The Reality of Boxing Day Fox Hunting

Boxing day is the biggest day in the Fox Hunting Calendar. It's a massive propaganda event run by the Countryside Alliance to portray “trail hunting” - a harmless, legal activity supported by millions of ordinary country folk. They troll out endless pictures of happy children on horseback and contented hounds licking youngsters faces that are lapped up by the right wing media.

The reality is somewhat different. There have so far been three confirmed kills by the Thurlow Hunt in Suffolk, the Cheshire Forest Hunt and the East Kent Hunt who met at Elham and killed at Etching Hill. All three kills were witnessed and have been reported to the police and the Thurlow huntsman has been arrested by Suffolk Police.

Elsewhere supporters of the Grove and Rufford Hunt in Nottinghamshire threw rocks at a vehicle belonging to Sheffield Hunt Saboteurs smashing a window and causing damage to the bodywork

Fox Killed by Cheshire Forest. Credit Cheshire Against the Cull.

In Tredegar, South Wales, a supporter of the Tredegar farmers hunt was arrested for assault after clashing with protestors and hounds have run amok on the A55 in North Wales causing traffic chaos. Witnesses claim a fox was killed by a car whilst trying to escape the hounds who are believed to belong to the Eryri Hunt.

Fox Killed by Cheshire Forest. Credit Cheshire Against the Cull.

Lee Moon, Spokesperson for the Hunt Saboteurs Association, stated: “If this is what hunts are happy to do when the eyes of the world are on them imagine how they behave the rest of the year. Most hunts act as if the hunting Act doesn't exist and they flout the ban with impunity. Trail hunting is a myth created by the Countryside Alliance to allow fox hunting to continue unchecked. Hunted animals will never be safe while packs of trained dogs are allowed to rampage across the countryside. The only way the Hunting Act can be enforced is if the hunts are forced to disband.”