Scottish Judge Upholds Ban on Fox Hunting with Dogs

A Scottish Judge this month upheld the Protection of Wild Mammals Act which makes it illegal to hunt foxes with dogs. The new law went into effect August 1.

Hunters had challenged the new law on the grounds that parliament had overstepped its bounds. But Lord Nimmo Smith at the Court of Session issued a 122-page decision in which he held that banning foxhunting with dogs was well within the power of the legislative body.

Smith wrote in his decision,

To regulate the way in which animals may be hunted and killed appears to me to be far more within the constitutional responsibility of the parliament as the elected legislature than within the constitutional responsibility of the courts.

In that the parliament took it upon itself to form judgments as to whether mounted foxhunting with dogs is a sport, whether it can be described as cruel, whether it can be distinguished from other methods of controlling fox numbers in terms of efficiency, the relative suffering of the fox and so on, all appear to me to fall within the discretionary area of judgment to which the court should defer.

Proponents of foxhunting plan to appeal the decision to a three-judge panel at the Court of Session, and could ultimately take their case to European Union courts.

Hunting foxes with dogs will continue, but under the new law the foxes must be killed with guns rather than by the hounds.

Opponents of fox hunting, such as the League Against Cruel Sports, hoped the judge’s decision would spur England to ban foxhunting with dogs as well. Mike Hobday of the LACS said, “This decision will add further pressure on the Government to bring forward legislation that will clearly bring an end to the gratuitous cruelty of hunting with dogs in England and Wales.”

Sources:

Hunting lobby to challenge ruling. Bruce Mckain and Frances Horsbrugh, The Herald (Glasgow), August 1, 2002.

Court upholds fox-hunting ban. Hamish Macdonell and John Robertson, The Scotsman, August 1, 2002.

Scottish Court case decision. League Against Cruel Sports, Press Release, July 31, 2002.