Cruelty Free Living
Issue 6: December-February 1999/2000

Scottish Hunting Bill to continue

Good news recently for MSP Mike Watson, not to mention wildlife, as the Scottish Bill on Hunting with Hounds is allowed to proceed. Hunt supporters tried to obstruct the legitimate presentation of the bill to the Parliament. The official complaint was that the MSP had failed to declare the administrative and legal assistance he had received in drafting his bill from an animal welfare group. Mike Watson was asked to immediately register the support but the standards committe dealing with the complaint unanimously agreed that he had not breached any rules on paid advocacy as he had received no personal gain from the support given.

The Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Bill seeks to outlaw the use of dogs to pursue, attack and kill wild mammals. Please help the bill to become law by writing to your consitituency and regional list MSPs urging them to support the bill in Parliament.

For information on who your MSPs are and more details about the campaign to ban hunting with dogs in Scotland, please contact Scottish Campaign Against Hunting with Dogs or Edinburgh Animal Rights. If you want to join the hunt saboteurs who use non-violent direct action to disrupt the activities of hunts, please contact the Hunt Saboteurs. The Contacts section lists all of these organisations.