Dog owners brag on Facebook about illegal fights with foxes

DOG owners who pit their animals in illegal fights with foxes and badgers are boasting about the practice on social media.

An investigation uncovered more than 1,400 images – mostly on Facebook – of dogs covered in blood with, wounds, scratches and scars to their faces.

The League Against Cruel Sports, which gathered the evidence, said calls to its phone line reporting ‘underground hunting’ had doubled in a year.

The group claims that some of the dog owners are involved as ‘terrier men’ for foxhunters – specialists used by hunts to help dig out the fox when it goes to ground in a hole or badger sett.

The League alleges the ‘terrier men’ send in dogs to locate the prey. It is then dug out. These encounters can lead to protracted fights, sometimes to the death. The ‘terrier men’ are also known to practise underground hunting as a ‘sport’ of its own.

Underground hunting is illegal under the Hunting Act 2004, except when it is done to protect game birds that will later be shot. Even then the fox must be shot as soon as it is flushed out.

The League, which wants a total ban on underground hunting, said in its report: ‘Whilst terrier work itself is not a new phenomenon, this research has revealed the increasing popularity of social media to boast about it and share photographic images.’

It said it had identified 212 suspects from the images, of which 46 had been reported to the police and RSPCA for possible action.

Mark Randell, the League’s director of operations, said: ‘I’m shocked whenever I see the horrific injuries inflicted on these poor dogs... being forced into pitch battles with foxes and badgers by their owners. There’s a cruelty here that is despicable.’

Henry Smith, Tory co-chairman of the All-Party Group on Animal Welfare, supported the call for a ban, adding: ‘There is no justification for sending one animal down a hole to fight another. Dog fighting is banned in this country and this is no different.’