The RSPCA is investigating claims made by prominent lawyer Jolyon Maugham that he clubbed a fox to death with a baseball bat.
Maugham, who founded the Good Law Project, said on Twitter on Thursday morning: “Already this morning I have killed a fox with a baseball bat. How’s your Boxing Day going?”
He clarified in a series of later tweets that he had acted in attempt to save his chickens, and claimed he had been wearing his wife’s kimono at the time of the incident.
With almost 180,000 followers to his name, the tweet was met with almost immediate revulsion by a number of social media users – with animal charity RSPCA quickly brought into the conversation.
A spokesperson for the organisation has since clarified that they are aware of the reports and are “looking into it”.
The RSPCA said on Twitter that the incident was “distressing” and urged “anyone with firsthand information” to come forward.
Maugham claimed the fox had “got caught up in the protective netting around the chickens” as he “wasn’t sure what else to do”, and said “no one should relish killing animals.”
Government guidelines state that if a fox is caught in a trap or snare on a person’s property, they must “humanely kill any fox you catch while it’s in the trap or snare”.
Gassing or poisoning foxes is prohibited.
Maugham later apologised on Twitter to anyone who had been “upset” by the tweet, and said he had contacted the RSPCA himself to report what had happened.