BBC News at Six 11Jun15 on 16 fox cubs found in barn in North Yorkshire <br /> <br />Dr Toni Shepherd: League against Cruel Sports <br /> <br />Kevin Hollinrake: Conservative MP for Thirsk & Malton <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />Police are investigating after footage of 16 fox cubs held in a barn near to hunt kennels emerged. <br /> <br />The video was filmed in a barn near to the Middleton Hunt Kennels in Malton, North Yorkshire, by the League Against Cruel Sports, which alleges that the cubs were being raised to be hunted. <br /> <br />The footage, given to the BBC, showed the dark interior of a barn, located some 200m (660ft) from the hunt kennels. <br /> <br />A number of fox cubs, aged six to eight weeks, were shying away from the light of the camera. <br /> <br />Several were hiding in a milk churn and others were crouching in a drainpipe. <br /> <br />The police said there were 16 cubs from at least four different vixens. <br /> <br />Dr Toni Shephard, from the LACS, said: "This footage shows 16 fox cubs being kept in a barn without any sign of a vixen or parents. <br /> <br />"We believe that they're being kept to ensure that there are plenty of foxes to hunt this coming season when they go out. <br /> <br />"We think that this practice is widespread and this demonstrates that hunting is nothing to do with fox control or wildlife management, but that it's just a cruel sport that people take part in purely for pleasure." <br /> <br />The cubs are now in a sanctuary in Liverpool. They will eventually be released into the wild. <br /> <br />http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-33100242
