There have been almost 10,000 responses from organisations and members of the public to the Fox and Hare member’s bill launched in June by Green MSP Alison Johnstone. This makes it the second most responded to member’s bill consultation in the history of the Scottish Parliament. There were 9850 electronic submissions and around 100 paper submissions.

The consultation document on the bill states: “Wild mammals belong to no-one while they are free-living but UK legislation has long held that animal welfare is a public good and that animals should therefore be protected in the public interest. The aim of the proposed bill is, therefore, to improve the protection of some wild mammals in Scotland, specifically by ending the use of dogs in the hunting of wild mammals and improving the protection of certain wild mammals.”

The proposed bill will be officially known as the Protection and Conservation of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Bill. It is being put forward in the absence of any action by the Scottish Government who have repeatedly stated that they will act to end the uncontrolled slaughter of Scotland’s wildlife but have so far failed to do anything.

Please consider giving your support to this proposed bill by lobbying your MSP and raising awareness of both the bill and the problems it seeks to remedy.

You can find more details about Alison and her bill here.