Fox Hunts Suspended in Bucks County

Hunting foxes in Bucks County parks has been allowed until recently, when a New Year's Day hunt reportedly led to an attack of a Warwick woman and her dog.

For now, the county has suspended use of its parks for fox hunts while all uses of the parks are studied, Commissioners Chairman Rob Loughery said on Wednesday, Feb. 1, as reported by Philly.com. 

Judy Cox told Patch that she, her husband, and their two Labradors had been on a walk in Dark Hollow Park behind their Jamison home when they saw horses and dogs participating in a fox hunt off in the distance.

"We decided to change direction and go back to our property," she explained. "At that point we didn't feel threatened. But as we got 50 yards from our property, they overcame us."

Cox said the hounds made a B-line for Daisy and her, knocked them to the ground and began biting.

"I had bites, my right forearm was all bruised," she said. "I didn't have so much puncture wounds as I did bruising, but I had scratching and broken skin that concerned my doctor."

Daisy, the blind lab who the Coxes recently adopted dog, had bites on her ear, abdomen and the back of her legs, according to Cox. Then, a rider called the dogs off once they noticed what was happening, she said.

Her husband called 911 and tried to get someone from the hunting group to identify themselves. After a few attempts, Claire Harris finally came forward, Cox said, and her husband "insisted she came back to the house to file the police report."

Founders of the Huntington Valley Hunt in Buckingham Township, Claire and Richard Harris, said they were out with 24 hounds and about 20 people on horseback, and that the incident happened so quickly they didn't learn about it until later, according to reports on ABC6.

Claire Harris told CBS Philly that the Coxes and dog "appeared to be fine."

"Of course they were frightened; as anyone would be," she said.

Judy Cox said that Harris made it seem in her interviews that she made sure Cox was fine, but that didn't happen. Cox said that Harris may have seen her walk back to her home, but never actually checked on her.

"She never saw me," Cox said. "She stayed on her horse on the back of the property line and I was on the other side of the house. She had no idea whether I was injured or not, but yeh I was able to walk home."

The hunting group had a permit to hunt fox in the park from the state game commission, but according to a letter to the Warwick Township manager from Commissioner Chairman Rob Loughery, the permit expired on Dec. 31, 2011. Additionally, Loughery said "the incident took place on open space owned by Warwick Township," for which Huntingdon Valley Hunt did not have a permit, according to Philly Burbs.

After the New Year's Day incident, Cox told her story to the Warwick supervisors in mid-January, and the board voted to call on the county to ban the hunts in county parks, according to CBS Philly. Her husband, who was walking with her, serves on the board of supervisors for the township.

Cox said she is surprised that the decision to suspend fox hunts hasn't been a clear decision for the commissioners.

"I thought it would be a clear cut thing, ya know, because of public safety," she said. "I thought the commissioners would say, 'OK, we're not going to issue permits for this anymore since a person was attacked, it's not a safe practice.' "

"The other thing is they don't have control of where these dogs go," she explained. "If you or I are walking a dog in a park it needs to be on a leash, but for some reason you can take 24 dogs out and whip them in a frenzy but not on a leash. It doesn't make sense."

Warwick police continue to investigate the attack, but a report was presented to the Bucks County District Attorney's Office to avoid any appearance of impropriety in the Warwick Police Department, Police Chief Mark Goldberg told Philly Burbs.

“If I decide myself that we’re going to charge the Harrises, people will say it’s because the victim is the wife of one of the supervisors [John Cox]." he explained.

The district attorney forwarded the investigation to the state attorney general to also avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest, as the office's chief of appeals—Stephen Harris—is the president of Huntingdon Valley Hunt.

Cox said she hasn't heard anything about the progress of the situation, but that she thinks it's a matter of time before someone or another animal gets hurt.

"I'm hoping," Cox said, "that they make the recommendation to permanently suspend fox hunts."