‘Cubbing’, is a pre-hunting-season ‘sport’ that involves hunters training their dogs to kill fox cubs as they are easier to catch than adult foxes. 

According to Keep The Ban, a non-profit organisation that campaigns against the hunting of wildlife for sport, the practice is responsible for slaughtering thousands of defenceless fox cubs in England and Wales each year. Yet few members of the public know about it – 88% of people have never heard of it, and just 5% know what it is, making cubbing one of fox hunting’s dirtiest secrets.

To draw attention to the atrocities of cubbing, Engine has created a parody sports show, highlighting the cruelty of killing innocent fox cubs for sport. 

The parody film titled, ‘The World’s Worst Sport’, shows a TV sports presenter and expert commentator in a TV studio discuss the countdown to a cubbing session as they might preview a football match. The studio crosses over to a reporter ‘live’ from a field where the families of foxes live as if speaking to a pundit interviewing the families of the players from the stadium. By using common conventions of the sports news genre and subverting expectations, the film serves as a sobering reminder that killing should not be treated as sport. 

The campaign was partly inspired by groups in charge of fox hunts rebranding to The British Hound Sports Association earlier this year, striving to highlight the ridiculousness of seeing this barbaric act as a sport. If considered to be a sport at all, the team set out to expose it for what it is; the World’s Worst Sport. 

“It's 2022, and there are people going out ripping fox cubs to pieces. It's shocking and bizarre. That is exactly what this film encapsulates—a normalisation of an almost surreal pastime continues to occur across the UK. Using an easily recognisable format, we could expose this grotesque activity to a new audience.” explained Rob Pownall, Founder at Keep The Ban. 

The film will run across social media on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.