Girl, 6, dreams of shooting foxes and regularly goes hunting with her dad who keeps gun in family home
Lexie Kelly keeps stuffed foxes in her room but is being trained to kill the 'vermin'
A DAD takes his daughter on fox hunts admitting most people won't agree with it - but says she's emotionally ready.
Lexie Kelly watches on as her firearms expert father Graeme spots the creatures using night-vision equipment before firing the fatal shot.
“Britain has tough gun legislation, with the minimum age for applying for a firearm licence being 14.
While there is no minimum age for a shotgun certificate, the application process involves stringent checks, including a police interview.
Having a certificate does not allow a youngster to buy a gun. It is not possible for a young person to buy a shotgun, rifle, airgun or any ammunition until they are 18.
But an investigation two years ago revealed nearly 4,000 British youngsters may have access to shotguns under strict adult supervision.
It was revealed 13 children aged under 10 - the youngest aged just seven - were issued shotgun certificates around six years ago.
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Lexie revealed: “I like going shooting foxes with my dad.
"When I am bigger, I will be allowed to shoot foxes. I have lots of foxes in my room.
"They are probably my favourite toys."
The youngster learns how to track foxes when she joins her dad on shoots to control fox numbers near their house in Cardenden, Fife.
"When we go out at night to the woods surrounding our home, Lexie spots foxes through our night vision lenses," her dad said.
"Some days she will ask, 'Daddy can we go kill a fox tonight?'
"Even at six she's pretty good at picking them up."
Graeme admits "many people will disagree" but believes children should learn to shoot responsibly, especially as the "sports needs a future" because the average of hunters is 58.
He waited for his daughter to be ready "emotionally", and says when the right time comes he will "teach to her shoot safely".
Graeme, who sells hi-tech equipment to farm and land owners, added: "If you are not into vermin control, you won't get it.
"Many people forget that if we did not keep fox numbers down, farming would be impossible.
"One fox can destroy three lambs a night in a field. Sometimes killing them as they emerge from the ewe during birth.
"The kindest thing to do is to kill foxes humanely.
"I don't hate animals but I understand the need to manage the countryside."
He went on: "Lexie seemed excited about the prospect of us getting one.
"We didn't shoot one, but Lexie got to look through the thermal spotter and learn about what she could see.
"Pretty soon she could tell the difference between a deer and a rabbit.
"When she got home she was telling my partner Claire, how disappointed she was that she never got a fox.
"I felt proud that she had learned a lot."
Partner Clare, aged 36, "hated the thought of a gun in the house" when Lexie was a baby, but trusted her husband to "handle everything".
Their older son Leo, 18, said he understands how important it is to control foxes but says he doesn't want to hunt.
Harrowing footage recently showed a fox being savaged to death by hunting dogs in the street 12 months after laws banned the practice, while a confrontation between hunters and saboteurs was recently caught on camera.
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