Hello Peterborough Council, this is the 21st Century calling…demanding to know what the actual f are you doing supporting a grubby lobby group like the Countryside Alliance and violent hunt thugs by hosting a so-called Festival of Hunting this month? Fox hunting was banned by the Hunting Act, everyone and their dog knows that ‘trail hunting’ is a smokescreen for illegal fox hunting, that hunts break the law every day they go out, This is a world of harassment and intimidation, of threats and aggression, a disgusting throwback to a time when ecology was poorly understood and wild animals were thought to be little more than furry (or feathered) machines acting on instinct and incapable of fear or affection. Get your act together and get this celebration of cruelty and lawbreaking banned – as your taxpayers and residents want you to.

Protesters took to Peterborough’s streets on Thursday to call for the cancellation of a hunting festival taking place in the city.

League Against Cruel Sports campaigners gathered outside Peterborough Cathedral where its own ‘fox’ and local campaigners handed out leaflets calling for the Festival of Hunting to be cancelled.

The event is being held at the Showground on July 21.

Nick Weston, head of campaigns at the League Against Cruel Sports, said: “This squalid celebration of the brutal world of fox hunting has no place in a modern day Peterborough. The city has already taken a stand against hunting – it’s time for them to put this into action.

“Incensed local campaigners are calling for the Festival of Hunting to be cancelled – fox hunting was banned in this country 16 years ago and many Peterborough residents will be rightly appalled that this event is taking place in their city.”

A new League Against Cruel Sports campaign group covering the whole of Cambridgeshire has been set up by local residents.

In Peterborough, the city council has previously banned all forms of hunting on its land.

Mr Weston added: “We will be calling on the city council to debate the issue and take the steps to ensure this festival never returns to Peterborough.”

The festival’s official sponsor is the Countryside Alliance, which said last year when the event was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic: “The defence and promotion of hunting always has been, and will continue to be, absolutely core to the mission of the Countryside Alliance.”

Joel Lamy, Peterborough Telegraph, 02/July/21