The row over the ban on hunting intensified yesterday as animal welfare campaigners said they had used the pro-hunt lobby's own questions to finally prove the public want the hunt ban enforced.

The League Against Cruel Sports has long used YouGov polls to show public support for the ban on hunting.

However, the polls have often been dismissed by pro-hunt groups such as the Countryside Alliance, who accuse the league of asking biased questions designed to get favourable answers.

In the past, the league has been criticised for listing fox hunting alongside badgerbaiting and cock-fighting in poll questions to gauge public opposition to the pastime.

But now the league is claiming a coup after it took one of the alliance's own polling questions, on enforcing the controversial ban, and discovered huge opposition to police and the courts turning a blind eye to law-breaking.

YouGov asked a question from the alliance's 2009 poll: "Where there is clear evidence of people breaking the Hunting Act, the police should investigate and, where appropriate, prosecute."

A total of 77 per cent of people asked said they agreed the ban should be enforced, and just 15 per cent thought not. The league said more people thought a blind eye should be turned to flouting the smoking ban than the hunting ban.

The poll came as the bitter arguments over the hunt ban intensified.

Last week, the WesternDaily Press reported the league saying it had managed to persuade the majority of MPs to support its side if repealing the ban is put before the Commons, which the Countryside Alliance did not directly dispute.

With hunts staging their symbolic "first meet" of the season this weekend, the anti-hunt International Fund For Animal Welfare claimed prosecutions for breaching the hunt ban were running at more than one a week.

Pro-hunters said the overwhelming majority of these were for poachers using more than two dogs, rather than the officials of organised hunts.

The League poll result was "a slap in the face for the hunting community", according to its chief executive Douglas Batchelor.

"For years, the hunters have said that opinion polling was flawed as one only had to ask the 'right' question to get the desired answer," he said.

"But this time we have used the question they asked last year, and the results are clear: less than one in five support repeal of the Hunting Act.

"We begin this hunting season with representatives of four hunts about to stand trial for Hunting Act offences and our message is clear: break the law and we are very likely to be there to bring you to justice."

The Alliance said the poll result had nothing to do with the "useless" legislation, and the rise in prosecutions had nothing to do with hunting.

"We remain confident the case for repeal is absolutely clear; this is a useless and confusing, vindictive piece of legislation, and it is utterly wasting police time," a spokesman said.

"More people have been convicted of hunting rats than chasing foxes.

"There are 300 hunts across the country, each hunt twice or three times a week – that's something like one prosecution for every 32,500 hunting days."