"When they dig up dens at the beginning of a hunt and find cubs, or a pregnant vixen, do you know what the standard practice is?" You actually don't seem to know anything about the subject Michael. In the situation I described the hunt will not kill the cubs or the pregnant vixen, they will leave them alone, the reason being that they do not want to deprive themselves of their future sport. This is clearly not the action of people who are interested in culling the fox population. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a bleeding heart animal lover and have no problem with the rural fox population being controlled. I've also seen first hand what a fox will do if it gets into a chicken coup, but that has absolutely nothing to do with fox hunting. Likewise, I've seen the harm that fox hunts do to people's land, and its more than cosmetic damage to fences.