At the beginning of this year the Hunt Saboteurs Association was sent some of the most disturbing images we have seen in over sixty years of campaigning against bloodsports.
They show a young child having their face smeared with the blood of a freshly slaughtered fox by huntsman Conall McGrath, then of the Flint & Denbigh Hunt who operate in North Wales.
On receiving the images, the HSA immediately forwarded them to the police but, many months on, we are not aware of any action being taken.
The practice shown in the images is known as ‘blooding’. Blooding is an initiation ritual practised by hunts which ‘celebrate’ a hunter’s first successful kill. Prince Harry wrote about being ‘blooded’ after stalking a stag as a 15 year old boy.
Blooding relies on the animal being freshly killed as – obviously – the blood needs to be wet. The images show a fox whose blood is still fresh. It is inconceivable that the fox in the image is anything other than a fox killed moments earlier by the hunt.
In the first image, McGrath can be seen holding the body of the fox and encouraging the hounds to attack it as the child approaches. Behind the child stand two grinning terrier men: Rob Smith Jnr on the left, and Joe Scillario on the right, holding a terrier.
In the second image, McGrath grabs the child’s hair with one hand and smears blood on their face with the other.
The photographs are believed to have been taken on the 17th January 2026. On this same date, hounds from the hunt were filmed out of control on the busy A55, footage which we published at the time. You can watch the video sent in by an unsuspecting motorist here.
To protect their welfare, the HSA is concealing the identity of the child.
Incredibly, McGrath was convicted of illegal hunting just a few months before the images were taken, when he was a whipper-in for the Blackmore and Sparkford Vale Hunt. This incident made national news when the hunt were caught on camera hunting and killing a fox by North Dorset Hunt Sabs.
An HSA spokesperson commented:
“Over twenty years on from the passing of the Hunting Act, these harrowing images show continued illegal hunting and the utter determination of today’s hunters to induct a new generation of vulnerable youngsters into their sick and criminal activities.
This week we have already highlighted safeguarding concerns in relation to a private school whose ‘Games Coach’ was recently convicted of illegal hunting, whilst pupils of the school were present.These failings are a direct result of a Hunting Act that is not fit for purpose – we need much stiffer penalties to deter the likes of McGrath.
Following the recent consultation on trail hunting the government must immediately follow through on its manifesto promise and come down hard on those who break the law and hunt wildlife with packs of dogs”.
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