Campaigners want a ban on hunt tourism

Scotland’s tourism chiefs should stop promoting groups that organise mountain hare killing.

OneKind is calling on VisitScotland to proactively discourage businesses and organisations which organise field sports for tourists coming to the country to shoot the animals.

Each year tens of thousands of mountain hares are killed across Scotland.

While some are killed as part of culls on shooting estates, around 40% are killed for sport with people travelling from around the world to hunt them.

Earlier this year OneKind released a report, Mountain hare persecution in Scotland, which exposed the full extent of killing for recreational purposes in Scotland.

It identifies 25 companies advertising such services online, including on the VisitScotland and the Scottish Country Sports Tourism Group (SCSTG) websites.

The SCSTG promotes country sports in Scotland and was set up by country sports organisations in partnership with VisitScotland and Scottish Natural Heritage.

In recent years it has benefited from two grants from VisitScotland worth a total of £36,675.

The charity is now urging members of the public to sign its petition calling on VisitScotland to stop promoting recreational mountain hare killing.

OneKind Director Harry Huyton said: “We believe that recreational hare killing, particularly as part of driven hunts, which involve killing hundreds of hares at a time, is in direct conflict with the Scottish Government’s commitments to the conservation and welfare of mountain hares.

“This is not the kind of tourism we should be encouraging, let alone using public resources and funds to promote it.”

Jane Russ, chairman of the Hare Preservation Trust said: “The Hare Preservation Trust is pleased to support OneKind in its campaign to stop recreational hare hunting.

"The killing of any animal for sport should not be permitted in the 21st. century and the mountain hare in particular has a great need for protection. We are right behind this initiative.”