Family vows never to return to Dartmoor National Park after seeing a fox hunt run amok

A family in Devon was left distraught after they saw a fox hunt running amok and heard them hunting on Dartmoor National Park earlier this month. 

Laura Reid, her five and twelve-year-old children, from Crediton, and her mother have vowed to never return to the park after they saw the Mid Devon Hunt riding across moorland near Belston with its hounds ‘going crazy’, indicating they were on the trail of a fox. 

The foxhounds were seen running through impenetrable gorse, somewhere a trail could never have been laid by a person, before surrounding a copse, all the time in full cry, the sound they make when chasing a fox. 

National animal welfare charity the League Against Cruel Sports is calling for stronger fox hunting laws and the national park authority to take steps to prevent incidents like this from ever happening again.  

Laura said: “What we saw and heard was really disturbing. It was a live hunt going after a fox with its dogs going crazy. My mum was crying and my children were left upset all week. 

“Dartmoor National Park was our happy place, where we could walk and enjoy nature, but we will never go again after seeing this really disturbing incident.” 

Laura saw 30 hounds, around 18 people on horseback and several spectators watching through binoculars before calling the police but has yet to receive a response.  

John Petrie, senior campaigns manager at the League Against Cruel Sports, said: “This shocking incident in which a family was left in tears is yet another example of a fox hunt behaving as they did before the ban and brazenly chasing foxes. 

“The Government needs to strengthen fox hunting laws by banning the discredited excuse of so- called trail hunting used by hunts, removing the loopholes in the Hunting Act, and introducing custodial sentences for those caught breaking the law. 

“Dartmoor National Park Authority should join other national parks across England and Wales in denying fox hunts access to their land.” 

Trail hunting has been described by Temporary Assistant Chief Constable Matt Longman, the most senior police officer in England with responsibility for fox hunting crime, as a “smokescreen for illegal fox hunting”. He has also described illegal hunting as “prolific”. 

The Labour Party manifesto contained a commitment to ban trail hunting, and current environment secretary Steve Reed pledged to eliminate fox hunting within its first term. 

John added: “We need to give the police and courts the powers to stop fox hunting once and for all and to consign this brutal activity to the history books.” 

The incident took place on Saturday, November 16 and was reported to the League’s Animal Crimewatch service. The public can phone on 0300 444 1234 or email crimewatch@league.org.uk or WhatsApp at 0755 278 8247 to report similar incidents. 

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Notes to editors 

You can find details of the League Against Cruel Sports press office here:
https://www.league.org.uk/pres...