Calls for monarch to act amid grim find as documentary on his passion for environment is released

The slaughter comes as a new Prime Video film, Finding Harmony: A King’s Vision, will tout the monarch as a lifelong champion of nature.

- BY DAN VEVERS Chief Reporter

Robbie Marsland, director of Scotland and Northern Ireland for the League Against Cruel Sports which has written to the King, said: "Twelve foxes shot and strung up like trophies on Crown Estate land is grotesque.

"This slaughter isn’t about protecting livestock, it’s about protecting pheasants from foxes so birds can be shot for sport.

"It’s killing to kill, dressed up as countryside management.

"The bitter irony is that this is happening on land owned by the King, just as he prepares to launch a documentary about living in harmony with nature.

"These dead animals represent everything His Majesty's Harmony philosophy is supposed to oppose. It’s time for the killing to end and Scotland's wildlife to get the respect it deserves.

"The League is calling on His Majesty to insist that his tenants put down their guns and pick up the science, because killing foxes achieves nothing except betraying the very values he's asking the world to embrace.

"Any response that falls short of that, or failing to respond at all, would amount to grave hypocrisy."

Although the King is not directly involved in managing Crown Estate land, he ultimately owns it.

Police investigated the incident but said it found no evidence of criminality, while farmers claimed the killings were part of an “ongoing programme” of fox control ahead of lambing season which runs through March and April.

But campaigners said this did not explain why the foxes had been displayed like a grisly “trophy wall” - and questioned the argument around lambing season which is months away.