FOX-HUNTING in Dorset and the New Forest is set to resume after a 10-month lay-off caused by the foot-and-mouth crisis.

Both the Blandford-based Portman Hunt and the New Forest Hounds have welcomed the government's decision to allow hunting to begin again on December 17 in all parts of the country that are free of foot-and-mouth.

The move follows a series of risk assessments by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Portman Master Hugo Busby said they welcomed the move and would be resuming hunt activities with immediate effect.

He said: "We will be out on December 17. From our point of view we have been ready since September when the season would normally begin.

"We have lost our autumn hunting already and really in Dorset, which has always been a clean county, this decision is long overdue."

The New Forest Hounds said it was looking forward to tackling a big increase in the local fox population.

Members claimed foxes had run riot since hunting with dogs was banned at the start of the foot-and-mouth outbreak in February.

Hunts voluntarily ended their season a month early in February before the government ban was imposed and have been champing at the bit since the traditional start of the hunting season.

New Forest Hounds have already held a number of scheduled meets - without the hounds - to protest at the delay.

Spokesman Nick Smith said: "We are very keen to get going. We've already been contacted by local commoners and farmers who have asked us to go to specific areas where foxes have been causing problems.

"Farmers experiencing problems with foxes wanted us to get out and deal with them, but we couldn't because of the restrictions."

Mr Smith said the hunt would re-employ two staff members made redundant earlier this year as the ban dragged on.

The New Forest Hounds is planning to resume in December and will stage a bumper Boxing Day meet to celebrate its return.

Campaigning to Protect Hunted Animals - a coalition of the RSPCA, League Against Cruel Sports and the International Fund for Animal Welfare - said it was "infuriated" by the news.

Chairman Douglas Batchelor said: "There are clear moral and animal welfare grounds for banning hunting with dogs and no compelling reasons for allowing it to resume.

"If the government can find time to carry out risk assessments to allow hunting to resume then it can find time to ban it."