before huntsmen rounded them up.

Glynnis Hind, 59, is seething after the Tynedale Hunt hounds descended on her Darras Road home last Monday and is deciding whether to report the incident to police.

Glynnis, who is battling cancer, said: "I was gobsmacked. It was diabolical. I was sat in my dining room and I heard all this barking.

"It sounded savage and I thought: `What on earth is going on?' About 10 of these dogs came bounding across my garden and the horses went galloping past on the road.

"The dogs then came back through the garden and back out the way they came in where the riders were waiting for them at the entrance of my back gate.

"I love wildlife and my garden is a menagerie as I feed all the birds, foxes and hedgehogs.

"I just find it barbaric. They've no permission to go riding around with these dogs and into people's private gardens.

"I thought hunting with dogs had been banned. They could have killed a child."

Wendy Watson, of Runnymede Road, also saw the dogs. She said: "It is absolutely disgusting.

"I can't believe it was allowed to happen. I just got home and my grandson Harrison was asleep in the pram.

"I left him outside with the door open when I saw the fox running through my garden and heard all this barking.

"I just snatched him inside and when I looked out the window I saw the horses galloping past with all the dogs. I dread to think what could have happened."

The Hunting Act 2004 bans hunting wild foxes with packs of dogs.

But drag hunting, in which dogs follow a scent trail laid in advance, is legal.

A spokesman for the Tynedale Hunt said the smell of a fox had diverted the hounds from a laid scent.

He said: "It's a hound's natural instinct to follow the fox wherever it goes.

"It's difficult as this is the first season we've started drag hunting and the dogs obviously won't always go where you want them to.

"We don't normally go to Darras Hall. It's the furthest east we go and unfortunately the dogs did get in to the estate. It is upsetting for the lady if she is ill and we probably will change and go a different route in the future."