'Hounds were on her straight away': South Wales sabs report another fox kill
Sennybridge Farmers Hunt's hounds killed fox December 14
South Wales Hunt Saboteurs reported that Sennybridge Farmers Hunt's hounds caught and killed a female fox on 14 December. Unfortunately, the incident happened very suddenly, too quickly for foot saboteurs to intervene. But sabs did retrieve her body and " laid the lovely fox to rest in a peaceful place far, far away from hunt thugs, where she won’t be disturbed," the group said.
In a Facebook post on the incident, the saboteur group explained that when following the Sennybridge Farmers Hunt on 14 December, their vehicle had to pull over to allow others to pass. At that moment, a fox suddenly appeared in a field where the hounds were hunting. The "hounds were on her straight away," the sabs wrote, and despite members of the group racing towards them on foot to intervene, by the time they got there the fox was already dead.
South Wales Hunt Saboteurs shared images of the distressing event unfolding, including images of the hounds attacking the fox on the ground. In a further image, a saboteur holds the lifeless and bloodied body of the fox in their hands.
The group took the body of the fox to their vehicle, before returning to the field to try and get a phone signal so they could report the incident to police. It was at this point that hunt supporters turned up and "started shoving sabs out of the field," the group wrote. They added:
"Around this time, the huntsman began using horn calls to gather the hounds, from quite some distance away on top of the hill."
In September, Nation.Cymru reported that a tourist witnessed hounds from this same hunt chasing a fox close to the National Show Caves Centre, which is an attraction in Wales' Brecon Beacons National Park. The tourist told Nation.Cymru:
"I was extremely disturbed when I saw the fox being chased by the hounds. The poor thing looked terrified and completely exhausted, its tongue hanging out – it didn’t look right at all.
I don’t think it got away as I later heard the sound of hounds baying by the caves.
This shows we need a proper national ban as otherwise fox hunting is never going away.”
A proper ban
The Hunting Act is supposed to safeguard foxes from being subject to this sort of savagery. But as the comments above indicate, the act is not a 'proper' ban. It contains so many exploitable loopholes that although hunting with dogs is banned in theory, it enables continued hunting with dogs in practice.
This is why Protect the Wild is calling on the government to transform the law governing hunting so that legislation provides meaningful protections for wildlife. To have a robust law in place, many changes are needed, including instituting a complete ban on the use of dogs in activities aimed at killing wild animals, such as 'predator control', 'wild mammal management', and deer stalking, as well as a ban on trail hunting.
The Labour government has already conceded that change is necessary by promising in its election manifesto to ban trail hunting. However, it has failed to take action as yet. Like many before it, the current government is not making good on its promises. Take the badger cull as another example. Though Labour vowed to end the "ineffective" cull before being elected, it has since confirmed that it may allow culling right up until the end of its current term in office in 2029.
Make your voice heard
Housing secretary Angela Rayner has also recently made headlines for suggesting she will prioritise building housing over protecting newts – rhetoric that Boris Johnson also used before her. Prime Minister Keir Starmer went further, making comments that suggested a choice will need to be made between housing and nature. Again, he insisted that houses for human beings must be prioritised over homes for wildlife.
Putting aside the fact that these politicians are presenting the public with a false dilemma, as it is entirely possible for wild animals and plants to keep their existing homes and for houses to be built for people, compare this rhetoric on newts and nature with what the party promised in its manifesto: that Labour would "expand nature-rich habitats" so that "wildlife can thrive."
Very sad.