A UNION representing gamekeepers and huntsmen is seeking a judicial review to overturn the Scottish ban on hunting with dogs, on the grounds that it is illegal discrimination when groups such as Muslims and Jews are allowed to conduct ritual slaughter.

Hunting with dogs has been banned in Scotland since August. The Westminster Government is expected to announce in the Queen’s Speech today that it will push ahead with a ban on foxhunting in England.

The Union of Country Sports Workers, which has 4,000 members, will argue in court in Edinburgh that the Scottish Executive is in breach of international treaties that commit it to defend human rights and to oppose discrimination.

The union will claim that fox hunters are a cultural minority, and that it is being illegally persecuted under the Human Rights Act when Jews, Muslims, anglers and pheasant hunters are allowed to carry on activities that cause more cruelty.

“It is discrimination against us because we are told that what we do is cruel when the ritual slaughter of meat is totally unnecessary, and is based on a custom that goes back to the time before they had refrigeration” Brian Friend, the union’s solicitor, said.

Jewish and Islamic slaughterers have special permission to kill animals without stunning them, although about half of the cattle slaughtered to produce kosher meat in the UK are stunned and about 90 per cent of animals slaughtered for halal meat are stunned.

About 600,000 animals, however, are killed in ritual slaughter without stunning each year. All other slaughterers are legally required to stun animals.

Relgious authorities insist that ritual slaughter without stunning is humane, but it is opposed by animal welfare groups such as Compassion in World Farming and the Royal Society for the Protection of Animals.

About 15,000 foxes are killed by hunting with dogs and about 36 million pheasants are bred to be shot each year.

The union will contest that the Scottish hunting ban breaches the articles in the European Convention on Human Rights, which guarantees the right to a way of life and lifestyle, the freedom of expression, and freedom from discrimination.

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