A pro-blood sports pressure group says that the National Trust's ban on stag hunting has led to greater cruelty to deer.

When the trust banned hunting with hounds from its land last year it switched to culling deer with guns.

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But the Friends of the National Trust (Font), a group of pro-hunting trust members, says this method of control is actually less humane.

"The ban on stag hunting means the National Trust is now killing Bambi" said Jo Collins, one of the founders of Font.

The trust holds its annual general meeting in Cardiff on 7 November, with three resolutions on the agenda criticising its ruling council, essentially because of its introduction of the hunting ban.

The ban followed a report by Professor Patrick Bateson, which said that hunting with hounds caused deer to suffer.

Font does not accept that conclusion. It paid for a study by Dr Roger Harris, which says that hunted deer do not suffer excessively.

Country lore

Jo Collins describes stag hunting as "the king of sports".

She adds: "When we hunt, we kill one individual animal - the tufters (hounds used for isolating a deer at the start of the chase) are made to pick out an old one, perhaps, or one that should not breed."

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Roly Ford, the President of the Quantock Stag hounds, said: "I've seen too many deer shot and left with injuries which subsequently killed them.

"I've seen deer shot in the face, their lower jaws hanging off and full of maggots, starving to death.

"But with hunting, either the animal is killed humanely, or it gets away."

Professor Bateson said in his report that hunted deer sometimes survived the chase, only to die later.

"Nonsense", says Roly Ford. "More than once I've seen an animal that was hunted one day happily mating the following morning."

Another opponent of the hunting ban is Tracey Andrews, who rents her home from the Trust.

She says the poachers are now moving in, killing deer at night with dogs.

"The do-gooders have stopped hunting," she said. "But what the poachers do to the deer makes me sick to my stomach."

Hounds defended

Font says that hunted deer are virtually never killed by the stag hounds, which they say are trained not to bite their quarry, only to corner it.

Brian Palmer: The man with the gun

Brian Palmer, a farmer in Porlock, is a member of two hunts.

Mr Palmer is also a National Trust member, though he does not know how long he will remain one.

He is a "gun" - one of the hunt members responsible for despatching a cornered animal with a shotgun.

"I have never seen a hound touch a deer," he says.