His bellows symbolised the high farce that surrounded the last few hours before the bill banning hunting was finally passed. It also seemed to reflect the anguish and confusion of the country’s hunt supporters who are about to see their venerable sport turned into a crime.

After years of campaigns, 10 previous Commons votes and repeated obstruction by the Lords, many could not quite believe that the ban had gone through. In the pubs around Westminster, as the hunting lobbyists and the Tory Lords and MPs who had supported them gathered to work out what had gone wrong and what to do next, the overwhelming feeling was of anger and disbelief.

For many, the gloom only deepened as they left the Commons to see, just over the road on College Green, the surreal sight of two women dressed as animals doing a victory dance for MPs and the television cameras.

Rosa Hill, dressed as a stag, and Hattie Blok, in a fetching fox outfit, are from the Campaign for the Protection of Hunted Animals (CPHA). But the banners they carried, displaying a big “Thank You” message to MPs, just angered the hunters even more.

As they danced, champagne corks were also popping in the nearby offices of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, the League Against Cruel Sports and the Royal Society for the Protection of Animals (RSPCA).

For all three organisations, partners in the CPHA, Thursday’s vote was the culmination of a campaign that began 80 years ago, making it one of the longest and most fiercely fought political battles that Britain has ever seen.

During that period it has devoured millions of pounds of their funds and, in the past seven years alone, consumed more than 700 hours of parliamentary time, putting it on a par with the debates over Iraq or reform of the National Health Service.

FOR campaigners, the 25,000 foxes that will be saved from the jaws of hounds each year make everything worth it.

For them, the issue at the heart of the battle over hunting is simply that it is cruel and that ending it will allow animals to have better lives.

“It’s simply time for a ban,” said their spokeswoman, pointing out that sports such as dog and cock fighting were outlawed more than 150 years ago. It is an argument whose superficial logic might seem compelling.

But for many — and not just the hunting lobby — it is one that is very much at odds with the real facts and figures of animal welfare. Such figures show, for example, that while foxhunting kills about 25,000 foxes a year, 375,000 die from other causes such as gunshot wounds and starvation.

What of the bigger picture? How do we reconcile the vast time and concern expended on 25,000 foxes while the country busily rears 850m chickens a year for slaughter in battery hen houses whose conditions turn them into a travesty of their wild ancestors.

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