Coniston Foxhounds Dig Out and Throw LIVE Fox to Hounds
The Lake District Hunt Sabs captured harrowing footage of the Coniston Foxhounds digging out a terrified fox and throwing them to the hounds to be torn apart.
This week, harrowing footage emerged from the Lake District showing the Coniston Foxhounds digging out a terrified fox and throwing them to hounds to be ripped apart.
Captured by the brave Lake District Hunt Sabs, and shared by the Hunt Saboteurs Association, the video is yet another brutal reminder that so-called “trail hunting” is nothing more than a convenient lie, a smokescreen for the continued persecution of wildlife.
The Reality Behind the Spin
The images are difficult to watch: the exhausted fox, cornered and trembling underground; the terrier men digging relentlessly; and then, the unthinkable, the animal hauled out and tossed into a baying pack of hounds.
This isn’t a one-off. It’s part of a pattern of cruelty that has become all too familiar. In 2023, footage from the disgraced Avon Vale Hunt showed almost identical scenes, a fox dug out, thrown to hounds, another fleeing in terror. How many times must we see the same horror before something changes?
How can the public trust hunts that are caught red-handed time and again, yet still insist they’re following a “trail”? They can’t, and this footage proves it once more. Because the moment hunts believe no one is watching, the smokescreen fades, the masks fall, and the ugly reality of bloodsport returns.
Protect the Wild believes this footage demonstrates, beyond doubt, that the Hunting Act is not working. Nearly two decades on, foxes are still being hunted, still being terrorised, and still being killed in the most barbaric ways imaginable.
When a fox manages to escape underground, exhausted, desperate, hunts call in terrier men to dig them out. What follows is torture: an animal dragged from safety and thrown alive to waiting hounds.
This is not sport.
This is not tradition.
This is barbarism.
How you can help
This footage comes at a pivotal moment. With the Hunting Act consultation set for early next year, the truth could not be clearer: the Act is not working.
Twenty years after the so-called “ban,” foxes are still being hunted, still being dug out, still being thrown to hounds. It is barbaric, it is shameful, and it must end.
When the consultation opens, make your voice heard. Say no to wildlife crime. Demand stronger laws. Help end this cruelty once and for all.
To the Brave Ones on the Front Line
To the brave saboteurs and monitors who are out there every week, in the cold, the rain, the mud, standing between life and death, we see you.
You face the hunts. You witness the horror. You gather the evidence, save lives where you can, and expose the truth that so many want to hide. You are fighting the impossible fight, and we commend you, utterly.
Please support the Lake District Hunt Sabs.
Donate if you can. Share this footage. Join your local group.
Because without the people on the ground, without the courage of those who refuse to look away, these crimes would stay hidden, and the killing would never stop.
We owe them everything. And we owe it to the foxes to keep fighting.
This video should be shown on every news channel, to show the public what is still happening. I defy any decent person who sees this, to think this is acceptable. These "people" are inhumane monsters and should be prosecuted and jailed. All hunts should be outlawed.
In research, " people" who demonstrate this type of cruel behaviour will be a risk to animals and vulnerable children and adults. I am a nurse and a farmers daughter.
The #ConistonFoxhounds demonstrate what a despicable barbaric group of low life law braking murderous misfits who enjoy killing wildlife. Hunting Act MUST be scrapped & Hunting of any disruption must be BANDED completely.