League Against Cruel Sports
July 2017
[NOTE: Please read Heidi Stephenson's poem Demonic Dominionism]
To teach new hounds how to hunt - contrary to what the hunters say, hunting a live animal does not come naturally to a fox hound. As such the young dogs have to be taught how to hunt ready for the main season. This is done by hunting fox cubs over a much reduced area which pushes the fox cubs into the pack, rather than involving a long chase.
Cub hunting, as the name suggests, is the practice of hunting fox cubs and training young hounds to hunt. It is a type of hunting hardly ever spoken about publicly by the hunters as besides from being illegal, it is something we believe most people would find abhorrent. If hunts are going cub hunting as often as they were before the ban, as many as 10,000 fox cubs may be illegally killed every year during cub hunting.
Watch this video (animation) if you want to see how it works -
The
Dark Secret of Cub Hunting.
Fox cub hunting, also known as cubbing – or in hunt circles, Autumn hunting
- remains a dirty secret of the hunting world, and despite the ban on
hunting wild mammals with dogs the practice remains a very important, and
widely practiced, part of hunting.
Why do fox hunts go cub hunting?
What does cubbing look like?
Cub hunting , which normally takes place in September and October, looks
very different from main season hunting, which begins in November. The hunt
staff normally do not wear the traditional red coats, but rather wear
tweeds. The activity is very static compared to the usual practice of
getting the fox to run for a good chase, and contrary to normal hunting it
takes place very early in the morning or late in the evening.
Small woods, (known as ‘coverts’), are surrounded by key hunt followers to
ensure that if any foxes try to escape (‘flushed out’) they are scared back
in towards the pack of hounds.
The hounds are put in at one side of the wood, and the Huntsman will call
them through as a means of flushing out any foxes inside the area. Prior to
the hunt meet it is likely that terrier men attached to the hunt will have
blocked up any underground holes, such as known fox earths or badger setts,
to ensure any foxes found do not have a safe place to hide once they are set
running. Fields of crops, prior to harvest, are also used in the same way
during the early part of the cub hunting season.
Who takes part?
Hunt staff, including Huntsman, Whipper-In(s) and Hunt Masters will be
present, plus hunt followers, often referred to as ‘the field’. The local
Pony Club will often be attached in some way to the hunt, and it is not
uncommon to see children riding with the hunt even during this early part of
the season.
As with traditional hunting, there will also be hunt supporters on foot who
may be in the field and on the road to watch the activity, and also hunt
followers in cars who will park up and watch from the roadside. Finally, the
terrier men will be present, often moving around on a quad bike which will
have a terrier carried with them in a box attached to the back of the quad.
They will carry spades and other digging apparatus so as to be ready to dig
out a fox if it does manage to go to ground.
Isn't this illegal?
Despite the fact that hunts may claim that they are legally trail hunting
when caught hunting early in the morning or late in the evening during the
Autumn months, actual cub hunting in itself is illegal as it involves
hunting a wild mammal with a dog and is therefore banned under the Hunting
Act. Cub hunting is a hidden horror of fox hunting and the League will
continue to do what we can to expose it.
How can I help end cub hunting?
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