BRITON FOUND GUILTY

Gulf Daily News

LONDON: A man was convicted yesterday of illegally hunting foxes in the first such prosecution under England's controversial Hunting Act 2004.

Exmoor Foxhounds huntsman Tony Wright, 52, was fined £500 (BD365) and ordered to pay £250 costs at Barnstaple Magistrates' Court in southwest England for the charge of hunting a fox in April last year.

The prosecution presented the court with video evidence of Wright while he was on the hunt, gathered by the League Against Cruel Sports, which brought the case.

The hunters claimed they were operating under "exempt hunting" procedures. Hounds are still allowed to follow a scent and flush out foxes and other quarry, which can then be killed by a bird of prey or shot if only two dogs are involved.

Both of the dogs must be kept under sufficiently close control for the targets to be shot as soon as possible after being flushed out.

Judge Paul Palmer said the videos showed no reasonable steps were taken to shoot the fox as soon as possible, and the hounds were not under the requisite close control, which constituted hunting, in his view. "I understand the difficulty that everyone has with the act coming into force," the judge said.

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