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Mr Roberts said Welsh hunts were nothing like the stereotypical images portrayed in the media.[/caption]
The Farmers’ Union of Wales has called for MPs to support a government amendment to the Hunting Act, which will allow livestock farmers to protect their livestock against losses to foxes.
The amendment, which is expected to be voted on by MPs next Wednesday (July 15), would remove the limit on the number of hounds which can be used to flush foxes to guns and extend the circumstances under which a dog is to be used below ground to cover livestock protection (the current exemption only covers the protection of birds for shooting) but would not change the overarching ban on pursuing and killing wild mammals with dogs.
FUW President Glyn Roberts said: “While this would be a minor amendment to the act and not change the overarching ban on hunting, it will be a big step forward for Welsh livestock farmers whose average incomes are now less than £10,000 a year and for whom foxes can cause thousands of pounds worth of damage.”
Mr Roberts said that the change would place Wales on an equal footing with Scotland, where legislation introduced by Labour in 2002 bans traditional hunting but allows any number of hounds to be used to flush foxes to guns in order to protect livestock.
During the spring of 2013 a survey of more than 650 farmers in Welsh markets found that 76 percent had lost more lambs to foxes since 2005, while 96 percent confirmed lamb predation by foxes has an impact on their farm income.
“Research conducted in Scotland in 2013 has also confirmed the obvious, which is that using just two dogs significantly increases the amount of time foxes are hunted for compared with using a pack and that the chances of foxes being flushed from dense cover is more than halved when you use just two dogs,” said Mr Roberts.
“In a country such as Wales, where we have vast forestry plantations 1,000s of acres in size, the two dog limit means more lambs killed by foxes and more wildlife killed by foxes and lower farm incomes,” he added.
In 2005 the League Against Cruel Sports acknowledged that “Pairs of dogs are utterly useless in flushing to guns.”
Mr Roberts said that the vast majority of Welsh hunts were run by farmers in order to protect livestock and nothing like the stereotypical images portrayed in the media.
“Those who portray this move as the reintroduction of hunting by the back door are not only wrong but show a willingness to compromise animal welfare and the incomes of the poorest farmers in the UK due to misguided prejudices.”
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A lamb killed by a fox on a hill farm in Wales. A survey of more than 650 Welsh farmers found 76 percent had lost more lambs to foxes since 2005[/caption]