Animal rights activists have released a horrific showreel of incidents that shows foxes being fed to baying hounds.
The League Against Cruel Sports claimed its video proves barbaric practices are deeply ingrained in the fox -hunting community.
It follows another video that the Record highlighted two weeks ago in which Conrad Jones tossed a freshly killed fox to dogs and encouraged them to rip it apart at a hunt in Howwood, Renfrewshire.
His huntmaster said Jones, 24, had made a mistake – but the League claims he was only doing what other hunters do as a matter of routine.
The video released by the League shows a further three very similar incidents in which a fox is seen after being flushed out legally then fed to the dogs.
Spokesman Robbie Marsland claimed the video shows the cruelty involved in fox hunting is alive and well, despite the law banning the dogs from hunting down the animals in the traditional way.
Marsland said: “If hunts were obeying the law, the dogs would be used to flush a fox from cover where it could then be shot – but where’s the fun in that?
“Traditional hunting celebrates the suffering and the kill. Throwing dead foxes to dogs ensures they continue to have the taste for blood, and subsequently the desire to kill.
“The footage shows that hunters are not ready to give this element of their sport up.
“It is just one of the routine and systematic ways the pro-hunting lobby uses to try to keep their cruel sport alive.”
The three latest incidents documented include the Fife Hunt, Lindores, in March 2019, the Duke of Buccleuch Hunt in the Borders in March 2020, and the Berwickshire Hunt in Abbey St Bathans in November 2017. Each shows a dead fox being thrown to a pack of dogs.
The videos were released after Jones was filmed holding a dead fox and asking a hunt saboteur: “Do you want me to hold it up for you?”
The huntsmaster of the Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire Hunt said that hunt was legal and defended Jones, saying: “Everybody makes mistakes.”
Although fox hunting with dogs was banned in Scotland in 2002, an unlimited number of dogs are allowed to chase foxes from cover so they can be shot.
Glasgow Hunt Sabs said members watched a fox being driven towards a line of guns and shot dead during the Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire Hunt.
The group claimed they watched a “legal kill facilitated by illegal actions”, saying hunting laws were breached when the animal was chased by hounds over open ground.
They said: “If it’s not illegal, it’s morally disgusting. Surely this isn’t pest control.”
In April, the Scottish Greens called for a total ban on fox hunting, saying loopholes must be closed to put a stop to all “cruel” killings by hunts with dogs.
The three hunts were approached for comment.
This article by Mark McGivern was first published by The Daily Record on 4 December 2021. Lead Image: A fox being fed to the hounds at the Fife Hunt, Lindores in March 2019 (Image: UGC MSR).
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