This website uses cookies for anonymised analytics and for account authentication. See our privacy and cookies policies for more information.





The voice of Scotland’s vibrant voluntary sector

Published by Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations

TFN is published by the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, Mansfield Traquair Centre, 15 Mansfield Place, Edinburgh, EH3 6BB. The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation. Registration number SC003558.

Renewed calls to end “inglorious twelfth”

This news post is over 5 years old
 

​Grouse shooting is killing natural habitats say campaigners

Scottish animal welfare charity OneKind has renewed its calls for an end to driven grouse shooting on the Glorious Twelfth, the first day of the grouse shooting season.

Large areas of upland Scotland are used for driven grouse shooting with the land being managed to maximise the number of red grouse available for shooting.

To keep red grouse numbers as high as possible, gamekeepers routinely kill predators such as foxes and stoats, undertake large-scale mountain hare culls and, on some estates, illegally persecute birds of prey, such as hen harriers and golden eagles.

OneKind director, Bob Elliot, said that there is nothing glorious about a day marking the killing of large numbers of birds and other wildlife.

“Wildlife culling is carried out all year round, on an enormous scale, to eradicate predators from the moors," he said. "These animals can be legally trapped, shot and snared in Scotland’s countryside with very little in the way of public scrutiny, inspection, or regulation by the authorities.

“It’s time we said enough is enough and called on the Scottish Government to reform and address the intensive management of Scotland’s grouse moors and end the indiscriminate killing of our wildlife.”

It comes as Labour said it would launch a review into grouse shoots and consider replacing them with wildlife tourism and “simulated shooting” if elected in the next general election.

Referring to the shooting season as the “Inglorious Twelfth”, the party claims there is “extensive evidence” that grouse moors are “destroying huge swathes of plant life and killing many animals.”

Gamekeepers say any moves to ban grouse shooting would put livelihoods at risk and cause significant damage to rural landscape.

Grouse shooting contributes round £32m to the Scottish economy and supports about 2,640 jobs, said the Scottish Country Sports Tourism Group.

 

Comments

0 0
Lok Yue
over 5 years ago
there is “extensive evidence” that grouse moors are “destroying huge swathes of plant life and killing many animals.” Grouse moor management retains the essential moisture needed for heather growth and heather provides cover for huge numbers of insects, small mammals and other wildlife. Purple heather is iconic in Scottish uplands. What should it be replaced with: sheep? with bare grass, few ground nesting birds would stay and predators would have little to eat. For an example of what happens when moorland is allowed to self manage read about the catastrophe of langholm moor
Commenting is now closed on this post