Hunted foxes face death by stress

17 February 1999

Hunted foxes ‘face death by stress’

ANTI-HUNT campaigners claim that they have the first hard evidence that foxes can die from stress, after a cub rescued from the hounds by saboteurs was examined by a vet.

Richard Edwards, the vet who treated the cub, believes the fox would have died from the stress it suffered had it not been treated.

The animal suffered all the signs of intense trauma, including a racing heart, no colour in its gums and blood in its urine, claimed Mr Edwards.

The cub was being chased across common land by members of the Chiddingfold, Leconfield and Cowdray Hunt, who met at Upperton, West Sussex.

The National Trust and the Forestry Commission banned stag hunting on their land two years ago after a study found that deer suffered stress during the chase.

• Voting a weapon in hunting battle, FWi, 12 February, 1999
• Local referendums to ban foxhunting, FWi, 16 December, 1998
• Government abandons foxhunting law, FWi, 27 November, 1998
• The Times 17/02/99 page 3
  
• The Guardian 17/02/99 page 12