A SIDMOUTH woman has spoken about the trauma of witnessing "ferocious" hounds kill a fox in East Devon.

Priscilla Lynch, 52, found herself in the middle of a pack of hunting hounds in her field near Shute on Boxing Day afternoon.

Police have been informed of the incident and a spokesman said they were keen to hear from a man who tried to protect the fox.

Miss Lynch said she had been visiting the plot of land, which has been in their family for 25 years, with her 84-year-old father and her three dogs when she saw hounds break through the hedge after a fox.

She said she started screaming at the dogs when a young man who had stopped his car crawled through the hedge to help. Miss Lynch said the man managed to protect the dying animal from being " ripped apart" by the hounds. She said it took 20 minutes for the fox to die.

"When I got to my field I could hear the hunt nearby when a few hounds broke through the hedge," she said. "All of a sudden the whole pack were in there.

"I started screaming to try to get them off the fox and before I knew it a man had crawled through the hedge and was pushing the hounds off. The dogs went back to the huntsmen and the man crouched over the fox on the ground.

"It was really upsetting. I'm an animal lover so to see that right in front of you was awful.

"The dogs were so ferocious they were like vultures.

"Without the man it would have been ripped apart and had an even worse death. It all happened so quickly.

"I didn't think, I just ran to help it.

"Afterwards I thought about what could have happened to us and how we could have been injured."

Miss Lynch said she has not been able to stop thinking about the incident. "Eight to 10 dogs on one animal is just not right," she continued.

"I was so shocked, every day when I'm awake I've been thinking about it. It's a memory that will be there forever."

The Hunting Act introduced in 2005 outlaws hunting with hounds to deliberately chase or cause cruelty to a wild animal.

Instead hunts use a false scent for hounds to chase and claim they actively avoid causing harm to any animal.

But animal welfare groups have said the law has a loophole which allows animals to be killed during a hunt if it happens unintentionally.

Miss Lynch said: "This incident proves the loophole in the law is when a fox accidently gets killed when the dogs pick up a real scent.

"The Government needs to look at the Act again."

Roy Williams, chairman of the Axe Vale Hunt, said he was not hunting on Boxing Day, but confirmed that the hunt was taking place in the area where the incident happened.

He said that the hunt followed an alternative scent which was laid by a runner or someone on a quad bike, but said the particular scent they use is kept secret.

He said he did not want to comment further on the incident.

Joe Hashman, of Hounds Off, an anti-hunt advisory group for landowners, described the actions of Miss Lynch and the man as "heroic" and appealed for the man to get in touch.

"He deserves a medal for throwing himself in front of the hounds like that," said Mr Hashman.

"We would like to thank him for what he did.

"The scent these hunts are using needs to be readdressed and the hounds retrained, because we are hearing about foxes being caught time and time again across the country."