Warning: Graphic content.
Police are investigating claims a fox was illegally killed during a Boxing Day hunt on Tuesday.
Suffolk Police are appealing for witnesses after they were called at about 2pm to reports of an incident between Great Thurlow Hunt and hunt saboteurs in Trundley Wood, off Bury Road.
According to the Countryside Alliance, 250 hunts were out on Boxing Day yesterday.
It comes as the issue of fox hunting, which has been banned in its traditional form in England and Wales since 2004, hit the headlines recently following reports the Conservative Party is poised to ditch its pledge to hold a vote that could see the ban repealed.
Polling carried out by Ipsos MORI and commissioned by the League Against Cruel Sports showed that opposition to fox hunting is at an all-time high, with 85% of the public in support of keeping the ban.
On Tuesday an investigation was launched into an alleged hunting offence under the Hunting Act and an allegation of common assault.
The Hunt Saboteurs Association monitor hunts across the country, who they accuse of using trail hunting as a pretext for killing foxes.
Trail hunting is legal under the Hunting Act and involves laying the artificial scent of an animal.
But tensions between the two sides are often fraught and it is not uncommon for there to be clashes between hunt sabs and those on the hunt.
A graphic photograph was posted on social media by the Hunt Saboteurs Association showing a disemboweled fox, which anti-hunting protesters claim was illegally killed at the hunt.
Inspector Jo Garrard, of Suffolk Police, said: “We take these reports seriously and are conducting an investigation into the circumstances around this incident.
“The investigation is progressing and the alleged offences are being investigated by officers in the Suffolk Rural Crime Unit.
“Officers are in the process of collating evidence and identifying, contacting and taking statements from individuals at the scene.
“There were a large number of people in attendance and we would like to appeal to any individuals who may have left the scene, but have not yet come forward, to contact us.
“We are keen to identify and gather all available evidence which may assist the investigation.”
Lee Moon, spokesperson for the Hunt Saboteurs Association, said: “If this is what hunts are happy to do when the eyes of the world are on them imagine how they behave the rest of the year.
“Most hunts act as if the hunting Act doesn’t exist and they flout the ban with impunity. Trail hunting is a myth created by the Countryside Alliance to allow fox hunting to continue unchecked.
“Hunted animals will never be safe while packs of trained dogs are allowed to rampage across the countryside.
“The only way the Hunting Act can be enforced is if the hunts are forced to disband.”
A Thurlow Hunt spokeswoman said that members of the hunt were stopping hounds from following a fox but that sabs “turned the fox straight back into the hounds which unfortunately then killed it”, the Guardian reports.
HuffPost UK has contacted Thurlow Hunt for further comment.
The Countryside Alliance has warned that the Conservative government risks losing the support of rural voters in its “naive” push for animal rights.
Tim Bonner, chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, urged Tory ministers in a blog published on HuffPost UK not to “take the support of voters in the countryside for granted”.
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