Lord Watson calls for police to probe fox hunts
THE architect of the ban on fox hunting in Scotland has urged police to ensure the law is being enforced after it emerged that as many foxes may be being killed by hounds as before the change in legislation.
The controversial ban on hounds being able to kill their quarry was introduced ten years ago in one of the flagship reforms of the first Holyrood parliament.
But according to hunt officials, three times as many foxes are now being killed as before, with two-thirds being shot. The rest are still being killed by hounds, although the hunts argue they are working within the legislation.
But Lord Watson, who as Mike Watson MSP introduced the Protection of Wild Mammals Act (Scotland) 2002, said: “I’d be very unhappy if that’s the case, and that is a matter for police to pursue.
“It was difficult legislation to frame and I accept that it’s difficult legislation, in some circumstances, to enforce. But that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be enforced. The exemption was not designed to give carte blanche to those involved in hunting to let their dogs run amok.”
The act makes it an offence to hunt a wild mammal with a dog. An exemption allows foxes, as a “pest species”, to be flushed from cover and shot, and states that no offence is committed if the dog kills the fox in the course of it being flushed towards the guns.
According to Trevor Adams, huntsman with the Buccleuch Hunt, Scotland’s largest fox hunt, up to three times the number of foxes are being killed by the Buccleuch Hunt as before the change in law, which would mean that as many foxes now are despatched by dogs as a decade ago. The remaining two-thirds are shot.
The protocol on how to hunt foxes within the new law was developed by Adams and other leading members of the Buccleuch Hunt, and endorsed by the Masters of Foxhounds Association.
Tim Bonner, a spokesperson for the association, said the Buccleuch figures were likely to be typical of other hunts.
“Those numbers make perfect sense,” he said. “When you’re flushing to guns, of course a proportion of the foxes will be caught by hounds before they get to the guns.
“There is also a significant level of wounding by the guns, and the foxes are finished off by the hounds.
“We don’t believe that the foxes killed by hounds are necessarily any worse off. Endless research has been done which shows that it is no less humane than any other method. The legislation doesn’t make any sense and the act is no victory for animal welfare.”
Six of Scotland’s ten mounted fox hunts are within the Lothian and Borders Police area, but the force do not police hunts as a matter of course.
Detective Superintendent Cameron Cavin, in charge of wildlife crime for the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland, said: “The Scottish police service has a duty to investigate any complaint of a breach of the law.
“If an allegation is received of a possible offence under the legislation, this would be investigated thoroughly, including application of the statutory exceptions.”
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Comments
There are 28 comments to this article
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Willie Boy
Tuesday, December 27, 2011 at 07:47 AMAnd the punishment Lord Mikey? Well of course, burn em at the stake. Nice one my Lord.
Willie Boy
Tuesday, December 27, 2011 at 07:44 AMLord Watson typifies the arrogance of Labour and the outrageous nature of the House of Lords. After his imprisonment for attempting mass murder by arson, he is the last person that should be a landed Lord to tell anyone anything. But sh!t like Watson, and the rest in that unelected foul legislature, have an arrogance above belief.
Cornish
Tuesday, December 6, 2011 at 12:57 PMWatson??? The same Watson who was convicted for trying to burn down a hotel?? He seems to think it is Ok to burn people to death but not OK to hunt foxes. I guess he's just not into giving things a sporting chance. Typical nutcase ideas of animal rights fanatics who care more about vermin (with a natural lifespan of 2 years in the wild) than they do about their fellow man. Perhaps he'd rather they just shot every last fox and had done with it.
korndog
Monday, December 5, 2011 at 05:37 PM@18 MNS Quote "The majority of people like foxes. In a survey about wildlife in their garden completed by nearly 4000 households across Britain, 65.7% liked urban foxes, 25.8% had no strong views and only 8.5% disliked urban foxes" How is 65.7% of 4000 households a majority? theres over 60 million people in the UK. It doesnt matter if you like foxes or not, the simple fact is their nu,ners need to be controlled. And theres a big difference between urban and rural foxes.
Bruceboy
Monday, December 5, 2011 at 10:19 AM# vistaero # I hope you choke on your own bile.
jerrymanders
Sunday, December 4, 2011 at 07:00 PMIt's a win win for the hunting lobby - they're killing more foxes than ever before, both with hound and gun, and the towns supply the vacuum; a Hunt Masterstroke?
Logie88
Sunday, December 4, 2011 at 05:30 PMThis is the burning question of the day. It will be curtains for the fox hunters if Lord Watson gets his way.
Brit-free
Sunday, December 4, 2011 at 04:28 PMi love my fox fur curtains ....so much so , that i wouldnt let Mike Watson within a Clippers length of them ....fox numbers are on the rise ...happily this contrasts with labourite politicians who are on their way to being an endangered species ...if you want a serious response to a fox hunting story , i would keep the pyromaniac Lord Sot out of the headline ...is he still drawing public money ? ....disgusting ...some arsonists get indeterminate sentences ....he must have friends in high places
MNS
Sunday, December 4, 2011 at 03:21 PMTAKEN FROM (EVOLUTION OF THE FOX) http:en.wikipedia.orgwikiRed_fox#Ori gins ORIGINS ; The earliest fossil specimens of Vulpes vulpes were uncovered in Barany, Hungary dating from between 3.4—1.8 million years ago. Origins : The species is Eurasian in origin, and may have evolved from either Vulpes alopecoides or the related Chinese V. chikushanensis, both of which lived during the Middle Villafranchian.[3] The earliest fossil specimens of Vulpes vulpes were uncovered in Barany, Hungary dating from between 3.4—1.8 million years ago.[16] The ancestral species was likely smaller than the current one, as the earliest red fox fossils are smaller than modern populations.[3] The earliest fossil remains of the modern species date back to the mid-Pleistocene in association with the refuse of early human settlements. This has led to the theory that the red fox was exploited by primitive humans as both a source of food and pelts.[17] Marcus.
Kobi
Sunday, December 4, 2011 at 02:39 PMWell Watson was told at the time by people with some knowledge of the subject, unlike him, that the end result of his legislation was that more foxes would end up being killed. But his bill was never about protecting the foxes, it was about class warfare. So for him to shed crocodile tears now at the plight of foxes is just stomach-churning.
MNS
Sunday, December 4, 2011 at 02:34 PM(AMMENDED VERSION (WITH SPELLING CORRECTIONS - SPELLING MISTAKES WERE MINE, SORRY) )- Lord Mike Watson KNOWS EXACTLY WHAT HE IS TALKING ABOUT (AND HE IS FOLLOWING THE VIEWS OF THE VAST MAJORITY OF THE U.K. POPULATION)! - "The majority of people like foxes. In a survey about wildlife in their garden completed by nearly 4000 households across Britain, 65.7% liked urban foxes, 25.8% had no strong views and only 8.5% disliked urban foxes. In a recent survey by The Mammal Society, foxes were voted one of the most popular British mammals." TAKEN FROM : http:www.thefoxwebsite.orgattitudescommonmyths.html#q1 TAKEN FROM : http:www.thefoxwebsite.orgattitudesindex.html Marcus.
MNS
Sunday, December 4, 2011 at 02:12 PMLord Mke Watson KNOWS EXACTLTY WHAT HE IS TALKING ABOUT (AND HE IS FOLLOWING THE VIEWS OF THE VAST MAJORITY OF THE U.K. POPULATION)! - "The majority of people like foxes. In a survey about wildlife in their garden completed by nearly 4000 household across Britain, 65.7% liked urban foxes, 25.8% had no strong views and only 8.5% disliked urban foxes. In a recent survey by The Mammal Society, foxes were voted one of the most popular British mammals." TAKEN FROM : http:www.thefoxwebsite.orgattitudescommonmyths.html#q1 TAKEN FROM : http:www.thefoxwebsite.orgattitudesindex.html Marcus.
Aristotle
Sunday, December 4, 2011 at 11:54 AMWith all the problems we have in the World we still have people wanting to waste resources on trivial matters.
Col.Blimp III
Sunday, December 4, 2011 at 11:30 AMAs a townie, I accepted the line that fox hunting was a grossly inefficient method to employ for keeping the fox population under control without question. To be honest the plight of foxes and red-coated Toffs was never uppermost in my mind, only having sighted either breed on a couple of occasions in my forty or so years prior to the hunting ban ......Now ten years into the fox amnesty, the surplus population have migrated towns, many of which are now overrun by the blighters* , pillaging the rubbish bins, attacking household pets and small children and terrifying the womenfolk................................................................. .............................................................................................................. *(foxes, the Toff population has remained static)
Mercutio
Sunday, December 4, 2011 at 09:55 AMLord Watson!!!!!!!!!! FFS you could not make this up.
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