Some things don’t change (Animal rights groups accuse Scottish police of pro-fox hunting bias, News, February 28). In the 1980s, police acted like private security guards engaged to protect fox hunts and suppress legal protest.
Even when Celtic were playing Rangers at Ibrox, Strathclyde Police could spare numerous officers and vehicles to send to Renfrewshire, round up hunt saboteurs and hold them in cells only to release them without charge when the hunt was finished for the day. This only stopped after protestors in England successfully sued police for wrongful detention.
After fox hunting became illegal the police couldn’t be bothered sending PC Murdoch on his bike to check hunters were keeping within the law. Without saboteurs and therefore no police in attendance, fox hunters had never had it so good and continued their horrible hobby unhindered.
Five years ago I watched a hunt put up a hare and the huntsmen made no attempt to stop the hounds chasing it. I asked the police to monitor hunts and was told I must provide hard evidence of illegal activity before they would investigate.
Lack of policing of the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002 has rendered it useless. I had hoped hunts would switch to drag hunting where hounds chase a laid scent which ensures they do not go through crops and livestock or run across roads and railway lines. Many more horse riders would have joined hunts once blood-letting had been eliminated.
The Scottish Government could achieve that by amending legislation to enforce the muzzling of all dogs used in hunting.
John F Robins,
Animal Concern
The deliberate hunting of wild mammals with dogs has been illegal in Scotland since the introduction of the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002. The gun packs operating throughout Scotland do so under exemptions within the act which allow the use of dogs to flush specific wild mammals from cover to be shot. This has been practised in Scotland for more than 13 years with very few complaints.
Official statistics show that there have been 210 charges of the deliberate hunting of a wild mammal with dogs brought under the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) between 2002 and 2014 however, despite more than a decade of monitoring by the antis, there has been no successful prosecution of a hunt using a pack of hounds. Far from suggesting the law is not working, it would suggest that these gun packs have complied with the new law.
Additionally at the most recent Scottish Government Rural Affairs Climate Change and the Environment committee (RACCE) Wildlife Crime evidence session, Police Scotland and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) confirmed there is no evidence foxhound packs are breaking the legislation that is in place at the moment.
Jamie Stewart
Director, Scottish Countryside Alliance
Edinburgh
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