Using two dogs to hunt foxes is more cruel than using a pack. That’s the advice to the Scottish Government in its own review on hunting – yet it is planning to bring forward legislation that will do exactly that.
By proposing a limit of two dogs that can be used to flush out and shoot foxes Rural Affairs Minister Mairi Gougeon will “seriously compromise effective pest control in the country” according to both Lord Bonomy’s review for the Scottish Government and peer reviewed research which proves that using packs of dogs is both more effective and more humane than using two.
Gougeon ignores the Code of Practice for Scottish Mounted Foxhound Packs, which they have operated under since the start of the 2018/19 season. The Scottish Countryside Alliance believes that this voluntary process should be given the opportunity to develop, alongside the independent monitoring that Lord Bonomy also recommended, but which has not yet been put in place.
“The Scottish Government have said in their own statement that they ‘will be going further’ than their own review has recommended, which is a clear admission that these proposals are not founded on the evidence but rather in politics and prejudice,” says Countryside Alliance Director for Scotland, Jamie Stewart. “It is utterly ridiculous that the Scottish Government has chosen to pursue a course that is in direct contradiction to its own independent review, peer-reviewed science and all the available evidence.”
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