PROTESTERS gathered in Oxford to campaign against fox hunting and the badger cull.

Activists dressed as badgers and foxes handed out literature and criticised the National Trust and National Farmers Union, outside Oxford University’s Centre for the Environment, on South Parks Road.

Last night's demonstration was at the scene of ‘a farming and wildlife round table’ between the two organisations.

The protest – backed by the League Against Cruel Sports, National Dis-Trust and the Oxfordshire Badger Group – aimed ‘to raise awareness of the animal welfare issues that are blighting the British countryside.’

Demonstrators labelled the ‘quiet protest’ ‘very successful’.

Emily Lawrence, the Regional Campaign Manager at the League Against Cruel Sports, said: “Yesterday, the Trust held a round table discussion on the future of the countryside, farming and wildlife with the NFU. The league would like to see that future include a total ban of hunting on Trust land.

"While they still keep issuing trail hunting licences, we will continue to protest and inform the public that trail hunting is a lie and a deceit. The National Trust is meant to be for everyone, for ever – but at the moment it’s certainly not for animal lovers or foxes.”

Julia Hammett, Chair of the Oxfordshire Badger Group, added: “We explained how the NFU, regarded by many as a lobby group for agri-business, is failing to address the catastrophic loss of biodiversity in the countryside.

“We are protesting because the NFU has put pressure on the Government to extend the inhumane, unscientific and costly cull of badgers, although there is no clear evidence that the slaughter of thousands of badgers is having any meaningful effect on reducing bTB in cattle. Instead of pushing to kill up to 40,000 badgers, the largest destruction of a protected species in living memory, the NFU should be focusing its efforts on the real issue of preventing cattle to cattle transmission of bTB through more accurate and frequent testing, tighter restrictions on cattle movements and a nationwide programme of vaccination for badgers.”

A spokesperson for National Dis-Trust said the National Trust has licensed three fox hunts during the 2017/18 hunting season which it believed has illegally hunted and trespassed on private land.

The spokesperson continued: “We have also highlighted on a number of occasions that this estate is in the High Risk Area for bovine tuberculosis (bTB) and has two ongoing bTB breakouts, yet has no apparent issue with granting licences for hunts to travel in from 300 miles away. These licences should be scrapped to protect wildlife and to prevent the spread of bTB by hunting hounds.”

The National Trust said it was not aware of any identified and proven causal relationship ,backed by scientific evidence, between trail hunting and the spread of bTB through dogs. It added that it did not believe this had been raised as a concern by Defra or farming groups.

A National Trust spokesperson said: “We take any reports of unlicensed trail hunts on our land very seriously and we seek urgent clarification from the relevant trail hunts. In prior years we've declined to issue, have suspended, or have revoked trail hunting licences when either licence conditions have been breached or where we have lost confidence in a trail hunt’s ability to adhere to the conditions.”

The NFU did not respond to a request for comment.