A ONE woman fund-raising appeal amassed more than £33,000 in a year to help Cumbrian fell packs offset the effects of the foot-and-mouth outbreak.

Linda Porter, secretary of the central committee of the fell packs, started the appeal last March when she realised that, with the Cumbria countryside effectively shut down, the Lakeland fell packs - which rely on money raised at social events held in the summer months to sustain them through the hunting season - would find it extremely hard to generate enough revenue to survive.

As a result of her campaign, donations flooded in from across the UK as well as from Kenya, the USA, Germany, Ireland and Canada.

More than 320 individuals and groups made donations, with one person offering £6,000 in total.

"What was particularly astonishing were the number of donations from people who seemed to have no connection with hunting," said Mrs Porter, who is also joint master of the Eskdale and Ennerdale Foxhounds.

"The threat to the existence of the fell hunts and the welfare of the hounds obviously touched many people."

Money raised was divided between the nine packs which hunt in and around Cumbria including the Blencathra, Lunesdale, Coniston, Melbreak, Ullswater, Eskdale and Ennerdale, North Lonsdale, Wensleydale and North Pennine foxhounds.

l COUNTRYSIDE camp-aigners have warned the Government it faces a summer of protest against its attempts to introduce new hunting laws.

Rural affairs minister Alun Michael has launched a six-month consultation process before a revised hunting bill is brought before Parliament in the autumn.

But in a letter to its 100,000 members, Countryside Alliance chief executive Richard Burge accuses the Govern-ment of failing to heed rural pleas for fairness, and said the latest decision on hunting had "provoked a level of anger which must be brought to the Government's attention."

He warned that DEFRA ministers would be subject to consistent law-abiding protests at official engagements, as part of a sustained campaign by rural people.

Mr Burge added that this was also highly likely to include a reinstated massive protest march in London, after last year's event had to be cancelled due to foot-and-mouth.

"There is a clear attempt to use hunting as a sacrificial lamb on the altar of political convenience," he wrote.

"Quite simply, we will not allow anyone to get away with it."