Hunts claim fox deaths soar after ban

ALMOST twice as many foxes have been killed in the four months since hunting with dogs was outlawed than in the same period before the ban was imposed, hunts claimed last night.

New laws which allow hunting but insist on foxes being shot rather than ripped to pieces by hounds have resulted in 250 dead foxes since August, compared with 140 in 2000.

Hunts also claim a large number of foxes have escaped with serious injuries after being hit by gunshots and not killed outright.

And they have revealed that a loophole in the law has allowed a small number of foxes to be legally killed by dogs after attempts to shoot them failed.

The Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Bill was pushed through the Scottish parliament earlier this year, despite widespread opposition from the countryside lobby and claims the legislation was flawed.

Animal rights campaigners hoped the bill would be the death-knell for the centuries-old tradition.

However, hunting has been allowed to continue in Scotland due to a clause that allows huntsmen to use hounds to flush foxes hiding in woodlands out into the open.

From there, the foxes can be shot by marksmen, and as long as hunters can prove that their intention was to shoot the animal or that it was already injured, they will not be prosecuted if it is killed by dogs.

Joe Scott Plummer, master of the Buccleuch Hunt, who is also the Scottish representative on the Master of Fox Hounds Association, said his hunt had caught 65 foxes since the season began. At the same point two years ago - there was no hunting in 2001 as a result of foot-and-mouth disease - they had caught about 30.

Scott Plummer said that, for Scotland as a whole, official figures to be presented to the Master of Fox Hounds Association at the end of the hunting season would show that 250 foxes had been killed so far, compared with 140 killed two years ago.

He said the increase was largely due to the fact that foxes could be killed more easily using a gun than hounds, and that there were more foxes to hunt because none were killed last year.

He added: "Traditional hunting was the natural cunning of the fox pitched against the natural cunning of the hounds, but as soon as a gun is introduced then the odds become heavily weighted against the fox surviving.

"In the past there would be the possibility that a fox would be able to escape the hounds, and often they did.

"However, with the guns, however fit or fast a fox, once it’s been flushed out then it doesn’t really stand a chance."

Scott Plummer added: "The hunts are operating and we are determined to keep going, because we are determined that we are going to overturn the ban."

Alistair Campbell, master of the Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire Hunt, said they had caught 50% more foxes than last year.

However, he added that many foxes were being injured rather than being shot dead because it was often difficult to kill them outright with a gun.

" Sometimes the fox will run off having been injured," he said. "Obviously we then send the pack after it, but often by that time the scent is lost and we have an injured fox running around, which I find most distressing."

The SSPCA said they were concerned about the hunts’ activities. "Having a fox shot with horses and spectators around will make it more dangerous," said a spokeswoman. "We are very concerned about what the hunt is saying. "

Les Ward, from Advocates for Animals, was sceptical of the number of foxes the hunts were claiming to have killed in the past four months.

"They would say it’s business as usual, but I can tell you that it’s not," he said.

Tory rural affairs spokesman Alex Fergusson said: "This is exactly what we said would happen.

"The bill was always a joke, and in fact it can be argued that because of it, the hunt has been forced to adopt cruel practices."