Fox hunt hounds run amok in popular Cotswold tourist destination
Posted 22nd October 2024
Out of control hounds from a fox hunt have been caught on camera running amok through an idyllic Cotswold village popular with tourists.
The Heythrop Hunt hounds were seen on Friday morning [October 18] rampaging through Bourton-on-the-Water – known as the Venice of the Cotswolds – after the hunt lost control of them in open countryside earlier in the day.
The hounds navigated busy roads, jumped over garden fences and ran down private estate roads before the hunt eventually managed to get them back under control.
The incident has been reported to Gloucestershire police.
John Petrie, senior campaigns manager for the League Against Cruel Sports, said: “It’s evident that the hounds were out of control, in all likelihood after picking up the trail of a fox.
“Hunts claim they follow pre-laid trails, but that’s clearly not the case here or the hounds would not have run off.
“And who on earth would lay a trail through a popular tourist hot spot and home for thousands of villagers?
The hounds were caught on residents’ CCTV running through a housing estate much to the distress of local residents, and also over a fence – on which one of the hounds get caught up – before heading down a road in the village.
A member of the Three Counties Hunt Saboteurs saw the hunt hounds heading towards the village where the footage was captured on residents’ CCTV and obtained by local fox hunt monitors.
John added: “It’s time for change and for fox hunting laws to be strengthened, with so called trail hunting banned, loopholes in the law removed, and custodial sentences introduced for those that break the law.”
In September the Heythrop Hunt was one of a handful of hunts who took part in a trail hunting demonstration day – organised by the Countryside Alliance and designed to show the public the hunts only follow pre-laid trails. But the practice 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 also described illegal hunting as “prolific”.
John said: “The police and courts need new powers to make it easier to prosecute fox hunts who are breaking the law and chasing and killing foxes as they did before the ban.”
The public can phone the League’s Animal Crimewatch service on 0300 444 1234 or email crimewatch@league.org.uk or WhatsApp at 0755 278 8247 to report similar incidents
You can take action against fox hunting by taking part in the following campaigns:
https://www.league.org.uk/camp....
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Notes to editors
You can find contact details and information on the League Against Cruel Sports here:
