LONDON, Feb. 19 (Xinhuanet) -- Thousands of hunters are joining more than 250 fox hunts Saturday to test the limits of a new ban which came into force across England and Wales one day earlier, the Countryside Alliance announced.

    Chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, Simon Hart, said it was "simply the first day in the dismantling of the Hunting Act."

    The new legislation bans all hunting with hounds, including thepursuit of rabbits and deer. However, there are a number of loopholes in the law. For example, exercising hounds, chasing a scent trail, and flushing out foxes to be shot are still legal.

    If a fox runs out during the hunt and the hounds chase and killit, the hunters say there is very little they can do to stop it, adding that the risk of a fox appearing during an exercise is alsounavoidable.

    The police said Saturday they will not break up hunts but promised to monitor this weekend's hunting.

    "The law says a person is guilty of an offense if he hunts a wild mammal with a dog. That is a fairly straightforward piece of legislation," Suffolk county Chief Constable Alastair McWhirter told the BBC.

    Earlier this week, hunt supporters lost the latest round of their legal challenge to the law banning hunting with dogs since the Court of Appeal judged the 1949 Parliament Act was valid. The British government had used the act to get the hunt ban legislation passed after it was rejected repeatedly by the House of Lords.

    The ruling comes as a latest BBC poll suggests support for the ban is below 50 percent, compared to 63 percent in a similar poll in 1999. Enditem