Shocking footage appears to show live fox cubs being thrown to the pack of fox hounds

This is the shocking moment two fox cubs were grabbed by the scruff of their necks by a huntsman before they were killed by a pack of baying hounds.

The helpless animals were thrown to the dogs as part of an alleged illegal training exercise to teach the hounds how to hunt and kill foxes.

The video, taken with hidden cameras positioned outside the kennels, show four live fox cubs kept in a cage at the South Herefordshire Hunt kennels.

Undercover footage then shows a man carrying two foxes into a large corrugated iron shed where the hounds are kept.

Disturbing audio then picks up the sound of howling dogs and barking before the man walks back outside carrying what appears to be one of the dead foxes which he throws into a wheelie bin.

The video was shot on May 27 this year by The Hunt Investigations Team who retrieved the bodies of the foxes as evidence.

A spokeswoman said: “They don’t naturally hunt foxes. They have to be taught to recognise foxes as prey and not only to hunt them but also to kill them.

“We believe this evidence shows fox cubs were actually thrown to the hounds because the bodies came out.

“When our investigators took those fox cubs out, one of them was disembowelled, one of them had multiple bite wounds.

“Our feeling is that they were fed live to the hounds.”

Last week West Mercia Police confirmed two men and a woman had been arrested and bailed on suspicion of animal cruelty.

The hunt also said they had suspended a paid huntsman but refused to comment further.

The hunt’s kennels, situated at its headquarters in Wormelow, Herefordshire, have been closed while an investigation is carried out.

The Masters of Foxhounds Association said an independent inquiry, led by former Court of Appeal judge Sir John Chadwick, would take place into “conduct which suggests breaches of the association’s rules”.

The Hunt Investigation Team and the League Against Cruel Sports said they were increasingly concerned about activities used to support illegal hunting.

They say fox hounds are still being taught to kill young foxes through a practice known as “cubbing”.

Since the hunting ban came into force in 2005, hounds are less likely to encounter foxes and it is claimed some hunts have a problem with their hounds other attacking animals.

The ban on hunting with hounds, introduced in 2005, made it illegal to intentionally pursue foxes with a pack of dogs.

However unintentional kills are not banned and it is claimed some hunts deliberately engineer situations where foxes are killed.

Chief executive of the League Against Cruel Sports, Eduardo Goncalves, said: “The hounds won’t naturally kill foxes so they must be taught to do so and this footage exposes the gruesome training secrets of hunts in the UK.”

Countryside Alliance chief executive Tim Bonner said if the allegations were proven, the activities shown had “absolutely no place in hunting”.