Members of hunts have been accused of defying Scotland’s fox-hunting ban by setting packs of blood-thirsty hounds on the fleeing animals which are torn apart when caught.
Legislation only allows foxes to be flushed from cover and shot dead for pest control, but undercover investigators say they have found packs of trained dogs chasing down foxes across open fields while huntsmen made no attempt to shoot them.
Director of The League Against Cruel Sports Scotland Robbie Marsland said: “Despite Scotland being the first place in the UK to ban foxhunting in 2002, the 10 Scottish hunts still go out two or three times a week each year between November and the end of March. They say they are using their hounds to flush foxes to waiting guns. Except our investigators could see no guns where you would expect to find them. We were pretty much convinced that it was business as usual for the fox hunters in the Scottish countryside.”
It was also alleged that in some areas members of the hunt rode around on quad bikes firing shots in the air to give the impression the hunt was shooting at foxes while hounds pursued them.
A dossier of evidence collated by the animal welfare charity League Against Cruel Sports Scotland (LACS) argues that Scotland’s mounted hunts regularly break the law. Investigators from LACS filmed six of 10 Scottish hunts during last season and found “no discernible presence of guns waiting to shoot flushed foxes”.
The report said: “There was no sight of guns being positioned at points where you might expect foxes to emerge. Neither was there any sight of guns being moved from one cover to another as the hounds moved on. In all the incidents recorded by our investigators it appears that there was no intention to shoot any foxes which might have been flushed from cover.” The report went on to say that “token guns” were deployed. “These guns were usually to be seen on quad bikes well away from the flushing to guns.”
During the 2016/17 season investigators uncovered what they described as a “new development” where hunts claimed foxes were wounded by gunshot before dogs tore them apart. There is a provision in the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002 which allows packs of hounds to kill a wounded animal.
The League Against Cruel Sports’ report said: “In one case where a fox was killed by a hunt, hunting within the confines of the law, the animal’s body was recovered and sent for autopsy.
“The autopsy showed the animal had suffered extensively before it died and concluded that the fox had suffered severe trauma consistent with that caused by a dog or dogs.”
A review of the existing legislation by Lord Bonomy recommended strengthening legislation that has led to only two convictions since fox hunting was banned.
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