Stalking and flushing out
20.Paragraph 1 provides that dogs may be used to stalk or flush out a wild mammal if five conditions are satisfied. This provision should be read with paragraph 2, which sets out the conditions under which a dog may be used below ground to stalk or flush out a wild mammal.
21.The first condition in sub-paragraph (2) sets out three possible purposes for which stalking and flushing out may be carried out:
preventing or reducing serious damage which the wild mammal would otherwise cause to livestock; game birds or wild birds; food for livestock; crops; growing timber; fisheries; other property; or the biological diversity of an area;
obtaining meat to be used for the purposes of human or animal consumption; or
participation in a field trial in which dogs are assessed for their likely usefulness in connection with shooting.
22.In sub-paragraph (2)(a)(ii) game birds and wild birds are defined by reference to section 27 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. This provides that ““game bird” means any pheasant, partridge, grouse (or moor game), black (or heath) game or ptarmigan” and ““wild bird” means any bird which is ordinarily resident in or is a visitor to Great Britain in a wild state but does not include poultry or . . . any game bird”.
23.In sub-paragraph (2)(a)(viii) the biological diversity of an area is defined by reference to the United Nations Environmental Programme Convention on Biological Diversity of 1992. Article 2 of that Convention provides that ““biological diversity” means the variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems”.
24.The second condition in sub-paragraph (4) requires the stalking or flushing out to take place on land which belongs to the person doing the stalking or flushing out or which he has been given permission to use for that purpose by the occupier or, in the case of unoccupied land, by a person to whom it belongs.
25.The third condition in sub-paragraph (5) is that only up to two dogs may be used in the stalking or flushing out.
26.The fourth condition in sub-paragraph (6) is that the stalking or flushing out must not involve the use of a dog below ground unless the requirements of paragraph 2 are complied with.
27.The fifth condition in sub-paragraph (7) is that reasonable steps are taken to ensure that as soon as possible after being found or flushed out the wild mammal is shot dead by a competent person. Each dog used must be kept under sufficiently close control to ensure that it does not prevent or obstruct this.
