Fox cub hunt should "own up and face the music"

Hunt management 'must show leadership', says charity

A film published on YouTube today allegedly shows a hunt breaking the law by hunting fox cubs, according to an animal welfare charity.



The League Against Cruel Sports says that the film shows people taking part in 'cub hunting', where a hunt trains its young hounds to kill by setting them on young fox cubs. Campaigners say the practice has become known as 'autumn hunting' in recent years as hunts have attempted to make the spectacle sound less unpleasant.

"This hunt cannot claim to be trail hunting as you'd never lay a trail in a covert and then surround it," said Joe Duckworth, the League's chief executive. "The film clearly shows hunt supporters surrounding a covert, and when the fox pops out, they do all they can to drive it back in to the waiting hounds. This is as grotesque as hunting gets and it's illegal."

The footage was shot by two League Against Cruel Sports volunteer hunt observers in County Durham last month.

Mr Duckworth said that the individuals concerned cannot be prosecuted as they can't be identified from the film. "But we know that only two registered hunts hunt across this land in County Durham, and so do the Masters of Fox Hounds Association, who claim to hold hunts to account. If that Association was true to its name and claim, they'd be insisting that the hunt concerned identifies itself and issues a public apology, and that the people involved hand themselves into police."

"We doubt either the hunt concerned, or the Masters of Fox Hounds Association, will be big or brave enough to do so," he added.

Hunting with hounds became illegal in 2005 when the Hunting Act 2004 came into force. More than 180 people have been convicted under the Act, making it one of the most successful pieces of animal welfare legislation in recent years.

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