THE Hunting Act is coming into force on Friday (February 18), and the League Against Cruel Sports and its supporters are delighted that finally the cruel 'sports' of hunting with dogs and hare coursing will be banned. We welcome the fact many hunts have declared they will convert to drag hunting (following a scent instead of chasing a fox), as we have urged them to do for years. However, we are concerned at what will happen when the hounds have not been retrained to follow a new scent. It's clear our supporters and our wide network of monitors will still have much work to do. We are in talks with local police forces to inform them of a range of clear signs of illegal hunting which they can look out for. For example, if a hunt is supposed to be drag hunting and the hounds are running through crops, a railway line or any area where it is unlikely an artificial scent would have been laid, then it is obvious that hounds are hunting live quarry. Further information can be found on our website www.huntcrimewatch.com and we urge all those who care about animal welfare to call our hotline on 0845 330 8486 if they see any suspicious activities. DOUGLAS BATCHELOR, Chief executive, League Against Cruel Sports. | 
