Knifecrime Island Fox Hunt Hoax

To Knifecrime Island, where the media is hungry for any kind of sensation: “It was the internet video that sparked a media outcry: grainy footage that seemed to show four masked men drugging a fox and later beating it to death with cricket bats in a London park that was posted on YouTube and Facebook earlier this week. But the Guardian can reveal that the new sport of ‘urban fox hunting’ was an elaborate hoax. The film-makers, Chris Atkins and Johnny Howorth, said no real foxes were harmed in the film, which was intended as a satirical swipe at what they believe is media hysteria over the danger of urban foxes…. The pair said they made their film ‘deliberately Pythonesque’ in a bid to lampoon the media hysteria over urban foxes, and were surprised when the video was so widely assumed to be authentic.”