Blood stains were reportedly found in a garden as an animal was ‘killed’ in a Cotswolds hound hunt.
Campaign group Three Counties Hunt Saboteurs has said it found a blood stain in a garden in Condicote, near to Chipping Norton and in the Cotswolds.
This was on Wednesday, March 11, and they allege a pack of hounds from the Oxfordshire-based Heythrop Hunt had chased a fox through the village and killed it on a private lawn.
According to the campaigners, the owner of the garden came out, and was ‘visibly shocked’ at the scene.
READ MORE: Face of criminal jailed for two years for BMW crash lie revealed
Videos from the campaigners, which were shared with this newspaper, show a number of hounds running through the village with red stains visible on the dogs as they drink from buckets and plant pots.
Stains on a private garden during the Heythrop Hunt event in Condicote (Image: Three Counties Hunt Saboteurs)
The group had several confrontations with the hunting party within the village as they allege that the body of the fox was removed with blood stains allegedly on a member of the hunt as a result.
Footage shows they were escorted out of the garden by members of the Heythrop Hunt despite the area being private property and the hunt having no permission to enter the gardens.
A member of the Heythrop Hunt in a back garden, during the hunt in Condicote (Image: Three Counties Hunt Saboteurs)
A spokesperson for the Three Counties Hunt Saboteur Group claimed: “A fox was killed for sport at a time when vixens are either heavily pregnant or nursing young cubs.
“This happened within half a mile of where we filmed Heythrop Hunt staff feeding foxes dead chickens.
“The loopholes within the Hunting Act need to be closed urgently.”
An object is circled – allegedly a dead fox – during the Heythrop Hunt event in Condicote (Image: Three Counties Hunt Saboteurs)
The Heythrop Hunt, which is based at Swinbrook, near Burford, has been approached for comment but we have not received a response.
The Hunting Act 2004 made it an offence for a person to hunt a wild mammal with a dog, unless the hunting falls within one of the exempt categories which includes certain forms of stalking and flushing out.
The Labour Government has said it plans to ban trail hunting as part of their animal welfare reforms.
Gloucestershire Police has been approached for comment about the incident.
Rowan Hughes, spokesperson for the Hunt Saboteurs Association said: “Not only are hunts cruelly and illegally killing foxes, they are also blocking roads, endangering the public, and have no respect for private property.”
READ MORE: Samurai sword wielding stabber appears in court for sentence
This comes after Channel 4 ran a programme about hunting in rural areas in February 2026, which included foxes being torn apart and featured the Heythrop Hunt alongside others.
A spokesperson for the Hunt Saboteurs Association added: “Between June and August 2025 – prior to the current hunting season – covert cameras captured the terrierman of the Gloucestershire-based Heythrop Hunt repeatedly dumping bin-bags full of dead chickens at ‘feeding stations’ in wooded locations near Longborough, Gloucestershire.
“The cameras later recorded a vixen and her cubs who have been drawn to the area by the hunt-supplied food.
“By October, these same cameras picked up the Heythrop Hunt rampaging through the woods in pursuit of the very foxes they had sustained throughout the summer.”
Comments are closed.