Two men charged under new foxhunting legislation

TWO men who are alleged to have used terriers and lurchers to flush out and then kill a fox on a Borders farm are believed to be the first people to be charged under controversial Scottish legislation which bans hunting with dogs.

Police have also charged the pair, both aged 19, with a separate offence of disturbing a badger set.

Since the laws which outlawed foxhunting came into effect last August, police officers in areas like the Borders, where hunting was considered a way of life, have been extra vigilant.

Investigations are continuing into a number of other incidents in which dogs could have been used to get at foxes or to persecute badgers. But it was being stressed yesterday that none of those involved has any connection with properly constituted hunts which now offer a pest control service to farmers and operate within the law.

In the case concerning the two 19-year-olds from Hawick, which is the subject of a report to the procurator fiscal, it is understood a member of the public tipped off Lothian and Borders Police after allegedly seeing the men at or near a badger set.

PC Mark Rafferty, a wildlife liaison officer based at Hawick, said: "We are aware that this kind of activity is going on in the Borders, but because of its secretive nature we do not know the exact extent. If members of the public do see people acting suspiciously we would urge them to contact us."

He said it had been known for badgers and foxes to live in shared burrows, but a badger set was very distinctive and easily identifiable to anyone with basic knowledge of the countryside.