A woman convicted of illegal fox hunting in Scotland, after the hunt was captured on video, has been spared jail. Claire Bellamy, 51, was found guilty of deliberately hunting a wild animal using a pack of dogs, in breach of the Hunting with Dogs (Scotland) Act 2023.
Sentencing at Paisley Sheriff Court
Bellamy, the former huntswoman of the Scottish Borders-based Lauderdale Hunt, appeared at Paisley Sheriff Court, where she could have been jailed for up to 12 months or fined up to £40,000. Instead, Sheriff Sukhwinder Gill placed her on a Community Payback Order, ordering her to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work within the next 12 months.
The sheriff warned Bellamy she could be jailed if she breaches the order, and banned her from owning dogs for 10 years, other than a terrier kept as a family pet and border collies used in her job as a shepherdess.
Details of the illegal hunt
The offence took place in Kirkton Wood, between the villages of Houston, Renfrewshire, and Kilmacolm, Inverclyde. The court heard that a legal hunt was taking place that day after a licence had been granted by NatureScot, the Scottish Government body responsible for nature, wildlife management and landscape.
Anti-fox hunting campaigners, known as Hunt Saboteurs, videoed part of the hunt on January 4, 2025. The video, shown in court, revealed that fox hunting had taken place outside the designated areas specified in the licence, making the hunt illegal. A fox could be seen running and screaming on camera, as the Saboteurs shouted for the dogs to be "called off".
Bellamy, originally from England and now of Longformacus, in Berwickshire, denied any wrongdoing and went on trial. She claimed she had been trying to regain control of the hounds and bring them back after they ran off into an area they were not supposed to hunt in. The Saboteurs claimed she had been encouraging the dogs to continue hunting in the off-limits areas.
Sheriff's remarks and prosecution response
Sheriff Gill told Bellamy: "You are a very experienced lady and have carried out at least 1500 hunts in Scotland. In my view, you did deliberately hunt a wild animal using dogs." The sheriff described the video of the hunt as "gut wrenching", adding: "Particularly the last minute, what I saw, and the screaming I heard, with what the dogs were potentially going to do with the foxes."
Iain Batho, who leads on wildlife crime for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), said: "The law in Scotland allows Nature Scot 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."
The sentence was imposed after her lawyer said she would struggle to do unpaid work due to the long hours she works on the farm, and that she would lose her house if jailed.
