A POLICE investigation has been launched after hounds from the Beaufort Hunt caught and killed a fox in the garden of a Sherston woman.

Gwen Butler, who witnessed the kill on Saturday, said: "It was nasty, there was blood all over the place."

The 78-year-old had gone outside her Luckington Road home after spotting the hounds heading her way because she wanted to stop them coming into her garden.

She described how she saw a pack of hounds running over a neighbour's field before the fox leapt over her wall. The hounds followed and caught up with their quarry.

"They just tore into it. There was fur flying and some blood spattered up on the garage door."

When the huntsman waded in and picked the fox up "you could see its side was ripped out.

"I was really upset about it. It wasn't very pleasant," said Mrs Butler, who has lived in the village for 54 years.

"One of the huntswomen came up and said she was very sorry. I said: "Get them out of here."

Her son reported the incident to the police when he arrived back from work.

Mrs Butler added that she had tackled the hunt in the past for allowing the hounds onto her land.

Jo Aldridge, from the hunt, which has Ian Farquhar as its joint master said: "It was a very windy day on Saturday and the trail scent must have somehow drifted. A small number of hounds followed it down wind and ran into a fox, which they then, unfortunately, caught.

"The accident was reported to the police by the hunt that evening."

She accepted it had been distressing for Mrs Butler and said the hunt had apologised for any upset.

She added that the fox was later discovered to be suffering from mange, a parasitic skin condition that usually leads to death if untreated.

"That might explain the ease with which the hounds came across it."

Since the hunting ban was introduced there has been just one successful prosecution in August last year when the master of an Exmoor hunt was found guilty of breaking the law, although that case is being appealed.