Leading Scottish animal welfare campaigns charity OneKind is calling 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. In order to keep red grouse numbers as high as possible, gamekeepers routinely kill thousands of wild animals. Though not the target, domestic animals also sometimes get injured or killed, due to the indiscriminate methods used. The methods of killing are cruel, and many animals suffer greatly, out of public sight and knowledge.
OneKind Director, Bob Elliot, said:
“There is nothing glorious about the day which marks the start of the shooting of large numbers of grouse.
“Thousands of wild animals that are predators to red grouse are killed all year round on Scotland’s driven grouse moors to ensure that high numbers of red grouse are available to be shot for “sport”. They 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.
“These animals experience considerable mental and physical suffering in cruel traps and snares: suffering which would be illegal and universally condemned if inflicted on domestic animals. In fact, Scotland is behind many countries in the protection afforded to wild animals. Only a few EU states permit and routinely use snares.”
Around 26,000 mountain hares were killed each year on driven grouse moors, however on June 17th the Scottish Government agreed to include Alison Johnstone MSP’s amendment to the Animals and Wildlife (Penalties, Protections and Powers) Bill to make mountain hares a protected species. Despite this, the legislation has yet to be implemented.”
OneKind Director, Bob Elliot, said:
“We were delighted when the Scottish Parliament voted to make Scotland’s mountain hares a protected species. With hare shooting season having begun before the legislation has been implemented, however, these animals are currently vulnerable to indiscriminate killing.
“We urge the Scottish Government to enshrine mountain hares’ protected species status into law as a matter of urgency.”
Just do the right thing for Scotland, the beauty of the country should include the native wild animals so special for Scotland. This killing is a stain on the government allowing these cruel practices just for the rich people who love to shoot and kill. Using a camera and sharing the unique habitat will bring more tourists and for people to have the opportunity to roam on these more lands without fear of being shot would be amazing.
A shame that your photo opposite the article of a Mountain Hare is actually a Brown hare!
Glad you’ve changed it!
DOES IT REALLY MATTER
Hmmm, Being born on the 12th Aug I have a yearly reminder of the start date of the grouse shooting start date, getting older and older I have started to rationalize that the human impact on anything us humans do on this planet is not for the benefit of the planet but our drive for individual greed and consumption, not survive ability. Shooting/killing any animal for sport a harsh topic, but my own personal belief is, if a human thinks killing as a sport against an animal fun, then that human should be treated the same way, exactly the same with any animal cruelty, if a human treats an animal with cruelty, then that human should be so treated. We as a species are the only ones that do it for fun and sport and leave the carcass. you treat a dog badly and it bites you, the dog gets put down, if I personally was able the person treating the dog would be put down (wouldn’t happen again) we as a species have really got it all wrong, animals were here on this planet before we existed, and hopefully we will cease to exist before we kill all the animals.