00:00In 2023, the Scottish Government changed the law, they tightened the restrictions, they put a ban on trail hunting, so
00:09that's hunting with a fox-based scent, and they also banned flushing to a gun.
00:13So they have put in legislation that means we must get a license, a very big license, full of heavy
00:23paperwork, to get a pack of hounds to flush to a gun, and they have also said you can go
00:31out with two hounds and flush to a gun, but you must have an appropriate amount of guns and stuff,
00:36which is fine, but that's not good for the fox population.
00:41Ultimately, that's not good for the fox population, that's fox murder. You're flushing to a gun, bang, the fox is
00:48dead. There's no chance for the fox to get away, there's no element of that fox might live on.
00:54Is it true to say that they're not too interested in the welfare of the fox, they basically want to
00:58stop people like you?
00:59Oh, 100%, 100%, all they do is see people out there riding horses and hunting hounds, they have no idea
01:05of the work that we have done as hunting people, as hound people, but also as fox people, they have
01:11no idea the work that, you know, I do, now since hunting only an artificial scent, I do no cover
01:17laying, I do no farmers ring me up and say I've got a litter of foxes here on the side
01:22of the main road that are about to get run over, can you come and move them?
01:24I do none of that. All I do is prepare my hounds to go and hunt artificial scent. There is
01:29no preserving of the fox population that we do anymore, and people forget that, they forget the work that has
01:36gone in behind the scenes through the months of summer to look after the fox population.
01:41I've been hunting artificial line now with these hounds for two and a half seasons, and I can count on
01:48one hand how many times I've seen a fox. That's not good fox numbers.
01:53Considering I'm out twice a week through the winter out in the countryside, four times a week if you count
01:57the fact I'm out there prepping the country, count on one hand how many times I've seen a fox. That's
02:02pretty bad numbers.
02:03Okay. Is the Scottish government achieving its aim of getting rid of people like you?
02:08I would say not. Yeah, look at me. I've come up from south of the border, and I've been here
02:14for two and a half years, and it hasn't shook me off yet.
02:18Even with their diabolical law, I've not gone anywhere. And, you know, I do it for the hounds. There's 200
02:26years of breeding behind this pack of hounds in particular.
02:28The same with many packs across the country, across the UK. I don't think they've looked at the bigger picture.
02:35They've not talked to the right people. They're not interested in listening to the right people. It's a box-ticking
02:41exercise for them.
02:42It's red tape, and it's another knock against the countryside.
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