Foxes were terrorised by a pack of 28 dogs at a recent hunt in County Down.
The Irish Field (19 December 2025) reported that at the shameful Iveagh Foxhounds hunt, which started at Brague, “hounds found in the first Little Plantation and our pilot [the fox] slipped away over new grass and on towards the Quarry in a circle back to the Plantation, where they marked to ground.”
Was this fox torn apart by the dogs? In fox hunting terminology, “marked to ground” refers to the point when the pack of hounds chase the fox into an earth or drain. This is typically followed by the arrival of the hunt’s terriermen who cruelly catch the fox using shovels, spades and terriers before the doomed animal is pulled out and brutally killed.
After that, “the huntsman gathered hounds and went on to Willie Bird’s where hounds found again in a clump of furze and the pack made a great sound reverberating in the valleys”.
Running for his life, this fox “ran right-handed in a line for The Lane, crossing it and straightened up [and] he then circled right-handed, where the huntsman and whippers-in stopped them short of The Boulevard near The Game of Thrones Studio Tour”.
Later, another unfortunate fox was disturbed: “A fox left the bog and we had a great view of him running up the hill, with hounds packed closely in pursuit, as he jinked left-handed and out across the side road through Russell’s Wood, where he completed a wide circle and ran the whole way back again to the find, where the pack marked him to ground”.
This terrorisation of defenseless wildlife was callously described by the Irish Field as “a smashing day that just got better and better with the huntsman and hounds moving on all day over some stiff country”.
During the hunting season, the Iveagh Foxhounds terrorise wildlife on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
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 more than €169,000.
TAKE ACTION
Join us in urging Sinn Fein and the DUP to pledge support for John Blair MLA’s upcoming bill which aims to secure a ban on hunting with hounds in Northern Ireland.
Michelle O'Neill MLA
Sinn Féin Leas Uachtarán (Vice President)
Telephone: 0044 28 8676 5850
Email: michelle.oneill@mla.niassembly.gov.uk
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michelle.oneill.sf/
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Mary Lou McDonald TD
Leader, Sinn Fein
Telephone: (01) 727 7102
Email: marylou.mcdonald@oireachtas.ie
X: https://x.com/MaryLouMcDonald
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Gavin Robinson MP
Leader, DUP
Email: gavin.robinson.mp@parliament.uk; info@mydup.com
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DUP Headquarters
Telephone: 028 9047 1155
Email Sinn Fein MLAs and ask them to pledge support for the bill
aine.murphy@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;aisling.reilly@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;caral.nichuilin@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;caoimhe.archibald@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;cathal.boylan@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;cathy.mason@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;ciara.ferguson@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;danny.baker@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;declan.kearney@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;deirdre.hargey@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;sinead.ennis@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;gerry.kelly@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;colm.gildernew@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;jemma.dolan@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;john.odowd@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;linda.dillon@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;liz.kimmins@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;maoliosa.mchugh@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;declan.mcaleer@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;philip.mcguigan@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;michelle.oneill@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;nicola.brogan@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;orlaithi.flynn@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;padraig.delargy@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;pat.sheehan@mla.niassembly.gov.uk;emma.sheerin@mla.niassembly.gov.uk
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
Ban hunting with dogs in Northern Ireland – sign and share the petition
https://www.change.org/p/the-northern-ireland-assembly-ban-hunting-with-dogs-in-northern-ireland
Help get fox hunting banned in the Republic of Ireland
Please get in touch with all your local TDs and urge them to back a ban on cruel fox hunting. 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 and Sinn Fein. Tell them that you want fox hunting, hare coursing and all bloodsports banned.
Micheál Martin TD
Leader, Fianna Fail
Email: micheal.martin@oireachtas.ie; info@fiannafail.ie
Telephone: 01 619 4000
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michealmartintd/
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Simon Harris TD
Leader, Fine Gael
Telephone: 01 281 3727
Email: simon.harris@oireachtas.ie; finegael@finegael.ie
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Mary Lou McDonald TD
Leader, Sinn Fein
Telephone: (01) 727 7102
Email: marylou.mcdonald@oireachtas.ie
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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
Sign and share the Uplift petition
https://my.uplift.ie/petitions/petition-to-ban-fox-hunting-in-ireland
Watch our campaign video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jG9rMlE3VAQ
Please support our campaign with a donation
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http://revolut.me/icabs