Scottish Hunting Act Reviewed

Hunt Saboteurs Association News Release 21^st November 2016

Lord Bonomy has agreed with anti-hunt organisations and Police Scotland that the current law offers too many loop holes, and is unworkable, in his review of the Protection of wild Mammals (Scotland) Act. He goes as far as to say “there is a basis for suspecting that there may be occasions when hunting, which does not fall within one of the exceptions, does take place and that the grounds for that suspicion should be addressed”

Sadly the review does not focus on the welfare of the fox or how much suffering the fox may endure before death.

Scottish Hunt Saboteurs who have experience of the current situation at Scottish Hunts have studied the review and have the following observations:

• The proposed changes would only strengthen the outcome of an illegal kill and does nothing to address the illegal hunting that still takes place, or does anything to protect the fox on the day of a hunt.

• The idea of part time monitors would only work if those involved are impartial from both sides of the hunting argument and have enough knowledge to be able to correctly convey what is happening in front of them. We feel it is not a role that just anyone can take without substantial knowledge of how hunting actually works and then this leaves the role open to people who could also be biased. If the role is voluntary then again the wrong type of person without the correct knowledge could be in place and in a situation they simply would not understand.

• We welcome the concept of tighter rules and a recklessness clause being applied to the hunts who pretend to accidentally kill outwit the current law. But again the recent story regarding the Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire hunt shooting and not killing a fox and causing it to suffer before being killed by hounds needs to be addressed.

• We also welcome the idea of all participants of the hunts being registered to the police making it easier to identify those breaking hunting laws, which would include landowners who allow hunting to take place on their land.

We call on the Scottish Parliament to take Lord Bonomy’s words into account when drafting new legislation to remove loop holes but to take it further and finally ban hunting from Scotland once and for all.

Lee Moon, Spokesperson for the Hunt Saboteurs Association, stated: “Only weeks ago Scottish sabs retrieved the body of a fox that had been shot by the Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire Hunt. This poor creature took 5 minutes to die and was savaged by the hounds after being shot. Whilst we welcome Lord Bonomy’s review, hunters have shown consistently over the past decade that they aren’t willing to abide by any laws and regulations relating to their barbaric pastime. The only remaining course of action is to disband all the hunts.”