A pile of bloodied foxes appeared outside Reading Station last week as an animal welfare charity called for stronger action against illegal hunting.
The display, organised by the League Against Cruel Sports, featured a “hunter” dumping 648 fake foxes outside the station. The charity said each fox represented a report it had received of a fox being chased by hunts since the last general election.
The stunt coincided with a government consultation launched last month aimed at strengthening hunting laws in England and Wales.
The charity said the display was intended to highlight what it described as the continuing scale of illegal fox hunting.
Emma Slawinski, chief executive of the League Against Cruel Sports, said the installation was designed to draw public attention to the issue.
“The dumped foxes in Reading are there to show the scale of illegality that the government is looking to get to grips with,” she said.
“The Reading public is repulsed by trail hunting, which is just a smokescreen to conceal that foxes and other wild animals are still being chased and torn apart by hunt hounds.”
She added that members of the public who spoke to campaigners in the town had signed up to take part in the government consultation and encouraged others to do the same.
The consultation, which runs until 18 June, is seeking views on potential changes to hunting legislation. The League Against Cruel Sports is calling for trail hunting to be banned, exemptions in the Hunting Act to be removed, and the introduction of jail sentences for those found guilty of illegal hunting.
Ms Slawinski said: “We’re pleased the government understands the time for change is now.
“Trail hunting needs to be banned, but the exemptions in the Hunting Act that hunts exploit need to be removed, jail sentences should be introduced to act as an effective deterrent, and reckless, or ‘accidental’ hunting should be outlawed.”
Polling commissioned by the charity and conducted by FindOutNow, with analysis by Electoral Calculus in March and April 2024, found that 74% of people in Reading supported stronger fox hunting laws, while 6% disagreed.
The survey also found support for tougher laws across both rural and urban areas, with 70% of respondents in the countryside backing measures to stop foxes being chased and killed by hounds.
More information about the consultation and how to take part is available on the League Against Cruel Sports website.
