Fox 'hunted to ground' in a badger sett near Banbury, saboteurs release film - hunt thanks cheering supporters at Boxing Day meet

Warwickshire Hunt, which hosted its annual Boxing Day meet on the Upton Estate, said it would not add to previous comment about the West Midlands Hunt Saboteurs’ (WMHS) ‘edited and unsubstantiated videos’.

However Master of Foxhounds Sam Butler said the meet was a very popular event.

“Walking through the huge crowd I met many people from Banbury, Shipston, Stratford-upon-Avon and Coventry all there cheering and clapping in support of our cause,” he said.

Mr Butler pointed out the ‘negative consequences’ of Hunting Act 2004, which banned all hunting of wild mammals, including foxes, with dogs.

He said: "This Act was supposed to improve wildlife management and in fact, the converse has been proven with quarry species (fox, red deer and hare) now being persecuted with resulting damage to wildlife habitat and to rural communities who manage them.”

The WMHS posted a video on YouTube following the hunt. They claimed there was a lower than normal turnout and less land covered by the hunt than in previous years at its biggest meet of the year.

"It was on the Upton Estate that a fox was put up and hunted up towards Sugarswell before turning back down and heading into Shenington Hirons Covert. This is a wood that we have seen many foxes running from the hunt over the years,” the WMHS said.

"(A) fox headed out of the woods, down into the valley and up to where our saboteur was positioned. The hounds soon followed, taking the exact line that the fox had taken. The fox was hunted... over to Shenington where it took refuge down a badger sett.

"Our vehicle sab then saw the hounds trying to get down into the badger sett before huntsman (Will) Goffe gathered the hounds and left just as the foot sab approached the sett.”

In a statement given to the Banbury Guardian by Warwickshire Hunt, The Countryside Alliance (CA) said Boxing Day meets continue ‘to draw large crowds more than 18 years after the Hunting Act came into force with thousands pledging their support to a new campaign to oppose restrictions to trail hunting, brought in (in) 2005 to keep hunting alive in the wake of the Hunting Act, which banned hunting foxes with hounds’.

The statement said: “The festivities come as the Labour Party once again commits to re-opening the issue of hunting by bringing forward further legislation to “strengthen” the Hunting Act, should they form the next government.”

The CA has warned Labour not to engage in a ‘toxic culture war’ by legislating to ban hunting again and has urged Keir Starmer to ‘right the wrongs of the past’ and end its ‘running attack on rural communities’.

The alliance used Boxing Day 2023 to officially kick-start an Action for Hunting initiative, with the intention of signing up thousands of supporters in towns and villages to create ‘army of supporters, ready to spring-board into action’ to oppose any new restrictions on hunting.