An Irish man has pleaded guilty to charges of illegally using hounds to hunt foxes in the UK.
Police in Leicestershire uncovered a series of incriminating text messages on the phone of Huntsman Ollie Finnegan who was found guilty of participating in the illegal blood sport in a Cheltenham court yesterday.
While it’s legal to ‘stalk’ or ‘flush’ foxes out of hiding “if the fox is causing damage to your property or the environment”, or to ‘simulate hunting by using dogs for ‘drag’ or ‘trail’ hunts – hunting the animals with packs of dogs is banned in the UK.
It is also illegal to send dogs underground in the pursuit of foxes “unless they’re threatening wild or game birds kept for shooting – only one dog can go underground at any time.”
Finnegan was reported as having a “pattern of offending over a period of time” by Magistrates.
The text messages reveal how he was involved in illegal hunting last January as part of the Quorn Hunting group.
ITV News reported that the messages read to the court revealed that Finnegan had been “messaging a Master of the Quorn Hunt. The Master asks “How was your evening?”
Finnegan replies: “ Morning, only found one had a nice little on him.”
On another day the Master complains using fox and sad face emojis, asking: “what do we do.”
The report continues that on a separate occasion, “the Master says “How did this evening go?” to which Finnegan replied “Found 2 brace [foxes] seen another 2 brace, very busy all night. Hounds hunted well considering the heat.”
Finnegan was fined £656.