LONDON, Jan. 21 (UPI) -- Britain's Prince Phillip is at the center of an animal cruelty scandal after a pheasant hunt that allegedly included brutality, a report says.
The 85-year-old prince had been on a pheasant hunt on Queen Elizabeth II's estate in Norfolk recently when a fox was brutally clubbed to death while Phillip allegedly watched, the Sunday Telegraph said.
Watching the tragic event occur from 30 yards away, Phillip allegedly did nothing to stop one of the men in his hunting party from repeatedly clubbing a wounded fox until it died.
The fox had been wounded by gunfire from another member of the party, yet only succumbed after being clubbed with a stick and stomped on by another man later during the hunt.
While Buckingham Palace had no comment regarding the incident, the Telegraph said animal rights activists immediate sprung into action.
"This poor fox should not have been killed in the first place," Animal Aid Director Andrew Tyler said. "But it is outrageous that Prince Philip and his pals carried on shooting for fun while it was in its agonized death throes."
