Foxes ran for their lives from a pack of 28 dogs during an Iveagh Foxhounds hunt in County Down, a report in the Irish Field has revealed.
The 31 January 2025 report outlined that the first victim was a fox chased over a hill and through a valley. The hunters and pack of hounds then ran “left-handed and on towards the Plantation, where the fox went to ground”.
Later in the day, another fox “ran up and down the covert before he broke right” with the pack chasing him in a circle. This fox “skipped back towards the Plantation and to ground”.
According to the report, at the back of Annahilt Orange Hall, a couple callously drew the hunt’s attention to foxes who “prowl around behind their house at night barking”.
The next fox who was targeted “ran towards the village where he was headed on the road”. He ran back over the valley, “dwelled in a pile of whins near the Orange Hall and exited right-handed up the hill by Shaw’s”. When the hunt followers caught up with the pack, they were “marking in the Ring Fort”.
The fate of this fox was not revealed but typically, when a fox is marked to ground, the hunt’s terriermen are called in to cruelly catch the fox using shovels, spades and terriers before the doomed animal is pulled out and brutally killed.
After that, another fox was seen running for his life from a bog. He was hunted “straight over the hill and down into the long valley” before he “ran across the lane into a small plantation and out over sown ground”.
DID YOU KNOW? Irish taxpayer-funded Horse Racing Ireland has handed out €13,796,550 to hunts since 2014 (in the form of point to point racing grants), including over €1.7 million for 2024. The Iveagh Foxhounds hunt has received over €169,000 in grants.
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Email DUP MLAs and ask them to pledge support for the bill
david.brooks@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;deborah.erskine@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;joanne.bunting@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;emma.little-pengelly@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;pam.cameron@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;phillip.brett@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;cheryl.brownlee@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;edwin.poots@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;thomas.buchanan@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;harry.harvey@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;william.irwin@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;maurice.bradley@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;keith.buchanan@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;diane.dodds@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;gary.middleton@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;gordon.lyons@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;jonathan.buckley@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;michelle.mcilveen@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;paul.frew@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;paul.givan@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;stephen.dunne@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;trevor.clarke@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;brian.kingston@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;diane.forsythe@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;peter.martin@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;alan.robinson@mla.niassembly.gov.uk
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Help get fox hunting banned in the Republic of Ireland
Please get in touch with all your local TDs and urge them to support Ruth Coppinger TD’s Animal Health & Welfare (Ban On Fox Hunting) Bill when it returns to Dail Eireann. Visit the Oireachtas website for contact details https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/tds/?term=/ie/oireachtas/house/dail/34
Contact the leaders of Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, Sinn Fein and the Labour Party. Tell them that you want fox hunting, hare coursing and all bloodsports banned.
Micheál Martin TD
Leader, Fianna Fail
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Simon Harris TD
Leader, Fine Gael
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Mary Lou McDonald TD
Leader, Sinn Fein
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Ivana Bacik TD
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Keep hunters off your land
If you are a landowner, make your land off-limits to hunters. Find out more about how to do this on our Farmers/Landowners page – http://www.banbloodsports.com/farmers.htm
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SEE ALSO
€1.7 million more in HRI grants to hunts
https://banbloodsports.wordpress.com/2025/05/07/e1-7-million-more-in-hri-grants-to-hunts/
HRI’s shameful €12 million in funding to cruel fox hunts
https://banbloodsports.wordpress.com/2024/06/04/hris-shameful-e12-million-in-funding-to-cruel-fox-hunts/
Ruth Coppinger TD launches draft of bill to ban cruel fox hunting
https://banbloodsports.wordpress.com/2025/05/09/ruth-coppinger-td-launches-draft-of-bill-to-ban-cruel-fox-hunting/
Northern Ireland - It’s time to ban hunting with dogs
https://banbloodsports.wordpress.com/2025/03/02/northern-ireland-its-time-to-ban-hunting-with-dogs/