NEARLY 3,000 huntsmen and women are ready to break the law and defy any ban on their sport. They have signed a declaration saying they will take part openly in illegal hunts.

Organisers, however, are hoping to muster as many as 30,000 named individuals prepared to risk fines or imprisonment to defend their liberties in the event of a ban.

Supporters of hunting are using today’s opening of the Game Fair, the leading national event for fields sports organised by the Country Land and Business Association, as a recruiting ground for martyrs to the cause. Some 40,000 are expected to turn out at Harewood House, north of Leeds, and another 80,000 will attend this weekend.

The declaration is seen as a useful register of protest by people who are normally law-abiding citizens. It also appears to have reined in hunt militants, who have threatened a more aggressive campaign of civil disobedience that could disrupt motorways, main road junctions, city centres and water and power supplies.

Senior figures in the hunting world have confided that they are concerned that the action of hotheads could backfire by antagonising peers in the House of Lords, which is to debate the Hunting Bill next month, and by alienating public opinion.

The hunting declaration is being organised by the right-wing philosopher Roger Scruton, Steve Hill, a former terrierman with the Heythrop Hunt, and Michael Markham, a former businessman turned farmer.

Among those who have already signed are the Duke of Rutland, who owns Belvoir Castle, Lincolnshire, Clarissa Dickson Wright, cook and countryside campaigner, and Simon Williams, the actor who appeared in ITV’s Upstairs, Downstairs.

All members of the Countryside Alliance are to receive a letter from John Jackson, the alliance chairman, this weekend highlighting the offensive and enclosing a declaration form. As a political lobbying organisation it cannot advocate breaking the law, but Mr Jackson urges members to “examine their personal conscience” to see if they wish to sign the declaration.

He states that the alliance “does not advocate law-breaking but will demonstrate support for those who do so as a matter of personal conscience at the time of their trial. There is a difference between those who break the law hoping to avoid punishment and those who defy unjust laws and are prepared to accept punishment with the intention of drawing attention to injustice.”

The purpose of the declaration is to show the sheer numbers of people prepared to be named. It is hoped it will focus minds in the Government.

A list is likely to be published when the first 5,000 names are registered.

The plan, at present, is for a mass illegal hunt to take place as soon as a ban is in force. Organisers believe that police and courts would be unable to deal with such a huge event involving riders, horses, dogs and foot followers in the middle of the countryside.

The location has not been chosen but many hunting figures believe such a demonstration should take place on publicly owned land, perhaps Forestry Commission or Ministry of Defence property, where landowners could not be accused of allowing an illegal hunt to take place.

Hunting sources say they believe police will try to embarrass huntsmen by bringing prosecutions against landowners such as the Duke of Devonshire, who told The Times last year that he will allow illegal hunting on his 12,000-acre Chatsworth estate.

Under the Bill landowners turning a blind eye to hunting face a fine of up to £5,000. Persistent breaches or non-payment could lead to a sentence of up to six months’ in jail.

The 11th Duke, aged 83, said: “I am on record with my views and will continue to allow hunting on my land. I would not want to go to prison but I am prepared to do so. I would become a martyr and I don’t think the Government would be too keen on that. But what is worrying for them is that totally law-abiding people are now prepared to disobey the law.” He said the hunting Bill was “a sop” by Tony Blair to his backbenchers. “This shows a total lack of perspective. We are the laughing stock of the world,” he said.

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