Economic Impacts of a Ban on Hunting with Dogs in Scotland.

7. Scottish Hill Packs and Subscribers

7.1 Background

The structure, activities and income of the five hill packs are given in Table 7.1. In 1998/99 the five hill packs operated for 438 days and killed 873 adult foxes and cubs. There were a total of 182 subscribers paying an average of just over £300 each. Subscriptions of £55,619 accounted for 77% of the total hill pack income with SERAD grant receipts, and other sources of income including donations making up the balance.

Table 7.1 Basic information relating to the five Scottish hill packs

¹ Paying subscribers only
² Fox Destruction Clubs (FDCs) only
³ Includes direct subsidies of hill pack owner
⁴ Only four packs receive income directly

7.2 Impact of a ban on hunting with dogs

A ban on vermin control with packs of hounds and the use of terriers would result in the dissolution of the five hill packs. However, unlike the activity of mounted hunts, the purpose of the foot pack activities is confined to fox control and augments the other vermin control activities of the subscribers. In the event that the packs were disbanded due to a ban on the use of packs and terriers, the hill pack subscriptions and control related expenditures of the participants would be available for re-investment into alternative forms of fox control activity on the land of the subscribers.

7.3 Expenditures by participants on suppliers

Table 7.2 refers to the activities of the hill pack participants. On average there were 17 participants per pack per hunting day. The pack participants therefore accounted for 7,575 participant hunting days in 1998/99, 56% of which were accounted for by game keepers in the employ of subscribing members, 9% by subscribing farmers and 34% by non-subscribing followers.

Table 7.2 Active hill pack participants

Table 7.3 gives the estimated total expenditure for each pack participant per hunt day. The daily total per person of £36 relates mainly to travel and ammunition costs. Vehicle costs were calculated on the basis of 0.36p per mile. There was considerable variability between packs in terms of the average distance travelled and the amount of ammunition used. The former is explained by the differences in the size of the area covered by each pack. No explanation was offered as to the variability in ammunition costs. Capital costs associated with participating in hill pack activities have been excluded as it is assumed these costs would be incurred as part of the participants main activity i.e. farming or gamekeeping.

Table 7.3 Average expenditure per pack participant per hunting day

Based on the figure of 7,575 individual hunting days the total expenditure for all hunt participants in Scotland for 1998/99 is therefore £272,700.

7.4 Direct salary costs and employment

Most of the packs operate on a seasonal basis with four of the packs employing a single contract huntsman for all or part of the year. The contract employment for the huntsman is equivalent to 3 FTEs. The fifth pack is run on a part-time basis by the owner of the pack for the purpose of gaining shooting rights. All packs indicated that they would terminate their activities resulting in a short-term reduction in employment of 3 FTEs.

7.5 Expenditure by hill packs on suppliers

The expenditure of the packs on inputs was calculated for 1998/99. The costs are listed in Table 7.4.

Table 7.4 Hill pack expenditure

The total expenditure for the five hill packs (excluding capital items), other than for labour, for the period 1998/99 was £49,567. The main areas of expenditure were feed for the dogs, vehicle costs and insurance. When the total expenditure is compared with income there is a cash deficit of £3,583 per pack. These are typically carried over or covered by donations.

The packs indicated that the imposition of a ban on vermin control with dogs would reduce the pack expenditure by £45,847. Only one of the packs indicated that they would continue to maintain the expenditure associated with the upkeep of the premises. Of the total withdrawn £41,287 was spent with firms located in Scotland.

7.6 Indirect and induced impacts

Due to the limited information available it was only possible to derive a partial estimate of the indirect impacts on the suppliers to the hill packs and followers/participants. The total expenditure withdrawn for all hunt participants for 1998/99 was estimated to be £272,700. The additional withdrawal of hill pack expenditure of £41,287 gives a total estimated withdrawal of expenditure in Scotland of £313,987. The job losses estimated using the ‘turnover per FTE coefficients’ from Table 4.1 were 7.4 FTEs. This figure forms an element of the total indirect effects. The induced impacts were not estimated.

7.7 Resource re-allocation following a ban

In the event that all participants ceased their vermin control activities the full sum of £313,987 would be withdrawn. However, from the survey of landowners it is known that a considerable proportion of the savings in expenditure would be re-invested into alternative control activities in the short-term. The packs are funded by subscriptions that, as already noted, would also be available for re-investment in alternative vermin control activities. In this respect the figures presented here should be seen as an upper bound estimate of the overall impact on the economy arising from dissolution of the hill packs.

7.8 Summary

The main economic impacts of a ban on the use of terrier work on hill packs are summarised in Table 7.5. It was estimated that overall the impact of the ban on hill pack activity would result in a fall of employment of 10.4 FTEs.

Table 7.5 Employment effects of a ban on the use of terrier work