Men found guilty after driving fox out of tunnel with drainage rods on New Year's Day hunt

'Protected animals in the wild live and die by the rules of the jungle but when we interfere we have a duty to treat them right', prosecutor says

Killing foxes with a pack of dogs, the traditional way New Year’s Day hunts are carried out, is illegal (PA)

Two men who drove a fox out of a tunnel with drainage rods before yanking it out by its tail have been found guilty of causing unnecessary suffering to the animal.

Ian Parkinson, 65, and Mark Vincent, 53, were filmed as they plunged the pole into the fox’s hiding space and dragged the animal out during a New Year’s Day hunt.

Hunting horns and dogs could be heard barking in the background of the video which was shown at ​Oxford Magistrates Court.

Each had denied one count of causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal.

But Magistrate Dr Kamlesh Rana said the pair’s actions were “deliberate, planned and premeditated" as she found the men guilty.

She said “the fox was released in very close proximity both in the timing and location of an ongoing hunt."

Killing foxes with a pack of dogs, the traditional way New Year’s Day fox hunting is carried out, is illegal in the UK.

Veterinary surgeon David Martin told the court the fox was also put at risk because it had been pulled from the tunnel by its tail – adding it was likely to have been traumatised after being yanked from safety and into the path of its predators.

In the prosecution's closing statement, barrister Peter Ryman said it was the duty of humans to treat protected animals correctly.

"Protected animals in the wild live and die by the rules of the jungle but when we interfere we have a duty to treat them right," he said.

Parkinson and Vincent will return to the same court on November 26 to be sentenced.

Additional reporting by PA