Two Buckinghamshire men have been convicted of animal cruelty after a covert camera captured the moment they dragged a fox from beneath the ground by its tail.
Ian Parkinson, 64, of Lower Road, Haddenham, and Mark Vincent, 53, of Kimblewick, Aylesbury, each denied a single charge of causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal, contrary to section 4 of the Animal Welfare Act 2006.
The pair were convicted at their trial at Oxford Magistrates' Court on Wednesday, 30th October 2019.
The maximum penalty for this offence is 26 weeks custody and/or an unlimited fine on summary conviction.
Reporting of this case is a bit sparse and sadly it does not confirm the basis of the men's defence, which could have been interesting given the existence of seemingly prima facie video evidence.
District Judge Kamlesh Rana heard that the offence, which was committed near the Oxfordshire town of Thame on New Year's Day 2019, involved the two Kimblewick Hunt workers aggressively pursuing a fox that had taken to ground.
Covert video footage showed that they plunged a pole into the distressed animal's underground hiding place, forcefully dragged it to the surface by the tail and released it in the path of hounds from the hunt. Hunting horns could be heard blowing in the background.
Veterinary surgeon David Martin told the court the fox was likely to have been traumatised after being yanked from safety and into the path of its predators.
In the prosecution's closing statement, barrister Peter Ryman said it was the duty of humans to treat protected animals correctly.
"Protected animals in the wild live and die by the rules of the jungle but when we interfere we have a duty to treat them right," he said.
Judge Rana said the fox was "trapped in the earth and was faced with drainage rods at one end and humans at the other".
She said the pair's actions were "deliberate and premediated" and added the offence crossed the custody threshold.
Parkinson and Vincent were released on unconditional bail until their sentencing hearing on Tuesday, 26th November 2019.
Martin Sims, director of investigations at the League Against Cruel Sports and former head of the police's National Wildlife Crime Unit, said: "The case provided clear evidence that the Kimblewick Hunt is flouting the hunting ban and is releasing foxes to be chased and literally torn apart by their hounds.
"As this successful prosecution shows, the issue of fox hunting is still very much live. As we enter into a general election, the future leaders of our country should be taking note and doing everything they can to ensure that the ban on hunting is upheld and further strengthened to prevent this type of barbaric activity ever happening again."
Update (26/11/19): Parkinson and Vincent has now been sentenced.
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