AN anti-hunt campaigner wants to see new dog control orders applied to local hunts.

As revealed in yesterday's Echo, a crackdown aimed at cutting public nuisance caused by dogs has been introduced by East Devon District Council.

Within the orders is a ban on the walking of more than six dogs at one time. With the East Devon Hunt operating throughout the district, campaigner Kathy Moyle, of East Budleigh, said this restriction should also apply to the hunt's use of hounds.

However, a council spokesman said that while no exemption was in place for hounds involved in a hunt that, on a practical level, it would be very difficult to enforce such an order. But Ms Moyle, 65, who owns a collie called Lilly, said it was unfair to have one rule for most owners and another for the hunts.

She said: "Normal dog owners have to abide by the laws so why shouldn't they? It is not fair and makes me so angry.

"They don't have an exemption in the act. The hunt does meet in public places, such as the square in Ottery St Mary and Seaton seafront.

"The district council took the East Devon Hunt to court a few years go and the hunt said in its defence that only the huntsman was in charge of the hounds. They can not claim now that different people are in charge."

A spokesman for East Devon District Council said: "No special provision for hounds with a hunt is either meant by or embodied in the order. However, if we consider the practical impact of the orders and their enforcement, it is clear that in normal circumstances the order is unlikely to be enforceable for a number of reasons.

"Firstly, the order does not apply if the dog owner has a "reasonable excuse".

"It is likely that in a court of law the taking of more than six dogs onto land where those dogs constitute a pack of organised hounds involved in a legal hunt would amount to a reasonable excuse.

"Secondly, it also seems likely that in most locations the hunt will be there with the express consent of the landowner and again, that consent provides a specific exclusion from having to comply with any dog control order relating to that land.

"Finally it is also likely that an argument could be presented that the hunt staff collectively would manage the pack of hounds and so the number of dogs per person would not exceed the maximum of six.

"Such exceptions are not limited to hunts alone. There are also a number of other circumstances where we might need to accept that there is a reasonable excuse for failing to comply with the order."

Michael Moore, joint master of the East Devon Hunt, said: "I don't see the new orders having any impact on us and agree with the points raised by the council. If we have, say, 36 hounds out there is always more than six people on the hunt with them at the time.

"I think campaigners can see the possibility that the hunting ban could be repelled and are clutching at straws to do everything they can to break it up."

The orders also make it an office to fail to pick-up after your dog fouls, fail to put your dog on a lead when told to do so, prohibiting dogs from certain areas and certain parts of the beaches. Dog owners could face fines of up to £1,000 on conviction.