Animal rights groups said a sickening video showing a huntsman throwing a live fox to baying hounds was more evidence that legal trail hunting was being used as “a smokescreen” for illegal hunting with dogs.
Oliver Francis Thompson, 32, of Old Berkshire Hunt Kennels in Farringdon, swerved jail after admitting two animal welfare offences, one of which involved encouraging his dog to terrorise a captive fox.
In footage recorded in July 2020 that Thompson shared with his friends, he is shown with a young fox in a trap, with his Patterdale terrier Nellie being encouraged to bark and menace the animal at very close quarters.
Later, the fox is taken out of the trap by Thompson and, held by the scruff of his neck, is repeatedly thrust at the barking dog 19 times.
In a second incident filmed on Christmas Eve in December that year, Thompson, in a hunting jacket, digs a fox out of its earth, surrounded by people also wearing hunting jackets, terriermen and a child.
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Animal charities react to sentencing of Oxfordshire huntsman | Oxford Mail
Regards Mark
World Animals Voice 