Tomorrow the open season on mountain hares begins once again. Our report, mountain hare persecution in Scotland, exposes the full extent of persecution, the reasons behind it, and puts forward a number of recommendations to the Scottish Government. We believe that the situation merits urgent action, including:
- A moratorium on culling and hunting mountain hare until a longer-term solution is found; and
- The withdrawal of support from Scottish Natural Heritage and Visit Scotland for businesses and organisations that promote large-scale recreational mountain hare hunting.
This will only happen, however, if we show the public are behind swift and decisive action. Here are some ways you can help.
-
Sign the petition
We’ve been running this petition since the beginning of the campaign in August 2016. We have over 11k signatories and have handed it in to the Scottish Parliament petitions committee and hope it will be considered in the Autumn. In the meantime, the more signatures we have, the stronger the call to action.
-
Write to the Cabinet Secretary
Roseanna Cunningham MSP is the Cabinet Secretary responsible for this area of policy. She has already shown herself to be sympathetic to our plea. Last year she addressed OneKind supporters and said she was “against large-scale culls”, and recently she set up a major inquiry into grouse moors. Writing to her with these asks and referring to our report could be very influential.
-
Tell everyone about the plight of the mountain hare
Everyone seems to know about the badger culls, but my guess is that your friends know nothing about mountain hare persecution. Help change that and strike up a conversation! We would love to send you a pack with campaign stickers and leaflets, just email us at info@onekind.org with your name, address and phone number.
-
Buy the t-shirt
Help get the message out there with our #HareCare t-shirts. They’re a great look for hikers, particularly on grouse moors.
-
Spread the word on social media
Use #HareCare and point people towards the petition
-
Donate to the campaign
You can make a donation to the OneKind Hare Care campaign here. Believe me, every £ makes a big difference to what we can do.
Let us know your ideas and what you are doing to help in the comments below! We’d love to hear from you.
Disgusting that this is allowed to happen. Such has beautiful creatures, they should be treasured.
Here Here!
Except in West Scotland, Mountain Hares are a primary prey for Golden Eagles in the highlands, particularly in areas managed for driven grouse shooting. Not only do the hares constitute an important diet item for eaglets in the nest and undoubtedly affect productivity of eagle broods, predation of hares by eagles (their preferred prey) almost certainly reduces predation on Red Grouse. A hard winter in the mountains is not necessarily a bad one for eagles as carrion, in the form of deer carcasses, become readily available. A mild winter sees more hares available as prey – comparatively easy targets for eagles, their white winter-coats being conspicuous against a snow-free background. In the absence of plentiful hares increased predation of Red Grouse, not only by eagles but by Foxes and other predators, is likely to follow. From a game management perspective it must therefore make sense for a healthy population of Mountain Hares to exist.
Absolutely – mountain hares play an important role in the upland/highland ecosystem and are an important prey species. We don’t agree with managing moors for ‘game’, but we are where we are and it is an interesting point about whether their presence reduces predator burden on red grouse.
The cross/party Animal Welfare Group of the Scottish Parliament are having their next meeting on September 5th, but in spite of a lot of publicity re the killing of mountain hares, this subject is not on the Agenda.
The SSPCA who are represented on this Committee are currently running a story in many newspapers about the mountain hare leveret they have nursed back to health – but do not say where they are going to release him!!
Hi Alison. Thanks for your comment and support for our mountain hare campaign! We did present the mountain hare campaign to the cross party group two meetings back and it was useful, but not a lot of scope to revisit it there. The SSPCA did release the leveret on an estate where culls are not carried out but I guess they didn’t want to name it!