THIS time last year, hopes were high that a change of Government might lead to a U-turn on the ban on hunting with dogs.

But when the Tories joined forces with the Liberal Democrats, it was clear to the pro-hunt brigade that pushing the issue during widespread financial cuts would not win them any friends.

Will Bryer, Master of Foxhounds of the Cattistock Hunt, said: "We had been hoping for a quicker result around the election but we appreciate that there is no way we can push the agenda at the moment because we would look rather foolish.

"People would say that the last thing we need to be thinking about is hunting."

While the predicted job losses in the countryside have not materialised because a legal form of trail hunting has continued, hunt supporters still considered the ban to be ludicrous.

They claim there has actually been an "unprecedented" increase in participation of the activity.

But anti-hunt campaigners say they live in hope that the Act can be strengthened and policed more rigorously.

Mr Bryer said: "There are people who still like to give all their time to monitoring our activities. It's extraordinary that they seem to have nothing better to do.

"Support for hunting has never been stronger throughout our area, and people firmly believe it is an unjust law."

Cattistock, which goes out three times a week, will gather in the Square at Beaminster for the annual Boxing Day meet at 10.45am on Monday to trail hunt on farmland.

Located on the Somerset/Dorset border, it is one of the few hunts in the county to be monitored by members of To Protect Our Wild Animals.

Anti-hunt campaigner Helen Weeks, of West Coker, said she was disappointed at the lack of legal enforcement of the ban. "We only have two monitors, and when we met recently with the police in Yeovil, they said the most they could do was send a car to the start of a meet, and couldn't do that if operational requirements took precedence.

"It's absolute rubbish to say that hunting has never been more popular with the public.

"The last couple of months we have had stalls in Yeovil and Chard asking people to send cards to their MPs, and although we have had a few hunting people, we know the majority of those who stop to look are against it.

"Even those who live out in the country like me, particularly in small hamlets, don't like to make their feelings known for fear of recrimination, but if something is cruel, like hunting is, we should speak out against it."

The law outlaws the use of dogs in the hunting of animals but they are allowed to chase an artificial scent. However, Mrs Weeks said it was too easy for hunts to maintain they had killed a fox "by accident".

Charles Frampton, joint Master of Foxhounds for the Portman Hunt in North Dorset, agreed that pursuing the repeal agenda at a time when the economic climate of the country was affecting everyone would be "pretty selfish".

"We are not stupid enough to think that there are not more important things on the agenda," he said.

"But most people are confident that at some stage there will be an opportunity and this is a Government which has been more supportive than the previous one."

He said there had been a surge of new membership ahead of the introduction of the ban, as people believed it would be their last chance to take part. But they remained members when the discovered they could still hunt in a slightly different way.

He said the Portman would be meeting as usual at 10.45am on Monday on Crown Meadows in Blandford.

There have been only nine prosecutions involving registered hunts, three of which were successful, resulting in the conviction of five members of hunt staff.

The hunting community welcomed the failure last week of the first Hunting Act prosecution in Yorkshire, and the decision by the Irish Assembly to reject a Green Party call for a hunting ban.

There are eight hunts operating in the Dorset and South Somerset on Monday, weather permitting, because Boxing Day falls on a Sunday when hunting is traditionally not carried out.

Most meets are timed to depart at 11am, but a few, like Cattistock and Portman, start 15 minutes earlier, including the South Dorset at the Blue Vinney in Puddletown.

Meeting at 11am are the Blackmore and Sparkford Vale at Castle Cary, Seavington at Crewkerne, Taunton Vale at The Square, Ilminster, and Cotley in Chard High Street.