A Lake District couple said they were distraught after a pack of foxhounds invaded their garden earlier this month.
It is not known who the hounds belonged to, but they spent an hour in a garden and surrounding fields in Troutbeck, near Windermere.
Toni Gibson, 88, who lives on Holbeck Lane with her husband John, 86, videoed the hounds on December 6.
The video has been made public today, December 31, by the League Against Cruel Sports. Toni reported it to the league’s animal crimewatch service.
She said she believed that the hounds were going after the scent of a live fox and displaying behaviour entirely inconsistent with trail hunting as it would have been inconceivable for a trail to have been laid in her garden.
Toni said: “The whole incident left me really upset, very sad and I was in tears later when I thought about it more.
“I can’t wait for the Government to step in and stop fox hunting by doing what they promised in their manifesto and ban trail hunting.”
Chris Luffingham, acting chief executive of the League Against Cruel Sports, said: “This is indicative of the reports we get from around the country of fox hunts running amok and wreaking havoc on rural communities – this time shamefully in the garden of pensioners trying to enjoy their retirement.
“It’s time for change. We are calling for the Government to announce a timetable for when they will ban trail hunting, remove the loopholes in the law being exploited by hunts and introduce custodial sentences for those caught breaking the law.”
The Labour Party manifesto contained a commitment to ban trail hunting, and current environment secretary Steve Reed pledged to eliminate fox hunting within its first term.
Chris added: “It’s time for the police, courts and Crown Prosecution Service to be given the powers to effectively tackle fox hunting, a brutal and sordid activity, which needs to be consigned to the history books.”
Mr Luffingham has written to the Lake District National Park Authority expressing concern about the incident.
