After countless hours of footage showing foxes being hunted, chased and killed, Avon & Somerset Police have finally taken action, charging three members of the Beaufort Hunt with illegal hunting offences.
Will Bryer, the hunt’s huntsman, Mitch Prosser, whipper-in, and Anthony Tuck, terrierman, have all been charged with offences under Section 1 of the Hunting Act for hunting a wild mammal with dogs following the killing of a fox on the Duke of Beaufort’s Badminton Estate on 20 December 2025.
They are due to appear at Bristol Magistrates Court on 7th July 2026 at 1400 hours.
The day of the kill had already been marked by an earlier, harrowing chase. After hounds flushed two foxes from woodland at Sopworth, the pursuit was so shocking that footage later featured in a Channel 4 News report alongside other incidents of illegal hunting. The first fox managed to slip away unnoticed but the second fox was pursued relentlessly, managing only to escape after a lightning turn wrong-footed the hounds, buying precious time and distance.
Drone footage showed the fox reaching nearby woodland in the same direction taken by the first fox. Further footage later captured the huntsman gathering the hounds before taking them towards the area where both foxes had fled. Another chase followed. A member of the public reported witnessing a fox being pursued across Worcester Avenue, sabs raced to the scene, but unable to get ahead, the fate of these foxes remain unknown.
Already a day marked by fear and terror for wildlife, events took an even darker turn as daylight faded. Sabs watched a fox flee from Lord’s Copse deep within the estate, only to be forced back into cover as riders and quads surrounded the woodland.
Drone footage picked up as the fox left a hedgerow hoping for an opportunity to escape, when he finally broke cover a waiting hound seized him and was quickly joined by the pack who tore at the fox. The drone continued to film as terrier-men hurried to hide the remains in the footwell of the nearby quad.
There have been numerous incidents reported at the Beaufort Hunt this season, just 9 days before the fox was killed on the Badminton Estate, another heart-stopping chase recorded by Wiltshire Hunt Sabs’ drone, and subsequently reported in The Telegraph. This incident, which happened on 11th December, was reported to Wiltshire Police. In both cases, Wiltshire Police responses concluded with a decision of ‘No Further Action’.
On the 22nd November, Wiltshire sabs, also caught the hunts whipper-in Mitch Prosser bin-bagging the body of a fox they had just killed in a hedgerow on the Fosse Way, near Shipton Moyne. Quad ‘stalkers’ attempted to drown out the sound of the kill and block the sabs from witnessing the bagging of the body but were unsuccessful. Sabs were able to identify the fox’s remains as they were being stuffed into a black sack, earning the hunt the nick-name Bin-Bag Beaufort.
Sadly, this was not the final witnessed fox kill involving the Beaufort Hunt that season. Another fox was flushed, chased and killed at Cranmore Farm, less than half a mile from where the Fosse Way fox had lost their life just a few weeks earlier.
Drone footage shows the fox breaking from cover as hounds and huntsman pursued them towards an area of scrub. The huntsman can then be seen moving to the far side of the scrub while the hounds pushed the fox through it. As the fox emerged, the chase continued for several hundred yards before the animal was eventually caught by the pack and ripped apart.
The footage shows the huntsman dismount and appear to stamp on the dead or dying fox as hounds continue to pull the body apart. The footage was given to Gloucestershire Police to investigate, and despite the obvious intent to any casual observer, once again police declined to act against King Charles’ former hunt.
A further fox kill was recorded in March 2026 near Luckington. Drone footage captured a fox taking refuge in a hedgerow before being dragged into the open by hounds. A rider could be seen standing near the area of hedge where the fox was taking refuge, using a mobile phone, shortly before the huntsman and hounds returned to the area.
The fox didn’t stand a chance, and again the bloodied remains were bin-bagged under the drone’s watchful eye – until police arrived and promptly seized the drone after being seen speaking with the hunts’ “stalkers” rather than address the wildlife crime in front of them.
A Hunt Saboteurs Association spokesperson said:
“Whilst the Duke of Beaufort Hunt, with its royal connections, appears to benefit from a large degree of immunity from prosecution, it is very telling that so many fox chases and kills have been recorded in just one season by this single hunt.
Either they are exceptionally poor ‘trail hunters’, incapable of controlling or training their hounds, in which case we urgently need a recklessness offence to close that loophole, or they are deliberately fox hunting while hiding behind the so-called trail hunting smokescreen. It is of course the latter.
Neither explanation reflects well on hunting. The Government has promised to ban trail hunting, but any new legislation must be watertight. It must remove the exemptions and loopholes that enable traditional fox hunting to continue by another name.”
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