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Observations on the deaths of Foxes killed by Hounds.
Six foxes were examined post mortem having been killed by hounds. Three deaths were observed. One, where the fox was caught, apparently unaware, where it lay. One, where an obviously mangey disabled fox was quickly overtaken and a third where the fox was turned and ran into three hounds separated from the pack.
In these observed cases death appeared to be virtually instantaneous and the carcasses were swiftly broken up by the pack except for fox three, which was retrieved intact. The three other foxes post mortemed were not observed at capture.
All the carcasses, except for three had received multiple injuries consistent with a pack of large strong canines biting and pulling in opposite directions after the fox had died. Typically there was severe limb trauma and evisceration.
All the foxes had palpable fracture dislocations of one of the first three joints in the neck.
None of the multiple injuries had bled nor were there any subcutaneous haemorrhage or haematomata associated with the biting and the tearing of the carcass.
Fox three had sustained a cervical fracture but no other detectable injuries, not even a skin puncture. There was some haemorrhage at the site of the fracture.
Four further foxes were preserved by freezing, after hounds had caught them, in a typical manner. On X-ray they all showed fracture dislocations of the neck. These X-rays are available for inspection.
My observations have convinced me that the death of a fox caught by hounds is as rapid and certain as any natural death can be.
This opinion is based on three main factors.
1) Personal observation.
2) The ten out of ten fatal neck fractures.
3) The absence of haemorrhage from other sites of injury, indicating that these were sustained after death.
In the large majority of cases of capture the lead hound seizes the fox by the neck and by a violent shake of the head kills the fox by fracturing & dislocating it's neck.
Occasionally, the lead hound can miss and will seize the fox by hind leg or flank in which case another hound will seize the neck and kill the fox in less than ten seconds.
R.E. Baskerville
BVSc MRCVS.
Date uploaded to site 30 May 2000