(Image source from: www.richmond.com)

Attorney General Mark Herring's office said a two-year probe has led to the closure of six of Virginia's nearly 30 fox pens, sizable enclosures in which wild foxes are contained and chased by hunting dogs.

Herring's office told a media source that ahead of an official proclamation on Wednesday that its Animal Law Unit had secured nine guilty pleas from people active in a sweep targeting fox pens stocked with illicitly purchased wildlife.

Six pens lost their licenses as a result. They are among the first licenses to be revoked since the passage of a 2014 law intended to phase out the controversial practice, Herring spokeswoman Charlotte Gomer said.

"Any individuals who participate in activities like wildlife trafficking or illegal fox penning should be brought to justice," Herring said in a statement.

Supporters say the facilities, which are needed to have an escape for the foxes, render a harmless way to train hunting dogs. But animal welfare groups and else opponents argue the pens are brutal to the foxes, which are sometimes killed, and say they don't have an actual component of fair chase like a hunt in the wild.

Some compare fox penning to dogfighting. Herring's office said the practice sometimes deviates from a training exercise to include gambling or competitions to see whose dog can catch the confined fox.

There were 29 permitted fox pens in Virginia, as of Tuesday, mostly in the south-central part of the state and Tidewater region, ranging in size from a minimum of 100 acres to 600 or 700 acres, said Bob Duncan, executive director of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.

The nine people who pleaded guilty in the investigation were charged with illegally purchasing wildlife and received suspended sentences of varying lengths. Some faced fines.

"These convictions clearly demonstrate the cruel, inhumane nature of fox penning and the illegal activity that can accompany it," Matthew Gray-Keeling, Virginia state director for The Humane Society of the United States, said in a statement: "We sincerely appreciate Attorney General Herring's work to strictly enforce Virginia’s laws and shut down these illegal and inhumane operations."

All six, where pens lost their permits are in - Lunenburg, Buckingham, Dinwiddie, Brunswick, Appomattox, and King and Queen - are currently shut down, Gomer said. Two of the pens are prevented from reopening, and the else four could choose to appeal and the pens could run pending the result, though that has not happened, she said.

By Sowmya Sangam