Last week, millions watched on in horror as Channel 4 News screened a major report on illegal fox hunting. The piece was largely composed of footage captured by hunt saboteurs in recent weeks and months.
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Some of the most disturbing footage features the Beaufort Hunt – who count the King and Queen amongst their most fervent supporters.
Evidence collected since early October shows that fox hunting by the Beaufort is neither accidental nor rare. Instead, it is deliberate, persistent, and organised — involving hunt staff, management, terrier-men, mounted followers, paying subscribers and, more recently, a group of high-visibility-clad sab “stalkers”. Far from isolated incidents, the footage reveals a consistent pattern of behaviour that is simply pre-ban, traditional fox hunting.
Hunt saboteur groups from Bath, Bristol, Cirencester, Reading and Wiltshire have maintained a near-constant presence at the Beaufort Hunt throughout the season. The use of a thermal drone by Wiltshire Sabs has dramatically increased visibility of what happens beyond public view, exposing multiple fox chases, confirmed kills, and attempts to conceal evidence.
This level of documentation does not suggest a hunt behaving unusually badly compared to other hunts; rather, it reveals what happens when a hunt is subject to consistent scrutiny. Furthermore, several attempts by the hunt – including a successful attempt in November 2024 to bring the sabs drone out of the sky – showing the lengths the Beaufort will go to conceal the evidence of their cruel criminality.
On Saturday 20 December 2025, five foxes were actively hunted during a single Beaufort meet. At Sopworth in north Wiltshire, two foxes were flushed from cover in front of the huntsman, Will Bryer, so close in fact that it leaves no room for plausible deniability.
Drone footage shows the huntsman deliberately positioning himself at the edge of covert immediately before the first of the two foxes broke cover. Hounds were cast into a wildlife habitat, to deliberately search for foxes. One fox crossed Bryer’s direct line of sight before hounds were later put deliberately onto its line. A second fox then broke cover directly in front of the huntsman and was immediately chased at full cry.
During the ensuing pursuit, hounds closed to within a metre of the fox on multiple occasions. The fox escaped only through quick, instinctive manoeuvring and by reaching the larger woodland of Sopworth Brake. Mounted followers then surrounded the wood, rendering claims of ignorance implausible.
Rather than drawing hounds away, Bryer later directed them towards the escape route of the first fox. A member of the public subsequently witnessed a fox being chased by hounds across Worcester Avenue. The fate of both foxes remains unknown.
Later that day, drone footage captured the killing of a fox within the Duke of Beaufort’s private estate near Lord’s Copse. The fox was pursued into cover, seized by hounds, and killed. Two terrier-men waiting on quad bikes witnessed the incident and immediately attempted to conceal the body.
In a grotesquely farcical scene, one terrier-man retrieved the mangled body and stuffed it down the side of his clothing, awkwardly batting away hounds still biting at the remains. Footage shows him next loading it onto a quad bike and leaving the scene. When foot saboteurs approached, they were met with intimidation and aggression.
Just six days later, Bryer appeared across national news coverage for his “rousing” Boxing Day speech, theatrically calling out, “Are you watching?” to the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer. The implication was clear: minority public support for hunting should override animal welfare law. This performance stood in stark contrast to the documented reality of foxes being chased, torn apart, and concealed only days earlier.
On 3 January 2026, further drone footage revealed another fox being hunted and killed at Cranmore Farm in south Gloucestershire — property linked to prominent figures close to the Royal Family and just kilometres from the King’s Highgrove residence.
Hounds were cast into woodland well before the kill. Quad bikes were used to harass saboteurs, suppress audio evidence, and drive foxes back into cover — standard tactics designed to obstruct sabbing. The huntsman knowingly rode towards a fox hiding in a hedgerow, triggering a predictable flush and chase.
At no point did he attempt to stop the hounds. He rode with them until the fox was caught and killed. As hounds tore into the animal, Bryer dismounted and stamped on the fox while dogs still had the dying fox in their jaws, attempting to retrieve the body as a drone approached.
These incidents occurred within weeks of each other. They are not anomalies. In late November, Wiltshire Sabs arrived at the Fosse Way to find hounds killing a fox in a hedgerow — just fields from the later Cranmore kill. Whipper-in Mitch Prosser removed the remains in a bin bag. Other documented chases, including the widely reported Bremhill incident, further reinforce the pattern.
Several cases remain under police investigation. Yet two decades after hunting with dogs was supposedly banned, enforcement remains weak and loopholes persist.
The evidence is overwhelming. The Beaufort Hunt is not “accidentally” breaking the law — it is continuing a banned activity in plain sight. Without urgent action to end the loopholes and ban trail hunting outright, fox hunting will continue in all but name. The government should make good on its manifesto promise and get the job done.
A spokesperson for the Hunt Saboteurs Association said:
“Once again, ‘trail hunting’ has been exposed as a sham. Several hunts from around the country have now once again, been caught hunting wildlife some 20 years after it was banned.
What the public saw on Channel 4 News is only a fraction of what happens every week. Foxes are fed through the summer, hunted in front of paying spectators, and dug out or bolted when they seek refuge. Enormous resources and effort is spent intimidating sabs and hiding evidence of criminality.
The government has promised to end this. It must now act to finally dismantle the trail hunting smokescreen that enables this cruelty to continue.”
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