Woman caught on illegal fox hunt banned from owning dogs for ten years

A woman has become the first person to be sentenced for carrying out an illegal fox hunt in Scotland.

Hunt master Claire Bellamy led a pack of around 17 hounds in a wooded area between the villages of Houston in Renfrewshire and Kilmacolm in Inverclyde, in January 2025.

The 51-year-old had permission for the legal hunt by NatureScot, the Scottish Government body responsible for all aspects of nature, wildlife management and landscape.

Bellamy allowed her dogs to get the scent and then chase a fox in an open field, which lay out with the permitted boundaries as specified within the licence granted.

She also failed to comply with the licence by keeping the dogs sufficiently under control.

Claire Bellamy, 51, led a pack of around 17 hounds COPFS

The court heard how participants in the hunt gathered near Kirkton Farm and began moving towards Kirkton Woods.

Their activities were filmed by anti-hunt activists, and the footage showed that the hunt had entered undesignated areas.

At Paisley Sheriff Court, Bellamy was banned from owning or keeping dogs for ten years after being found guilty at trial for an offence under the Hunting with Dogs (Scotland) Act 2023.

She was also made subject of a community payback order and ordered to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work within a period of 12 months.

Iain Batho, who leads on wildlife crime for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), said: “The law in Scotland allows NatureScot to grant licences which allow individuals to hunt for foxes using two or more dogs. Such licenses can only be granted for limited, prescribed purposes.

“The licenses granted will ordinarily have specific terms which are designed to ensure the hunt is limited to its prescribed purposes and to prevent foxes suffering unnecessarily.

“It is the duty of those who have been granted such licenses to strictly adhere to the terms of the license. On this occasion, Claire Bellamy failed to do so and has now faced the consequences of that.

“The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service takes illegal fox hunting seriously, and action will be taken by specialist prosecutors in the COPFS Wildlife and Environmental Crime Unit, where there is sufficient evidence and where it is in the public interest to do so.”