Campaigners from the national animal welfare charity the League Against Cruel Sports were in a rainy Cardiff on Saturday to launch the Wales leg of its campaign calling on Welsh and English national park authorities to end fox hunting on their land.

The campaign calls on the 13 national parks authorities, including those which manage Bannau Brycheiniog, Eryri, and Pembrokeshire Coast, to do everything in their power to stop hunts chasing and killing foxes and wreaking havoc on rural communities.

It comes after a hunting season in which nearly 1,000 incidents related to suspected illegal hunting, or havoc caused by hunts and their followers, were recorded by the League across England and Wales.

John Petrie, senior campaigns manager for the League Against Cruel Sports, was in Cardiff alongside volunteers to launch the campaign.

He said: “It’s time for change. Hunts are still marauding around our national parks despite the fox hunting ban, so it’s time to end this brutal activity once and for all.

“National parks have a responsibility to protect wildlife and preserve nature from the harm that fox hunts cause on their, and the people we spoke to today are willing them on to end this barbaric cruel ‘sport’.”

At least nine fox hunts are still operating across national parks in Wales, which together make up 20 per cent of the country.

Campaigners, plus members of the Cardiff public, today called on the national park authorities to:

• End fox or ‘trail’ hunting on the land they own and manage.

• To show leadership and work with landowners and land managers – who own or manage much of the national parks land – to deny fox hunts access to their land.

The campaign is backed by the Time for Change Coalition Against Hunting representing more than 30 organisations including the RSPCA. It is one of the largest single-issue coalition of charities ever assembled in the UK and is united in calling on the next UK government to strengthen hunting laws.

John added: “The vast majority of the Welsh public want to see a real end to fox hunting, and denying hunts access to the land where they operate will be crucial in achieving that.

“Today’s event was part of a wider national campaign to strengthen hunting laws in England and Wales and finally consign fox hunting to the dustbin of history where it belongs.”