11 Jun 2015

Fox cubs ‘kept in captivity to be hunted illegally’

Foxes as young as three months are being taken from the wild and kept in captivity to be hunted illegally, according to the League Against Cruel Sports, an animal welfare charity.

Footage filmed as part of a League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) investigation in May 2015 appears to show a shed fitted out to mimic a fox earth, with the animals being fed on dead chickens. There were no adult foxes present in the artificial earth.

The film (see above) shows a building which LACS says is near Malton, in North Yorkshire – a building which the charity had been watching.

Put bluntly, these foxes were kidnapped for cruelty. Dr Toni Shephard, League Against Cruel Sports

LACS entered the building during the night. The footage reveals what they found.

“Put bluntly, these foxes were kidnapped for cruelty,” claims Dr Toni Shephard, LACS head of policy and research.

Malton outbuilding

Acting on intelligence, North Yorkshire Police officers recently conducted a search of an outbuilding near Malton, under the animal welfare act. They found 16 fox cubs, all aged from about six to eight weeks old.

A police statement said the foxes were being fed and had access to water, but that police needed more information as to how they got into the barn, why they were there, and who put them there.

A man has been arrested in connection with the incident and has been released on police bail. The cubs are now being cared for in an animal sanctuary outside North Yorkshire.