Campaigners say kill breached hunting law

Two months after fox hunting with hounds was banned in Scotland, police are investigating the first possible breach of the new law. Kincardineshire Foxhounds, which was on foot near Echt in Aberdeenshire, chased five foxes into the path of a firing squad armed with shotguns in an incident which left one wounded animal to the mercy of the hounds.

Under the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002, dogs are allowed to chase foxes into the open to be humanely shot as part of an organised pest control operation.

"This was fox extermination much like you have for rats, cockroaches or other pests," said huntsman and local landowner Richard Holman-Baird. It was his pack of 30 hounds that was used to drive the shooters' targets during the woodland hunt last Thursday. "To farmers and estate keepers, foxes are pests which do tremendous amounts of damage by killing their livestock," he said.

The law, which only came into force on 1 August, forbids anyone from deliberately hunting a wild mammal with a dog, or a landowner to allow his property to be used for hunting. It does, however, permit dogs to be used to protect livestock, game, ground-nesting birds or crops.

"The law has very specific rules which, as long as they are followed, allow us to continue," said Mr Holman-Baird. "But if a fox is not killed outright then a dog will kill the animal instantaneously by crushing its spine. In the circumstances it is the most humane way possible.

"This fox was hurt and crawled into the undergrowth making a second shot impossible. In these circumstances the dog was the most merciful way of ending its suffering."

However anti-hunt supporters disagree. "If this dog was deliberately allowed to kill foxes then the hunt is in breach of the law," said Les Ward, chairman of the Scottish campaign against hunting with dogs. Last night a spokesman for Grampian Police said: "The situation is that nobody has been charged but we are making inquiries."