The amendments to the Act would give farmers and gamekeepers the ability to make a judgement, based on the terrain and other circumstances, to use more than two dogs to flush out and stalk wild animals for effective and humane shooting as part of the existing exemption in the Act which allowed for pest control, the release said.
This is important in upland areas where the current limit of using two dogs across large and often wooded areas was not regarded as effective or practical for hunting purposes.
The Hunting Act will still prohibit the pursuit and killing of a wild animal by dogs, the release said.
