Another hunt down! Scotland's Liddesdale Foxhounds folds
Glasgow Hunt Saba announce the good news!
As 2024 comes to a close, Glasgow Hunt Saboteurs announced some great news: the Liddesdale Foxhounds has folded!
The sabs reported on the Hunt Saboteurs Association website:
"Little is known about the elusive Liddesdale Foxhounds despite them being one of the oldest fox hunts in Scotland. However, we do know that the Hunting with Dogs (Scotland) Act was the cause of the hunt folding over the summer of 2024."
Third hunt to fold
Scotland's Hunting With Dogs Bill was passed on 24 January 2023, and it became an Act on 7 March 2023, making it illegal to flush out a wild animal with more than two dogs. The Law could finally be enforced on 3 October 2023.
The Liddesdale Foxhounds follow in the footsteps of two other hunts which have shut down since the Act became law. Immediately after the Act was passed, at the end of January 2023, Fife Foxhounds announced that it was folding. But as sabs had already reported, the hunt was in dire straits before the new law came into force. Then the Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire Foxhounds announced its closure in March 2023, just six weeks after Scotland changed its hunting laws, with sabs calling the announcement a “seismic victory”.
Seven registered hunts left
Glasgow Hunt Sabs wrote on the HSA website:
"The demise of the Liddesdale Foxhounds means there are now just seven registered hunts left in Scotland, all of which are trying different ways to continue. Since the Act became law, two hunts have been the subject of a police investigation for illegal hunting with one leading to three charges for Matthew Wilkinson, huntsman of the Jed Forest Hunt."
Indeed, in April 2024, huntsman Wilkinson was the first person to be charged in Scotland under the new hunting law. On 12 April, The Ferret reported that the League Against Cruel Sports had covertly filmed Scottish hunts over six months, and had handed over footage of six incidents to the police. The arrest then followed.
A not-so-perfect law
Scotland should be commended for having better legislation than that which currently exists in England and Wales. But as Protect the Wild has previously covered, Scottish politicians allowed various loopholes to slip through, which hunt saboteurs and the Scottish Greens have said are now being exploited by the hunting industry.
These loopholes are drag hunting; the use of two dogs to flush and shoot a fox; and NatureScot's licensing scheme.
The Jed Forest Hunt says it is drag hunting, or using two dogs to flush a fox to be shot, to carry on with its bloody kills. On top of this, NatureScot (the public body responsible for the conservation and protection of Scotland’s natural environment) issues licences for using more than two dogs for (i) the management of wild mammals above ground; and (ii) environmental benefit. NatureScot issued more than 40 licences between November 2023 and April 2024, 31 of which permitted the use of more than 20 dogs. Of these 31 licences, NatureScot said it monitored just two for compliance.
Bring on 2025!
Despite Scotland's Act being far from perfect, it is clearly having an effect on the hunting industry. And the actions of Scottish politicians, banning hunting with dogs, have put pressure on the Labour government in Westminster, with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer promising that the party would strengthen the Hunting Act. Politicians have the chance to learn from Scotland, leaving no room for exemptions or loopholes.