(UK) Pro-hunting Cumbria fox feeding racket probed by officials

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From League Against Cruel Sports Ltd

Date 16:45 May 13

Subject CUMBRIA FOX FEEDING RACKET PROBED BY ANIMAL HEALTH OFFICIALS

 

CUMBRIA " FOX FEEDING RACKET " PROBED BY ANIMAL HEALTH OFFICIALS

Undercover investigation reveals fell hunt fox breeding programme

Farming community challenged over carcass disposal practices

 

The pest control claims of England's 'upland' fell hunting packs are today

exposed as fantasy after a major undercover investigation by the League

Against Cruel Sports established that foxes are being bred and fed for hunt

ing in Cumbria.

 

In a damning indictment of the country's mountain based foxhunts and the

practices of farmers who support them the League has uncovered a widespread

 

programme of fox breeding and feeding within the territories of several Lak

e District hunts - including the prestigious Blencathra Fox Hounds based at

 

Keswick.

 

Breeding and feeding sites containing artificial earths (man made fox homes

typically consisting of pipes sunken into the ground connected to a

central brick built chamber), stick piles (temporary lying up area for

foxes), and/

or animal carcasses dumped as potential food for foxes have been located

on land within the territories of the Blencathra Fox Hounds, the Cumberland

Farmers Hunt and the Ullswater Fox Hounds.

 

The explosive findings make a mockery of claims that 'upland' fox hunt

packs are concerned only with carrying out a pest control service for

farmers and

could now ensure that mountain fox hunts receive no concessions in the

forthcoming bill to ban hunting, something ministers had previously hinted

at. Animal health officials today confirmed that they are investigating

claims of carcasses being dumped at several locations in the Keswick area of

 

Cumbria.

 

And the revelations come as a substantial League report into upland hunting

, Fun On The Fells, is made available to MPs and ministers. The report

undertakes a forensic examination of mountain foxhunting and reveals a

catalogue of evidence suggesting the pastime is cruel, ineffective and

riddled with hypocrisy and misinformation.

 

CARCASSES

Following a four month long probe, which saw undercover investigators

infiltrate several Cumbrian hunts, the League located and secretly filmed

animal carcasses dumped only yards from a man made fox breeding site

(containing an artificial fox earth and stick pile) in woodland immediately

behind a regular meet of the Blencathra Fox Hounds in the village of

Orthwaite, near Uldale, Cumbria.

 

Dozens of sheep, lamb and deer carcasses were filmed thrown into an

uncovered pit adjacent to a wooded covert containing the artificial earth.

Sheep were filmed dumped near to a stream and thrown over wire fences in

an apparent attempt to create a ready supply of food for foxes.

One half eaten

carcass was filmed within spitting distance of the artificial earth entranc

e alongside dozens of animal bones - implying the dumping has been carried

out over an extended period.

 

Investigators have established that the fox breeding site, known as

Orthwaite Plantation, is owned by Jonathan Hope, a prominent supporter of

the Blencathra Fox Hounds and who last year had hundreds of animals,

including cattle, sheep and a goat, slaughtered after foot and mouth disease

ravaged the region. Mr Hope entertained Prince Charles at a private hunt

with the Blencathra hounds at Orthwaite Hall Farm only weeks before FMD

closed the countryside early in 2001. The farmer now faces the attention of

animal health officials for a second time after the League confirmed that

information had been passed to trading standards officers.

 

Under legislation drawn up in 1992 all animal carcasses must be rendered,

buried or incinerated. Dead animals must be removed " without undue delay "

and a failure to do so amounts to a criminal offence with a maximum

fine for each carcass. The burial of animal carcasses is soon be outlawed

altogether after the BSE and Foot and Mouth crises prompted ever tightening

regulations relating to agricultural animal health issues.

 

Dozens of animal carcasses were also recently filmed dumped in woodland

near to a second popular meet of the Blencathra Fox Hounds -

Causeway Foot Farm,

just outside of Keswick. Fresh and rotting sheep carcasses had been placed

in a small covert just yards from a busy road and surrounded by numerous

bones and adult sheep skulls. Equally disturbingly, the League has been

passed footage previously showing a large number of sheep and lamb

carcasses dumped on land at Priests Crag - a mountain area within the

territory of the Ullswater Fox Hounds.

 

The investigation also saw the documenting of the largest and most

elaborate artificial fox earth known to exist in England at Millbeck, a

regular meet

of the Blencathra hounds. The fox breeding complex - which the pro hunt

lobby told the Government Inquiry into hunting had long been ruined -

contains upwards of 120 meters of piping, has over 10 entrances and

continues to be capable of holding many foxes. Footage obtained by the

League shows the Blencathra hounds being cast through the site on

two occasions.

 

CARELESS FARMING

Douglas Batchelor, League Chief Executive, today said: " The findings of

this investigation blow apart claims that upland fell hunting is

concerned with pest control. The breeding and feeding of foxes for hunting

is hypocritical

and immoral anywhere, but the fact that we've uncovered that it is taking

 

place in upland areas where hunts have repeatedly claimed to be different

exposes a grave deception on the part of the pro-hunt lobby in Cumbria. " He

called on the Central Committee of Fell Packs to immediately suspend any

hunt under suspicion of being involved in activities that are against their

own rules of hunting or in breach of the law.

 

Mr Batchelor also challenged the upland farming community to immediately

end practices that encourage a healthy fox population for hunting: " We

believe

that animal carcasses are being deliberately dumped as food for foxes in

Cumbria by people connected to foxhunting. But we also believe that the

careless practices of dozens of farmers are contributing to this situation.

 

The shoddy - and often illegal - discarding of carcasses in open pits,

in fields and woodland and on mountain crags is tantamount to laying on a

fast

food meal for foxes and not conducive to keeping fox numbers low.

 

" It is hypocritical and immoral that upland farmers carelessly dispose of

their dead animals then claim that supposedly spiralling fox numbers

require the 'essential' services of foxhunts. What we're seeing in Cumbria

is at

best a farcical cycle of countryside mismanagement on the part of farmers

and hunters and at worst a racket designed to ensure good hunting in the

region. "

 

 

www.league.uk.com

 

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