12 April 2024 , 07:54
787
0
Animal welfare campaigners have claimed new laws aimed at preventing illegal fox hunts with packs of dogs are being brazenly flouted.
Footage filmed by activists from the League Against Cruel Sports show a hunting group out with packs of foxhounds during the latest hunting season, which ended in March. Hunts have gotten around the laws by claiming to be "drag hunting" - an horse riding sport where hounds follow an artificial scent trail laid down by volunteers.
It is an alternative to fox hunting and, as the route is predetermined, the hounds can be safely kept away from livestock, vulnerable crops and roads. Animal welfare investigators - who spoke to the Ferret investigative journalism website - claimed they saw no artificial scents being laid in footage they sent to scotland>Police Scotland.
The hunts were secretly filmed by The League Against Cruel sports over a six-month period during the first hunting season after new legislation came into force that adds more restrictions to the law on fox hunting. According to The Daily Record, six incidents have been reported to Police Scotland.
Animal rights campaigners claim people are flouting fox hunting bans in Scotland (The League Against Cruel Sports (The League))A Police Scotland spokesperson told the outlet: “Since the introduction of the Hunting with Dogs Act in October 2023, we have investigated six reports of illegal fox-hunting. A 29 year-old man has been charged with three hunting offences and is the subject of a report to the Procurator Fiscal. A second man, aged 55 years, was arrested following a report of three further hunting offences. He has been released pending further enquiry.”
'If Rishi Sunak admits he sees a private GP, he knows nothing about the NHS'
The Hunting with Dogs (Scotland) Act came into effect in October last year and prevents hunters from using packs of dogs to flush out wild mammals unless they have a licence. It replaced the Protection of Wild Mammals Act, passed in 2002. The previous legislation allowed for dogs to flush out foxes from cover if they were then shot rather than killed by the hounds and also providing the hunt was done to protect livestock or ground nesting-birds, or to preventing diseases from spreading.
The key change in the new law is that no more than two dogs can be used to stalk or flush out animals from cover unless a licence has been granted. The new law also prohibits a form of simulated fox hunting where fox-scent is laid and followed by riders.
It's banned as it is viewed as a loophole for fox hunts to continue. The Scottish government did recognise farmers need to protect their livestock and, as a result, the new legislation provides a licensing scheme to allow more dogs to be used in certain circumstances. Animal welfare groups shared concerns that the new law could be exploited and The League secretly filmed hunts last season using cameras and drones. Instances filmed include the Berwickshire Hunt, which described itself as a "drag hunt."
The League said on more than one occasion hunters took their hunting dogs into fox habitats and that footage had been handed over to police. Robbie Marsland, The League's director for Scotland and Ireland, told The Ferret: "Scottish fox hunts appear to be trying to ride a coach and horses through the new law. Whether they're sneaking around with multiple dogs or saying they are drag hunting, it’s good news that Police Scotland are responding to the league’s evidence and that at least one person has been charged with illegal hunting. This will send a cautionary clarion call to anyone who thinks they can get round this new law.”
"This is complete nonsense," A spokesperson for the Scottish Countryside Alliance, which supports fox hunting, told the outlet. "The video (i.e. footage of one incident involving the Berwickshire Hunt) is evidence of nothing other than dog walking and the Government has not yet got round to banning that.
"The new legislation is completely unnecessary, but it does include a licensing scheme for fox control which is being used to protect lambs and threatened wildlife all over Scotland."
Ariane Burgess, Scottish Greens MSP, told The Daily Record: "The message from the government and Police Scotland must be clear: nobody is above the law. And that message must be backed up with rigorous enforcement. It [fox hunting] has no place in a modern Scotland and our work will continue until it's stamped out for good."