Fox hunting is not necessarily an upper-class sport as there are working class people enjoying riding horses when fox hunting with dogs. In any case does it matter whether rich people or poor people enjoy a particular sport or recreation?
It is accepted in our collective consciousness that culling bacteria, viruses, rats, cockroaches, mosquitoes are acceptable; so is farming livestock for food or utilising animals for work. Sometimes it may be necessary to cull pests (like foxes, rats, grey squirrels, badgers, pigeons, etc) to prevent disease or to sustain food chains that are beneficial to humans. Whales are sometimes called 'cockroaches of the sea' as each whale eats tons of plankton every day. In the past, whales were culled for their oil & meat. Culling pests can be regarded as equivalent to using animals for food, work, vivisection for the development of new drugs, etc.
Hunting is a form of sport - equivalent to fishing, shooting ducks/partridges/pigeons. Fox hunting is an industry also employs people to look after the hunting dogs, horses & land in the countryside where the hunt occurs.
For those who say killing animals for fun, not out of necessity should not be allowed, eating meat from farm animals can sometimes be for fun too. Animals bred for specially for the sole purpose of experimentation, food or work are often kept in less cruel conditions than if those animals were living wild, fending a living for themselves. Animals living wild usually suffer death by disease, hunger, predation, etc. That’s life. Sometimes human civilisation needs are also urgent.
Specifically bred (or kept alive) animals are kept to achieve specific purposes - like farm animals for food, laboratory animals for vivisection, race horses for racing, partridge & hounds for fox hunting. Hounds are not pets, they are often kept by businesses/clubs that organize the hunting. Hounds are working animals - like race horses & greyhounds, guide dogs, police & military horses, etc.#
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/308553/FOI_Hunting_-_27_March_14_6454_Annex_A_Research.pdf states, “Legislation passed in Scotland in 2002 and England and Wales in 2004 banned the hunting of wild mammals with dogs with specific exemptions that allow red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) to be flushed from areas of terrain (‘coverts’) to be shot as a means of pest control. In England and Wales there is a limit of two dogs whereas in Scotland there is no limit”. The study described in the article found that a pack of hounds is considerably more effective than a pair of hounds used to flush foxes out to be shot.
Yes, conceivably, using packs of hounds (without having to observe the 'two dog' limit) to flush foxes out is more practicable & feasible than the present 'two dog limit regulation, as packs of dogs tend to hunt together.