HUNDREDS of hunt supporters vowed to test the law on hunting - the day after a ban comes into force.
Packs and foxhounds and beagles will meet on Saturday, only 24 hours after the ban becomes law.
The pro-hunting group Countryside Alliance pledged hunts will operate within the law, but it said hunts had planned to test loopholes in the Hunting Act.
Hunts meeting will include the Zetland hunt, from Aldbrough St John, near Darlington, and South Durham hunt, which dates back to the seventeenth century and is based at Sedgefield.
But hunts are bracing themselves for the possibility of protestors at the events.
Durham Police said: "We knew that policing or enforcing the new law would be difficult but that does not mean that we won't try.
"If we receive any information that provides evidence of a crime then we will investigate it but we are not planning to chase around hunts, that would be impossible."
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