Pippa Middleton has been criticised by animal rights charities after it was reported that she joined a hunt in Belgium last month where six boar and nine deer were killed.

Kate's little sister is believed to have been invited on the trip in Gerpinnes with 20 other people by the grandsons of the country's richest man Albert Frere.

'It's sad to see someone in such an influential position indulging in this cruelty,' says the League Against Cruel Sports. 

The incident comes nine months after Pippa, 29, caused controversy as a passenger in a car in Paris with French aristocrat Arthur de Soultrait, who pointed a toy gun out of the window.

The Frere family declined to comment on Pippa's alleged visit to Belgium to the Daily Mail, saying that 'hunting is a private affair', while Clarence House said it doesn't comment on Kate's sibling.

'It's a shame she's so desperate to be royal by association that
she's now seemingly aping their hunting bloodlust,' animal charity Viva's spokesman
Justin Kerswell tells The Sun.

'There is nothing classy about shooting terrified wild animals for sport.'

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Anna Duff