Two weeks ago, 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.
Today – the 21st anniversary of the Hunting Act becoming law – we take a closer look at one of those incidents.
On Saturday the 17th of January 2026 Mendip Hunt Sabs caught the moment a fox was killed by the Mendip Farmers Hunt, not far from the back of their kennels in Priddy. The sickening footage, which has been shared in a recent Channel 4 news report on the 2nd February, shows just how cruel fox hunting is.
The hunt had met at the kennels and almost immediately after departing sabs covered the scent of a fleeing fox. Very shortly after this, another fox was chased and killed, with her final distressing moments caught on drone by sabs.
The footage shows hounds with huntsman, Charlie Thomas, and a hunt member, Bill Payne on foot, searching within scrub and hedgerows. A fox, which can be seen in the scrub makes a desperate break from the hounds who are closing in from all sides. The fox runs in front of Bill Payne, who then proceeds to point in the direction it has run and hounds immediately begin to pursue the fox along the track.
In an attempt to lose the hounds, the fox runs through a hedge into an adjacent field before one hound lunges and grabs her. Within seconds more hounds descend as they proceed to subject the fox to an agonising death.
There is no attempt to stop the hounds from chasing this fox, and it is clear that this is blatant fox hunting. The hunt then continued to illegally hunt foxes for the rest of the day with hounds running through local nature reserves and marking a fox to ground in a badger sett with no members of the hunt present for at least fifteen minutes.
Members of Mendip Hunt Sabs returned to the site of the kill the following day and recovered the body of the vixen who was torn apart. A spokesperson from Mendip Hunt Sabs has said the following:
“The Mendip Farmers Hunt relentlessly hunt and chase foxes every time they go out, and we have filmed several very close calls in recent weeks that were shocking to witness. But to watch back the drone footage of the poor vixen being flushed from her hiding place, run down and torn into was utterly heartbreaking.
We decided to return to the kill site the next morning as often hunts leave behind traces in their rushed clean up jobs; fur, blood and body parts carelessly missed when the rest is stuffed into a bin bag. We did not expect the fox’s entire body to be left behind. But as we approached the location through the thick Priddy fog, we were faced with her still lying there. Her body was mutilated, ripped open in several places with organs strung out across the grass, and her own blood and clumps of fur scattered around her. She must have suffered immensely in her final minutes as these horrific injuries were inflicted.
This disgraceful cruelty should have ended twenty years ago, but still foxes like this one suffer and die week in week out as hunts use the smokescreen sham that is trail hunting to disguise their disgusting activity.”
The Mendip Farmers Hunt is a favourite of MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, who has on more than one occasion hosted their meets at his house in West Harptree. Jacob’s wife and children have also ridden with this hunt, and Jacob was seen at the 2025 Boxing Day meet.
Only one week after this kill was caught on camera, terrier men for the hunt were making abusive, sexualised and threatening comments towards female hunt saboteurs, despite the recent BHSA rules about no terriermen being permitted at hunts. Not only do the Mendip Farmers Hunt ignore the rules of their governing body, but they ignore the law.
This vixens’ final moments will have been filled with fear, anguish and pain and unfortunately it is all too common an occurrence at hunts all over the country, as the law continues to fail to protect our wildlife.
Despite the Hunting Act being in place since this day in 2005, foxes continue to be subjected to painful and horrifying deaths at the hands of hunts such as the Mendip Farmers Hunt. This is why we need a radical reform of the Hunting Act, so that it will protect our wildlife once and for all.
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