Hunting with Dogs (Scotland) Bill

The Bill creates an offence if a person “hunts a wild mammal using a dog”. It is important to note at this point that the definition of “wild mammal” will also change under the Bill. In the 2002 Act, rabbits and rodents were excluded but the new Bill only excludes rats and mice.

In addition, the owner or occupier of land also commits an offence if he or she “knowingly causes or permits another person to hunt a wild mammal using a dog on that land”. The same applies to the owner of the dog if another person uses it hunt a wild mammal.

There are, however, exceptions to the above. These are:

• The use of one or two dogs to “search for, stalk or flush from cover a wild mammal, with the intention of killing it” to prevent serious damage to livestock, woodland or crops, or to prevent the spread of disease or to protect human health. You can also use two dogs to retrieve a wild mammal that has been killed.

What this means: This would cover those using one or two dogs to flush rabbits or foxes and would also cover most deer stalking situations where a dog is used to detect deer and follow up a shot deer.

• A licence can be granted for the use of more than two dogs for the same activity described above. This will probably be administered by NatureScot, who will need to be satisfied that there is no other solution apart from the use of more than two dogs. This licence would last for up to 14 days.

What this means:  We would imagine that most applications for a licence would be to use a pack of hounds to flush foxes from upland woodlands, or lowland farmland, to then be shot.

• A single dog may also be used below ground to search for or flush a fox or mink to prevent damage to livestock etc. or to relieve the suffering of an injured fox or mink or of dependent cubs (basically the same as the 2002 Act).

• Section 6 of the Bill is the most important one for most shooters in Scotland. This is the exception for “falconry, game shooting and deer stalking”. It allows the use of no more than two dogs to search for, stalk or flush from cover a wild mammal, with the intention of providing quarry for falconry, game shooting or deer stalking”. 

What this means:  In this section “game shooting” means “shooting wild mammals for sport” and does not apply to the shooting of gamebirds. Consequently the restriction on using no more than two dogs does not apply on a pheasant, partridge or grouse shoot as long as there is no intention to hunt wild mammals.

Further clarity on this is provided in the explanatory notes, which say:

“Although game shooting as a sport may involve shooting birds as well as wild mammals, the use of dogs in that context will not fall within the ambit of the Bill. That is because dogs are being used to flush game birds, and not to hunt wild mammals.”

• ‘Environmental benefit”. Under this exception up to two dogs can be used to search for, stalk or flush from cover a wild mammal if it is being done for “preserving, protecting or restoring a particular species (which may include controlling the number of a species for its welfare), preserving, protecting or restoring the diversity of animal or plant life or eradicating an invasive non-native species of wild mammal from an area”.

What this means: As examples, this could allow up to two dogs to be used to assist with killing or capturing hedgehogs on Uist or stoats on Orkney. Under this section a licence can be applied for the use of more than two dogs, as before, but this licence could last up to two years.

In all of the above exceptions reasonable steps should be taken to ensure that any dog used in the activity does not join with others to form a pack of more than two dogs.