A dozen demonstrators gathered outside Council buildings yesterday to protest against grouse shooting on Ilkley Moor.

Members of the West Yorkshire Hunt Saboteurs and their supporters displayed banners and handed out leaflets at Jacob’s Well offices and City Hall.

They want Bradford Council to reverse its decision to grant a ten-year licence for grouse to be shot on the moor.

Hunt saboteurs’ spokesman Luke Steele said: “We are here to shame the Council into action. A petition has gone in and we are still campaigning – including protests and writing letters.”

Using a loudhailer, one protester stated: “Where cruelty is perpetuated there will always be people who will oppose it.”

The Bingley Moor Partnership agreed the contract to organise the shoots with the Council, which owns and maintains the moor, but chairman Edward Bromet has said there will be no shooting for two years because of a shortage of grouse stocks.