OneKind has made the call as the shooting season gets underway. 

A leading Scottish animal welfare charity is calling for an end to driven grouse shooting on the first day of the shooting season. 

OneKind have outlined plans to demonstrate outside the Scottish Parliament on September 17, calling for a ban on the manufacture, sale and use of snares in Scotland. 

To maximise red grouse numbers and the profit from those who shoot them for fun, gamekeepers routinely kill thousands of wild animals who are seen as a threat to grouse, with a significant portion of Scotland’s land managed for driven grouse shooting.  

The methods of killing are cruel and can inflict prolonged suffering upon the animals. Companion and farmed animals may also be injured or killed accidentally. 

While the Scottish Government has committed to licensing grouse moors and with an ongoing review on the impacts of snaring, charities claim only a ban on driven grouse shooting will ensure an end to the widespread suffering of animals. 

OneKind director, Bob Elliot, said: “There is nothing celebratory about the Glorious Twelfth. What could possibly be considered glorious about a day which marks the start of the shooting of grouse for ‘fun’ and the killing of other wild animals to maximise profit for the ‘sport’? 

“Today is the culmination of the year-long killing of our wildlife on grouse moors. All year predators of red grouse have been subjected to physical and mental suffering whilst caught in traps and snares, before being killed by gamekeepers. 

“The animals persecuted include foxes, stoats, and corvids, such as crows. All this killing takes place in the lead up to the Glorious Twelfth just to ensure there are as many red grouse as possible for the shooting season beginning today. 

“Traps and snares are indiscriminate. Companion animals such as cats and dogs, farmed animals, and non-target wild animals such as badgers, are also sometimes injured or killed by these cruel and antiquated traps.

"There is little regulation so gamekeepers can kill many animals without justification or scrutiny.”

September’s demonstration will take place at Holyrood, with celebrity support from Scottish actor Alan Cumming, naturalist Chris Packham and actor Peter Egan. 

Mr Elliot added: “The message is clear. Scottish Government, it is time to consign snares to the history books.”