Fox hunting was banned in the UK a substantial time ago. In theory people do not hunt foxes anymore, the traditional hunting organisations now follow a trail set down.
This is, I am sure, great fun, however there are significant numbers of people who dislike it, as it is not uncommon for a fox to accidentally be killed on these trips.
There is another issue in that at a hunt which consists of significant numbers of people on horses along with a large group of hunting dogs will cross a number of people’s land. If they are sitting down a trail by hand there is no reason that they should have to cross land that they have no right to enter- and indeed if they are only doing it for fun there is no reason to say that they have to have access to any land whatsoever.
This hunt in question crossed onto an RSPB nature reserve. Dogs cause significant issues when it comes to birds, particularly with water birds who often nest low enough that dogs can destroy the nests. As such a hunt passing through nature reserve will do significant damage and is totally unacceptable.
I feel like fox hunting should not be allowed in this day and age, however for supporters of hunts behaviour like this should be depressing and called out as unacceptable as it removed what little sympathy there is for the hunters. The argument that there are too many foxes can be argued however as with any other human hunting we are generally bad at controlling population level through hunting – either eradicating the population or largely leaving it unreduced.
As rewilding continues should we feel that there are too many foxes introducing an animal that would hunting would be far more efficient. Lynx are known to often eat foxes, indeed in some of their range half of their diet will be fox. If there really is a problem with the fox population in the countryside this would be a far longer-term solution that would fit with the ecosystem. Known to rarely if ever take sheep (they aren’t usually big enough), they would predate the foxes and there by change their behaviour in a way that would make them easier to live with – generally causing fewer problems themselves done by the animals they consume.
