Why we need to park the emotion and look at policy on nature more objectively - Katharine Hay

The new hunting with dogs legislation has been celebrated by animals activists and ministers who hailed the move as “historic” for animal welfare and wildlife management.

An animal activist group said “the vast majority of the Scottish public were appalled to find out it [hunting with dogs] was still going on” and that the Scottish Government “has now taken the popular decision to really ban fox hunting” which the minister at the time said was to “ensure greatest possible animal welfare.”

The Scottish Government has insisted the chasing of wild animals with packs of dogs “has no place in modern Scotland.”

The idea of hunting a wild animal with dogs is an uncomfortable one for sure, especially when it’s done purely for entertainment purposes.

Close up of a red fox (pic: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

But talking to vets and members of rural communities this week, there is quite a bit more to what is often presented as a barbaric pursuit by horsemen/women in red coats with hounds leaping ahead.

The Veterinary Association for Wildlife Management insists there is no science to back up that it is cruel to use a dog to hunt. Cruelty, by definition, is causing unnecessary harm.

The group said the time between sensitivity and death is less than a few seconds with a dog, “and yet there are ministers who are quite happy to stand up and say there’s no place for dogs to kill animals without any science to back up what they are saying,” one member said.

Shooting, despite often being presented as more humane, and which is favoured in the new legislation, is open to human error, which could leave the animal wounded, and therefore facing a slower, more painful death.

The new law does have a licence system to use dogs for particular circumstances, but only when all other methods to get rid of the fox has been tried.

This includes translocation, which some experts have said is extremely unkind as it puts the animal in a new environment where it has no established feeding network which could then lead to death by starvation. Or it will find itself in the territory of another fox and be attacked to death.

It’s hard not to impose our human sensibilities on these wild animals, but when the issue at hand is complex, which it so often is when it comes to nature, it’s all the more important to park our emotions and take a more objective approach where possible.