Campaign to Strengthen the Hunting Act (CSHA)

Foxes are highly strung and nervous. They are also extremely intelligent animals. Anyone who has worked with them in sanctuary situations knows how easily foxes become panicked, and kindly consideration must be given to this element of their nature.

A fox is an omnivorous animal, but also a predator, and the animals on which it preys - e.g. rabbits and rats - are either caught by the fox quickly or they escape. Thus the fox is not designed in nature to run for long distances. It is cruel in the extreme to force a fox to run for many miles.

A hunted fox will also be in terror due to the baying of the hounds behind him, with the shouts of the hunt supporters and hunting horn sounds all adding to his fear.

Many a fox that escapes the hounds will be in a shattered and exhausted state, and will often die anyway from the effects of the cruelty inflicted by the hunt. Those that are caught by the hounds are torn and bitten to death, with the main areas of attack being the abdomen and thorax. They are disembowelled.

Foxes that go to ground will frequently be dug out by the terriermen and killed - another unspeakably cruel and terrifying ordeal inflicted by hunts upon one of nature's most intelligent and captivating animals.