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Cruelty claim suspends hunt 22.03.04 (BBCNews24) close X Cruelty claim suspends hunt A hunting pack has been suspended after an undercover investigation into practices criticised as "barbaric". The Federation of Welsh Packs decided to take the action against the Plas Machynlleth Fox Hounds after some of its hunts were secretly filmed. The League Against Cruel Sports went undercover to shoot footage of a trapped fox being attacked by terriers before being destroyed. The federation said this was against rules but had been assured that the huntsman put the fox down before it was given to hounds. Emyr Lewis, chairman of the gun pack - one of around 40 in Wales which hunts on foot - said he knew nothing of the allegations until he found out that the group had been suspended. The news came on Monday after the league's investigators, who had infiltrated the gun pack, convened a press conference and unveiled secretly-filmed footage of the pack during the 2003-04 hunting season. Their report, entitled Digging the Dirt, claims to have uncovered film which showed dogs incapable of killing a fox with a quick nip to the back of the neck, and terriers attacking a trapped fox, which was screaming while being dug out. Chief Executive of the League Douglas Batchelor said he was appalled by the contents of the video and said such practices had no place in modern society. The film, he alleged, showed "the grim reality of a Welsh gun pack, dogs chasing and attacking foxes, foxes injured but not killed, trapped underground for half-an-hour to an hour, dogs encouraged to attack foxes". "I think this is fox-baiting, quite frankly," he said. Mr Batchelor added that everything shown on the footage was legal but said "if that was a badger down a hole it would already be illegal". "The fact it is a fox means it is not illegal, but it jolly well should be," he claimed. The Federation of Welsh Packs - the governing body designed to unite and represent organised hunting in Wales - confirmed that the pack had been suspended. Spokesman David Thomas said an allegation from the league that a fox was attacked by terriers without first being humanely destroyed was against federation rules. But he added the pack's huntsman had assured him that the fox had been put down humanely and was only afterwards given to the hounds, which Mr Thomas described as "standard practice". Cardiff North MP Julie Morgan, who was also at the launch of the investigation results, said she was "shocked and sickened by that footage" and felt that it was "barbaric". "I am ashamed this is happening here in Wales and I feel we have to do something about it." She added: "It makes me want to go back to the House of Commons to redouble my efforts to make sure the Hunting Bill does come back to the Commons as soon as we can possibly do it."

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