A NEW survey has shown that eight out of ten people in Wales believe the ban on fox hunting should remain in force.

The poll by the League Against Cruel Sports showed 80 per cent of people across the whole country are against repealing the ban, including 85 per cent in the Cardiff and South East Wales area.

Hunting with dogs has been illegal in Wales and England since February 2005 and in Scotland since 2002. It is still legal in Northern Ireland.

The charity’s senior public affairs officer Bethan Collins welcomed the survey’s findings.

“We saw in July that they (the Conservative Government) will try to use Welsh sheep farmers as a reason to allow hunting, claiming that they need fox hunting because of the threat to lambs,” she said.

“But the people of Wales have clearly seen through this.

“Foxes pose much less of a threat to lambs than people are led to believe, with only one per cent of lamb deaths actually attributable to foxes.

“Farmers have told us that lambing indoors is the best protection lambs can have.

“Arable farmers on the other hand actually benefit from having foxes around due to the number of rabbits they take.”

The survey also showed 85 per cent of people in the Valleys supported the ban as well as 84 per cent in South West Wales, 77 per cent in the north of the country and 70 per cent in the mid and west region.

Labour candidate for Newport East in next year’s Welsh Assembly election Jayne Bryant also welcomed the results, calling fox hunting “a barbaric practice posing as sport and it has no place in 21st century society”.

The survey covered 1,008 people and was carried out over a two-week period in September.