The news that a man has been charged with the crime of hunting foxes has reignited the blood sports debate in Scotland.

On Friday it was announced that Trevor Adams from the Borders will face prosecution for fox hunting under the year-old Scottish animal welfare legislation. No date has yet been set for his court appearance.

A separate case will be heard in September against a second man from Dundee.

The ban was pushed through by the Edinburgh parliament despite warnings that it would be ignored. The Holyrood example has been used as a test case for arguments over a similar law currently being debated in Westminster.

Pro-hunt campaigners continue to argue that jobs in rural communities have been lost despite the use of "gun packs" by nine out of 10 Scottish hunts, where dogs are used to chase foxes from cover for marksmen to shoot.

The practice is considered more humane and remains legal north of the border.

"Gun packs might not actually be hunting but it is all our urban masters have decreed we are allowed to do," said Malcolm Bell MacDonald, joint master of the Dumfriesshire hunt.

"In our opinion, fox welfare has been damaged. More foxes are wounded than ever before, but it is what we can do so we intend to do it."

However, anti-hunt campaigners argue that the ban has been effective in ensuring the more humane culling of foxes and could seek a further ban preventing gun packs.

"South of the border they are seeking a total ban on hunting with dogs - there will be no flushing if they are successful," said Les Ward, chairman of the Scottish Campaign Against Hunting with Dogs.

"In two or three years, if flushing is shown to be dodgy up here, we will return to the parliament and seek a total ban."