I wouldn't go hunting because I don't fancy mixing with Hoorays, and the custom and costume seem fairly bizarre - but I don't see that hunting with hounds is crueller than shooting, or snaring or any other way of controlling the fox population. The hounds either catch it, or it gets away. If they catch it it's dead before many microseconds pass, the hounds don't muck about. The hunting fraternity have merely put something above the fox in the food chain. Shooters can easily screw up and wound the fox, giving it a far worse time than would be administered by hounds.
Now battery hens - that's a REAL problem.
Ray