Fox hunt ‘desecrates’ tranquil burial site

A pack of hounds from the Middleton fox hunt has run amok through a woodland burial site in North Yorkshire. The incident happened during the last week of January 2026.

Footage captured by national animal welfare charity the League Against Cruel Sports shows the hounds marauding through the Mowthorpe Garden of Rest within the Howardian Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The hounds ran across graves with the hunt failing to stop or divert them.

This is the same Middleton Hunt that the Canary witnessed a couple of weeks earlier. On that occasion, the hunt was behaving violently and showing no sign of laying a trail. Unless the law changes, and it may do before long, fox hunts can still ride out. But, legally, they can only ‘trail hunt’. This means following a scent trail, rather than actual foxes.

However, until the government moves decisively to ban them for good, fox hunts are continuing to cause havoc across the countryside.

The League’s chief executive Emma Slawinksi has slammed the hunt for its actions:

It beggars belief that the hunt would have laid a trail through a burial site so either the Middleton Hunt has no regard for the sanctity of this site or, as is more likely, the hounds were on the trail of a fox.

They have desecrated this burial site in a bid to carry on with a blood sport that was banned 20 years ago.

Hunts are behaving in an appalling way, intent on chasing and killing foxes and not caring about their anti-social behaviour and the impact they are having on local communities and the people who live in the countryside.

The hounds were also caught terrorising local wildlife with two deer filmed fleeing for their lives.

‘Trail hunting a smokescreen for fox hunts’

The footage of the Middleton Hunt is being released the day after Channel 4 News aired footage gathered by the League of the same hunt’s hounds chasing a fox on Christmas Eve 2025.

The League released figures ahead of Boxing Day showing an increase in the number of reports of hunts chasing foxes and wreaking havoc on rural communities.

Chief superintendent Matt Longman, the national lead on fox hunting crime, has described trail hunting as a “smokescreen for illegal fox hunting”. He also described illegal hunting as “prolific”.

The government has announced it will launch a consultation to ban trail hunting, though this has suffered delays.

Slawinksi added:

I would urge the public who are sick and tired of the behaviour of fox hunts to take part in the government’s hunting consultation.

The time for change is now. We want to see trail hunting banned, the loopholes in the law removed, the end of so-called ‘accidental’ hunting, and jail sentences introduced to act as a deterrent for those who would break new stronger fox hunting laws.

Find out more about how to take part in the consultation, and how people can make their voice heard, here.

Featured image via the Canary