STAFF BLOG
Niall Gallagher, BPCA Technical and Compliance Manager, reflects on the importance of working dogs in pest management, and the need to protect them as the law changes in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
Working dogs are a valuable tool as part of an integrated pest management approach. As governments develop new legislation to tackle trail hunting, there is a risk that they may unintentionally ban their use by pest professionals. BPCA is committed to protecting the toolkit for its members.
Hare coursing, fox hunting: ‘sports’ which have been banned in Great Britain for over 20 years. Scotland took the lead in 2002, and England and Wales followed in 2004 with the Hunting Act.
Northern Ireland remains the only part of the UK where fox hunting remains legal.
Trail hunting has taken its place but remains problematic; could efforts to ban it unintentionally also ban the use of working dogs?
Many members of the public may not understand what a working dog really is in our sector. Advocates of fox hunting have sadly justified the activity as ‘pest control’, tarring us with the same brush.
As professionals, we know that our actions must be necessary. Necessary for protecting something, and necessary in the level of harm inflicted to achieve that protection.
Dogs in pest management today
Current legislation has thankfully protected the use of working dogs in pest management where it is necessary, recognising their value.
The Hunting Act 2004 in England and Wales allows the hunting of rats and rabbits, and other species can be flushed from cover by dogs to be shot or be taken by a bird of prey.
Scotland’s Hunting with Dogs (Scotland) Act 2023 mirrors the law in England and Wales, except it allows the hunting of mice instead of rabbits.
Rats, mice and rabbits, unlike foxes, are small enough to be dispatched quickly and humanely by a dog’s bite.
Working dogs are also being commonly used as survey tools.
With their amazing sense of smell they can significantly reduce the time required to inspect a property, and do it far more accurately than a human could, increasing the likelihood of success.
Conservation groups, such as the RSPB, are also using them to protect islands and their birds from invasive pests such as rats and stoats.
What’s changing
Scotland
Scotland also introduced a ban on trail hunting in 2023, the first of its kind in the UK.
Trail hunting emerged as an alternative to fox hunting, in which dogs follow a pre-laid scent rather than a live fox. Often, that scent would come from an actual fox, leading to foxes being accidentally chased and killed by dogs.
It has also been suggested that trail hunting acted as a ‘smokescreen’ for illegal fox hunting.
Scotland made it illegal to make a dog follow the pre-laid scent of a wild mammal.
Understanding that this could make it unlawful to train dogs for detection work, an exemption was included for training.
England and Wales
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has also been consulting on a ban on trail hunting in England and Wales.
DEFRA has suggested re-using Scotland’s definition, and so we are asking for the same exemption for training.
Northern Ireland
John Blair, MLA for the Alliance Party, is trying to ban both fox and trail hunting in Northern Ireland.
His Hunting with Dogs Bill was defeated in 2021 but has now been revived. It is inspired by the laws in Great Britain but is not exactly the same.
We are worried that it could unintentionally ban detection work altogether.
We have written to John Blair MLA, the environment minister Andrew Muir MLA, and the environment spokespersons of other parties in Northern Ireland to ensure the Bill is amended to protect detection work.
We have also asked that rabbits be allowed to be hunted, as they are in England.
The more similar the law is everywhere, the less likely you are to be confused about it as you work across the UK. Consistency keeps everything simple.
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