Young foxes are being taken from the wild and kept so they can be hunted illegally at a later date, the League against Cruel Sports claims, after they uncovered 16 terrified cubs being kept in a barn linked to a high-profile hunt.
Covert video footage taken by the League shows 16 cubs being kept in a shed on land linked to the Middleton Foxhounds hunt, near Malton in North Yorkshire.
The footage, which was taken in May this year, shows an employee visiting the shed to feed the cubs, who are thought to have been forcibly removed from their elders.
Police have now removed the cubs - though sadly one died shortly after - and they are being kept at a secret location.
Dr Toni Shephard, Head of Policy and Research for the League Against Cruel Sports said: “This blows apart the argument that hunting is ‘wildlife management’. Why would people working for a hunt be keeping young foxes? The answer is simple but terrible – they capture foxes so there is always a ready supply of animals to be chased by the hunt. Put bluntly, these foxes were kidnapped for cruelty.”
“We’re sure that there will be a denial that these captured foxes are linked to the local hunt, but the evidence is right there,” said Dr Shephard. “The other footage, the intelligence we have received and testimony from people who have been involved in hunts all show that raising foxes to be hunted was, and still is, a common practice among hunts.
“A vocal minority are trying to get the Hunting Act repealed, and one of their key arguments is that hunting with dogs is some form of ‘fox control’ service. Anyone seeing this footage can now see what a despicably false argument that is. Hunting with dogs is nothing to do with fox control. It is simply a cruel sport, nothing more – and now it is clear that it is even crueller than most people ever knew.”