THE day hunt supporters throughout England and Wales dreaded, and fought tooth and nail to prevent, has dawned.

The Hunting Act 2004 comes into force today, banning the hunting of foxes, deer and hares with dogs.

A last ditch attempt by three hunters, funded by the Countryside Alliance, to have the new law overturned was quashed in the Court of Appeal on Wednesday.

Its appeal against the legitimacy of the Parliament Act 1949, and in turn the Hunting Act 2004, was dismissed by a panel of three judges headed by Lord Woolf, the Lord Chief Justice.

The judges also refused leave to appeal to the House of Lords, saying it would cast too much uncertainty over the status of the Hunting Act.

John Rolls, RSPCA director of animal welfare promotion, said: "Having presented its arguments to Parliament and the courts, the pro-blood sports Countryside Alliance must now accept the outcome of the democratic process; that hunting is cruel and unnecessary and that the Hunting Act is a perfectly valid piece of legislation.

"The Countryside Alliance would be better off instructing its members that they are duty bound to abide by the new law come February 18, rather than wasting money mounting futile challenges in the courts."

Following the judgement, the alliance's chief executive, Simon Hart, said: "We will immediately petition the House of Lords to consider our case, and the Appeal Court ruling provides strong grounds for them to find in our favour.

"The court felt uneasy about overturning an Act of Parliament that has been accepted for 55 years, even though there were question marks over its validity. If an Act of Parliament is incorrectly enacted then it is invalid, irrespective of whether it was passed yesterday, last week, last year or 55 years ago.

"We are confident in the strength of this challenge, as well as the very important challenge to the legislation on human rights grounds."

Mr Hart said hunting would continue and would "look, sound and smell exactly the same" because the police would not be able to enforce the law.

He claimed about 50,000 people were prepared to defy the ban and carry on hunting "in the full knowledge they will be arrested".

The League Against Cruel Sports said it was setting up a "crimewatch service" to monitor the ban.

Its chief executive, Douglas Batchelor, said: "If we find criminal conspiracies to break the law, then we will tell the police."

RSCPA spokeswoman Becky Hawkes said they would also assist the police in bringing prosecutions.

* Show of defiance: page 17

Leading article: page 22