THIS week marks the 15th anniversary of the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002, a piece of landmark legislation that put Scotland at the forefront of the campaign to ensure animals were afforded legal protection from being hunted, chased and killed for sport.

Fifteen years on, we have to ask ourselves: are we in a better position now than before the act came into force?

The answer is no. Wild animals are no more protected from being hunted to the point of exhaustion and brutally killed by a pack of hounds than pre-2002. The Scottish Government has announced its intention to strengthen the legislation in line with the findings of a review by Lord Bonomy.

In addition, it invited stakeholders to discuss and, if possible, agree on a code of practice for hunts, and on how independent monitors could be deployed to keep an eye on them.

For the past three years I’ve tried to go out with the League Against Cruel Sports undercover investigators at least once a year. Their brief is to remain out of sight and find out what’s going on in the countryside.

When the video evidence from the first year was shown to the media and politicians it was commonly met by an incredulous: “Is that happening in Scotland?” No-one could quite believe that 10 hunts were still going out two or three times a week throughout the hunting season. “We banned this, didn’t we?” we’d often hear.

The first year’s video evidence convinced the Scottish Government it was time for an official review led by Lord Bonomy. It looked at the workings of the act and considered if it was stopping fox hunting.

The league submitted more than 100 hours of video evidence to the review. We were convinced hunts were using a loophole in the law – the flushing to guns exemption – as a decoy for traditional, illegal hunting. We weren’t alone in thinking that.

In its submission, Police Scotland said exemptions such as flushing to guns “provide opportunities for exploitation by those who continually and deliberately offend”.

Lord Bonomy’s review was thorough and exhaustive. His findings included evidence that traditional hunting was still going on. He said there was evidence that “flushing to guns” was being used as a “decoy for traditional hunting practices” and that, when practised by mounted hunts, it was “incidental” to pest control.

He recommended that the law be strengthened in six distinct ways. He also recommended that a code of practice should be drawn up and that the use of independent monitors should be considered.

The ball was then firmly in the Government’s court and, encouragingly, it acted swiftly and decisively. It has the backing of 89 per cent of the Scottish public who, according to Mori polling, are opposed to illegal fox hunting.

In addition, more than 15,000 people have signed a petition to strengthen the law and around 2,000 people have written to their MSPs calling for hunting to be banned.

More than 10,000 people from across the UK have written to the First Minister urging her to protect Scottish wildlife and show a good example to the Conservative Government at Westminster, which threatens to weaken or repeal the ban in England and Wales.

The Government has a real chance to end fox hunting in Scotland – for good. The public, the media and politicians were overwhelmingly supportive when they thought this country had led the way by being the first to ban the cruel and unnecessary tradition of encouraging packs of hounds to chase and kill wild animals. Unfortunately, it has been shown and agreed by an independent senior Law Lord, Lord Bonomy, that the law is simply not doing the job it was intended to do.

The league looks forward to a robust set of amendments that will make searching for foxes an offence and outlaw any reckless behaviour that endangers foxes. We also agree that it should be hunts that have to prove they are acting legally when using exemptions.

Most importantly, though, we agree with Lord Bonomy that the “flushing to guns” exemption is used as a decoy for traditional hunting and, when used by mounted fox hunts, has little or nothing to do with pest control. Flushing to guns should be removed as an option for mounted hunts.

Each time I go out with the league’s undercover investigators I’m struck by their hard work and dedication.

I take no pleasure in the need to deploy these teams and I wish their skills could be used elsewhere, in new and important areas of the league’s work such as stopping organised dog fighting.

However, with one more final push from our Government, we will get there.

Robbie Marsland is the director of the League Against Cruel Sports Scotland