The hunting season has drawn to a close at the end of the sport's most dramatic months and despite February's ban two local hunts are vowing to continue their beloved pursuit.

The Avon Vale and Beaufort hunts have continued to meet despite the Government's new ban on hunting with dogs and both say they have adhered to the law.

But they are hoping and campaigning for an end to the ban because for hunting enthusiasts the battle isn't over yet.

"We are going to keep this fight up as long as it takes," said Beaufort Hunt spokesman Jo Aldridge.

"I do believe the fox is worse off without fox hunting than with it, and that will be proved over time."

Both Wiltshire hunts continued to meet despite the ban and both have adopted alternatives to traditional fox hunting in a bid to continue their sport as best they can.

Legal alternatives include laying down a trail for the hounds to follow, using two hounds to flush out a fox, which may be shot, or hound exercising, when the hunt riders join the hounds on a jaunt around the countryside.

While the hunts say they have endeavoured to stick to the letter of the law, foxes have been killed along the way.

If exercising hounds kill a fox that jumps out of a hedge in front of them, and the huntsman tries to call them off, the law hasn't been broken it is the intent to hunt using dogs that is against the law.

Jonathon Seed, master of the Avon Vale Hunt, said they used a hound trail on the day the ban came into effect, but it did not prove popular with the riders.

"It is too fast," he said. "It requires much faster horses, and a very different approach to riding. It is not suitable for children or the elderly.

"We tried it on the first day and some people told me they didn't want to do it again, so we had to work in other things allowed under the law."

Mr Seed said they had tried to replicate the fox hunting experience and stay within the law.

He said they had stopped the hounds killing foxes on many occasions, but admitted they had killed foxes in front of protesters and police. On these occasions the police had agreed they had not intended to kill and so had remained within the law.

"The ban is not achieving what anyone wants not the Government, not us and not the saboteurs," he said.

"Support for the hunt has consolidated and we have more fundraising events planned.

"People are quite determined to continue until the ban is lifted."

The Avon Vale, which has around 80 hounds at its kennels in Spye Park, has retained hound numbers, and its three members of staff and six horses despite the ban.

Ms Aldridge said the Beaufort had also continued to meet and kept within the remit of the law using a combination of the three allowed alternatives.

"It was not the same as fox hunting but because we are determined to get the ban overturned it is important we keep the community together," she said.

"If anything, support has grown. More people are coming out even people who have never hunted before because they don't like what has happened and want to support us."

She said this would continue again next season, and the campaign to have the ban overturned wouldn't stop.

The hunt is maintaining its staff and the current number of hounds at the moment but Ms Aldridge said that if the ban lasted long they might have to cut back.

"The Beaufort is luckier than most hunts, because our hounds have bloodlines going back hundreds of years, and they are in great demand all over the world."

Peter Parks, League Against Cruel Sports spokesman in Wiltshire, told of his profound disappointment that the change in the law had not led to the end of the killing of foxes.

"A ban? What ban?" he said. "The law was brought in with good intentions but the hunts are working their way around the law and the police and they are carrying on killing foxes."

Mr Parks said the law should have resulted in no more hunting full stop and he believed the police spent more time pursuing and harrying hunt protesters than enforcing the new law.

"The new law was awaste of time. It hasn't helped at all."