Legislation on hunting with dogs is in place in many countries around the world. Legislation may regulate, or in some cases prohibit the use of dogs to hunt or flush wild animal species. History The use of scenthounds to track prey dates back to Assyrian, Babylonian and Egyptian times and in England, hunting with Agassaei hounds was popular before the Romans. In more modern times, hunting regulation has been encouraged by the animal welfare and animal rights movements out of concern for wildlife management and alleged cruelty. France Hunting is legal in France. Germany Contrary to popular belief, Germany was not the first country to have enacted national laws against animal cruelty (the British Parliament adopted the Cruel Treatment of Cattle Act 1822 111 years earlier), and the process of adopting animal welfare legislation on state and local level began decades before the Nazis took power in 1933. In the 19th century, many aristocrats in the German Empire hunted with hounds on horseback, including Emperor Wilhelm II (r. 1888–1918). Hounds were used to pursue deer, wild boar, hares and foxes. However, in the late 1880s until the early 1900s, the nature conservation and animal protection movement in Germany started to form and began campaigning for legislation on animal welfare, including hunting. Although no national (imperial) laws were ever passed, several German states including the largest and most populous and powerful, Prussia, adopted laws on which wild animals received protected status and which could be hunted. This decentralised process of regulation resulted in a situation where hunting laws varied from state to state. During the Weimar Republic (1918–1933), more state laws and local decrees were passed, while some national laws were drafted that were never enacted. For example, the Prussian Tier- und Pflanzenschutzverordnung ('Animal and Plant Protection Act') of 16 December 1929 protected 'all wild bird species native to Europe' with the exception of designated 'huntable' species (specified in the Prussian Hunting Regulation of 15 July 1907) and 13 unprotected bird species. The first time a national law on hunting was passed was the Reichsjagdgesetz ('Imperial Hunting Law') of 3 July 1934, during Adolf Hitler's government. This nationwide law superseded all seventeen state regulations that existed up until that point. It was closely modelled on the Weimar-era Prussian Tier- und Pflanzenschutzverordnung ('Animal and Plant Protection Act') of 16 December 1929. Hermann Göring had a passion for shooting game and was appointed