Connolly's Red Mills is being urged to disassociate from an upcoming fox hunt show.
The Kilkenny-based company’s logo is prominently displayed on a Westmeath Fox Hunt poster for a "Terrier and Lurcher Show" in Moate, County Westmeath https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1403412235154146&set=a.458792086282837
The show, due to take place on 21 June 2026, celebrates dogs used in the brutal killing of Irish wildlife and includes a "digging competition". This competition attracts those involved in the obscene practice of digging out.
Digging out occurs during hunts when a fox, desperately running for dear life, attempts to escape underground. Hunters dig the clay away from above until the cowering fox is uncovered. This is typically coupled with so-called terrierwork - terriers are sent down the hole to attack and corner the fox, resulting in horrific injuries to both fox and dogs. The bleeding and squealing fox is pulled out and killed.
Among the categories in the terrier, lurcher and whippet dog show is “best hunt terrier”. To qualify, a dog “must be doing terrier work for a pack of hounds”.
Alongside the Connolly’s Red Mills logo, is a logo for a company called Bellman and Flint which is sponsoring the Westmeath Fox Hunt show. Its logo features a fox's head, a shovel and a rod. Among the products for sale on its website are Terrier Location Systems ("designed to withstand the rigours of terrierwork") which are used by terriermen to locate the transmitter collars on their terriers while they bite into the bodies of doomed foxes.
“NO SELF-RESPECTING COMPANY SHOULD ASSOCIATE ITS BRAND WITH A FOX HUNT AND A COMPANY WHICH PROFITS FROM TERRIERWORK,” we stated in an appeal to Connolly’s Red Mills.
We highlighted the cruelty to animals involved in fox hunting - foxes are chased to exhaustion and when caught by the pack of hounds, they are knocked off their feet, attacked, bitten, eviscerated and pulled apart.
Westmeath Foxhunt cruelty has been well documented - see below for more details.
The vast majority in Ireland - both north and south - are opposed to fox hunting. A RED C opinion poll commissioned by the Irish Council Against Blood Sports found that a 77 per cent majority in the Republic want fox hunting banned (with just 12 per cent disagreeing with a ban). A majority in both rural and urban areas are in favour of a ban. In Northern Ireland, a 2024 poll conducted by LucidTalk found that 76% want fox hunting banned.
ACTION ALERT
Join us in urging Connolly’s Red Mills to show compassion for Irish wildlife and immediately disassociate from this Westmeath Fox Hunt event.
Connolly’s RED MILLS
Goresbridge, Co. Kilkenny
Telephone: +353 (0)599775800
Email : info@redmills.ie
Westmeath Foxhunt and Animal Cruelty
A Westmeath Foxhounds hunt report in the The Irish Field documented the cruel practice of digging-out and the obscene ritual of cutting off the tails and tongues of foxes…”Terriers were some time in coming as followers were the wrong side of the wind for hearing. A quick dig followed and 2 foxes were dispatched. Eamon had a brush for Clarissa and a fox’s tongue which he intends pickling in vinegar to cure warts and draw thorns.”
In 2007, the Irish Independent reported that there was a probe into allegations that a rope was tied to the leg of a fox and that it was pulled out of a burrow and fed alive to hounds. See Irish Independent report https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/top-hunt-probed-in-cruelty-claim/26333741.html
A 2011 Farmers’ Journal report told of how 16 mounted followers of the Westmeath hunt, along with 29 hounds, found a fox that was caught and “chopped.” Later on, another fox was “overhauled before he managed to put any distance between himself and them.” Both “chopped” and “overhauled,” in hunting terminology, mean that the fox was caught by the hounds and brutally killed.
Disturbing video filmed during a Westmeath Foxhunt in February 2015. The video shows a hunter calling his horse a c***, a hunter whipping her horse fives times and a horse falling backwards into a ditch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKk8midpn5Y
A report in the Irish Field (8 February 2019) detailed how several foxes were terrorised during a Westmeath Foxhounds hunt. The pack of hounds first found two foxes in a field of kale before “settling on one” and pursuing him. Another fox was chased and “marked” in a bog “after a nice crisp run of over 40 minutes”. In hunting terminology, “marked” refers to the pack of hounds catching up with the fox and baying loudly at the entrance to an earth or drain where the cowering creature is trying to find refuge. Surrounded by the hunters and hounds, this is a desperate situation for the fox. It often means death – foxes are flushed out with terriers or dug out by hunt terriermen before being killed.
A 2008 Irish Field report revealed that the Westmeath Hunt’s hounds chased a fox into the freezing water of the Royal Canal: “The fox and the pack swam across the canal and continued along the banks to the Mullingar/Ballynacargy Road…the fox, with 9 hounds in pursuit, then swam the canal again”
“Plenty of foxes about who didn’t want to run but hounds did their best on a pre-hunt ball day.” Caption on a Westmeath Foxhunt photo shared on the hunt’s Facebook page, February 2015.