Animal activists hail Holyrood move to firm up anti-hunting laws

Campaigners welcome vote by MSPs to close loopholes they say were smokescreen for illegal foxhunting

Animal welfare campaigners have hailed the decision by the Holyrood parliament to toughen anti-hunting laws as a wake-up call to Westminster.

Mairi McAllan, the Scottish government's environment minister, said chasing and killing a wild mammal with a dog had no place in modern Scotland", as MSPs voted 90 to 30 for the hunting with dogs bill, which aims to close loopholes 20 years after a ban on foxhunting was first put in place, in 2002.