'Chaos' warning over hunting ban

Legislation banning hunting with hounds, which effectively ends mounted fox hunts in Scotland, came into effect on Thursday, signalling the end of a long-running battle between those for and against the pastime.

The Scottish Countryside Alliance (SCA) said the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act, would lead to unemployment and cause businesses to go bust.

Allan Murray, director of the SCA said that the fox population would explode and added that the hunts were necessary to keep the numbers under control.

He vowed that his organisation would fight on to overturn the legislation, despite losing a legal fight at the Court of Session in Edinburgh on Wednesday.

Mr Murray said: "Jobs will be lost, businesses will be decimated and the future of hundreds of hounds is uncertain and for what?

"It is a twisted piece of legislation that does nothing to address animal welfare.

"I hope the people who drove through this legislation will realise one day they have put the lives of foxes before the lives of their fellow Scots.

"People involved in hunting are determined to fight this legislation tooth and nail but we are making it clear that we will operate within the law."

Barbaric sport

MSPs voted in February in favour of outlawing hunting with hounds, which effectively stamped out mounted fox hunts, hare coursing and fox baiting.

Pro-hunt supporters said that the act breached their human rights and that an end to fox hunting would penalise them financially.

At the Court of Session in Edinburgh on Wednesday, the judge Lord Nimmo Smith said it was not within the power of the courts to overrule the will of the Scottish Parliament on the issue.

Les Ward, chairman of the Scottish Campaign Against Hunting with Dogs, said he was "happy this barbaric sport will no longer be practised on Scottish soil".