Actor and environmentalist Rachel Pilkington has renewed her calls for a ban on cruel fox hunting. "I live in rural Ireland and I am vehemently opposed to fox hunting - it is a cruel, barbaric, one-sided excuse for a sport,” she said in a statement this week. “Deep reflection is urgently needed on the parts of those who continue to condone or perpetuate such deplorable, rural pursuits.” “How can an activity or tradition that traumatises and causes bodily harm to native wildlife be defended or ev