FOR huntsman Joe Townsend, yesterday began, like every other day, with a 6.30am start to exercise more than 100 hounds - despite the fact that 230 miles away in Whitehall, the sport that is his livelihood was about to be banned.

The Old English foxhounds of the Hurworth Hunt, based at kennels at West Rounton, near Northallerton, North Yorkshire, are taken out for exercise for three-quarters of an hour, then it is back to the kennels for a feed.

The rest of the day is usually spent collecting fallen stock from farms in the area, some of which is used to feed the dogs.

According to Mr Townsend, the hunt usually collects about 1,200 calves, between 50 and 100 horses and hundreds of sheep and cows every year.

"The Government have banned farms from burying this stuff. What are they going to do with it when we are not there?" he said.

Talk of defeating the Bill is now at an end, but the fight is not over, with the Countryside Alliance promising a legal challenge and hunts across the country vowing to ignore the ban.

"We are absolutely, totally outraged by this. We are hunting people, it has been our way of life, all our lives," said Mr Townsend.

"We have three full time employees here, all with their homes here as well as their jobs. We are all just a little bit numb at the moment.

"They won't even talk about compensation for us. We do not want compensation, we want to be able to keep our jobs."

The Hurworth hunt operates across a wide swathe of North Yorkshire, County Durham and Cleveland, bordering the Zetland, Cleveland, South Durham, Bedale and Bilsdale hunts.

It is one of the oldest in the country and celebrated its 200th anniversary last year.

The hounds' pedigree can be traced back as far. It is this history and pedigree that would make a switch to drag hunting impossible, said Mr Townsend.

"The hounds have been born and bred for hunting, it is totally in their blood.

"I could not take these hounds out on a drag hunt and guarantee that if a fox moved, they wouldn't divert on to it - and that makes us criminals.

"Ultimately, the hounds will be put down. Obviously, we will try to keep them going as long as there is a chance of any legal challenge, but they are a pack animal and they are not happy on their own."

Much of the anger emanating from hunt supporters comes from the feeling that the ban has been pushed through Parliament by MPs who have little understanding of the countryside.

"We had a media day last Friday and we invited four MPs that we knew were against hunting to come and find out what hunting was about," said Mr Townsend.

"Three of them did not even reply and the fourth did, but to say that she was not going to come.

"They are not even prepared to talk to us when they are quite prepared to vote on something that is going to destroy our way of life."

Some people are threatening civil disobedience by flouting the ban, while some landowners are preparing a campaign of non-co-operation with government departments who need to be on their land.

"Why should we co-operate with the Government over anything now? said Mr Townsend.

"I totally despise them. There are far more important things in this country to be dealing with before anything like fox hunting."