birds or wild birds, to food for livestock, to crops, to growing timber, to fisheries, to other property, or to biological diversity; or for obtaining meat for human or animal consumption; or for participation in a field trial competition in which dogs flush animals out of cover and/or retrieve animals that have been shot. Secondly, the stalking or flushing out must take place on land which belongs to the person doing the stalking or flushing out or which he has been given permission to use for the purpose. Thirdly, only one or two dogs may be used. Fourthly, the use of a dog below ground is limited as in the next section. Fifthly, reasonable steps must be taken to ensure that as soon as possible after being found or flushed out, the wild mammal is shot dead by a competent person, and that each dog used is kept under sufficiently close control to ensure that it does not obstruct the prevention or reduction of serious damage. Flushing to guns is still permitted in Scotland under the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002. However MPs, in making law for England and Wales, decided that this activity did result in unnecessary suffering, not least because it is more difficult to control a large number of hounds in dense woodland where this activity used to take place. This exemption was claimed by one stag hound pack in the Exmoor area. In an appeal judgment following the conviction of two stag hunt officials, the judge said that such hunting conducted primarily for recreation was unlawful. Use of dogs below ground to protect birds for shooting Hunting below ground often took place with terriers, and the Act outlaws hunting with terriers, apart from a narrowly drawn exemption, described by the Minister, Alun Michael MP, as existing "for gamekeepers". The use of one such dog is exempt, but only in the course of stalking or flushing out, and in accordance with four conditions. The activity must be carried out "for the purpose of preventing or reducing serious damage to gamebirds or wild birds which a person is keeping or preserving for the purpose of their being shot." The stalker or person doing the flushing out must have written evidence that the land concerned belongs to him, or that he has been given permission to use it for the purpose, and must make the evidence immediately