Animal and Wildlife Bill amendment (Scotland)

[bogtrotter]

Caper, Grouse and Black Game can all fall foul of fences but it is not an insurmountable problem when I was kid
and there were telephone lines crossing the moors simple discs attached to the lines at intervals prevented the majority
of strikes a similar system can and does work on fences.

 

[bogtrotter]

If estates cull mountain hares because they carry ticks which are a threat to Grouse how come hares thrive on Grouse
moors you will seldom see many hares where there are no Grouse why?
Because the management regime for Grouse also benefits the hares hence providing a surplus
Grouse moors and their management far from being a threat to hares are actually beneficial to them.
However try telling that to those who have decided mountain hares need protection they will almost definitely
Succeed in getting a ban sounding the death knell for mountain.hares.
But of course its not really about the hares its about putting an end to a traditional way of.life because we have a Government that has a vision for rural Scotland never mind what the people who life there think.

 

[Mick9abf]

"Perhaps more importantly the red listed Capercaillie who’s numbers are critical point would all be affected as they have a nasty habit of flying into fences causing instant death or injury leading to death"

Or so the deer annihilators would wish you to believe, but I know that trappers and rangers were told to go out at the time of the original hoo-ha surrounding this aspect and 'find capercaillie fence strikes, and don't come back before you do'; hard documented evidence of this phenomena is not much in evidence, but the problem is vastly overstated, and readily countered by simply making the fences more visible, and especially so when compared to the 90+% predation rate on the nest, which is rather better documented and recorded.

Quite, predation by the Pine Martin is more likely to end Caper than fences however I do remember a deer fence in Deeside being taken down to prevent Caper flying into it which, knowing the estate, would be unlikely to have been done so without reason.

I saw today that a ton of money has just been thrown at Caper in the Carrbridge area which has divided some however, unless SNH allow them to deal with the elephant in the room they’d probably be as well spending the cash on something else.

Funds secured for Cairngorms capercaillie conservation

Community projects are to be set up to help save one of the UK's rarest birds.

www.bbc.co.uk

Controversial Cairngorms capercaillie project is awarded £2 million in lottery funds

Funds will be used to help safeguard species but some residents in pilot community of Carrbridge say conservation project has been imposed on village

www.strathspey-herald.co.uk

 

[Utectok]

Organisations work together on mountain hare control ban proposal

 

[Mick9abf]

Distribution of mountain hare populations in Scotland across 20 years - Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust

www.gwct.org.uk

An interesting read for folks to digest when the amendment to the bill is passed today, which I believe will happen.

It’s a pity that the SG can be so polarised on some matters when it comes to land use while completely embracing more questionable proposals.......

 

[Mick9abf]

Well it will be pushed through as a late entry along with more potential restrictions on trapping/snares (vicarious liability) etc. Of course the next ban to pursue will be Muirburn which was temporally suspended due to Covid-19.

I think they may also be reversing allowing certain working dog breeds tails to be docked.

It’ll be interesting to see what the SNP want in return as it’s unbelievable that the Greens could hold so much sway when you could fit their MSP’s in a ******* taxi.

 

[Utectok]

60-16 ffs

 

[Malxwal]

The death knell for the mounain hare, all for some virtue signalling by a career politician from the city and representing the city. All science thrown out the window.

 

[gerarddwatts]

The attempt to reverse the tail docking exemption failed....mountain hares will be fully protected.

Scottish government also now going to consider allowing the SSPCA to investigate wild life crime...

An independently-chaired taskforce will start work this summer to consider whether the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Scottish SPCA) should be given extra powers to investigate wildlife crime, following a Scottish Government commitment on the matter during Parliament’s consideration of the Bill.

 

[User00040]

New party needed to represent the Highlands and Islands (or anywhere rural for that matter) , SNP is a central belt focused party and unless something is done now their control will be complete and Scotland will be ruined if/when independence happens.

 

[Malxwal]

The SSPCA as the new state sponsored wildlife Gestapo. When will Scotland wake up and see what this government is about ?

 

[badbob]

Yes slip in an amendment. Essentially it is to prevent "the slaughter of mountain hares for fun"...... ( wild justice` s words..)
Its a war of attrition and we are loosing. Don`t enjoy your deer stalking whatever you do.
Its not to be enjoyed ,must not be fun...................somebody`s got to do it though.

 

[countrryboy]

Tell u wot this is way way beyond a joke now.
.
Not sure if anything can be done but something seriously needs to be done.

The only way giving sspca the power to investigate could be worse if it involved the r son, but I'm sure that s only a matter of time.

I think it would be a complete waste of time but there needs to be some sort of show off strength, dunno if some sort of countryside march would do any good.
Or some other form of protesting.

These decisions are just so bad and are quite literally a death knell for upland Scotland and probably mountain hares too
Grouse shooting in Scotland is not even financially viable anyway.
All that this will encourage s more sheep, which again is not really vaible, esp with increased hare/tick numbers or turning to trees

 

[countrryboy]

Just been on SGA site and I see they are talking about some sort off protest at Holyrood when lockdown lifted.
Only wish it would do some good.

 

[JMikeyH]

Tell u wot this is way way beyond a joke now.
.
Not sure if anything can be done but something seriously needs to be done.

The only way giving sspca the power to investigate could be worse if it involved the r son, but I'm sure that s only a matter of time.

I think it would be a complete waste of time but there needs to be some sort of show off strength, dunno if some sort of countryside march would do any good.
Or some other form of protesting.

These decisions are just so bad and are quite literally a death knell for upland Scotland and probably mountain hares too
Grouse shooting in Scotland is not even financially viable anyway.
All that this will encourage s more sheep, which again is not really vaible, esp with increased hare/tick numbers or turning to trees

Last march that I remember was a laughable turn out, that'd probably do more harm than good. I tried googling if there was any opposition put up by one of the pro-shooting orgs but couldn't find any, though this amendment was pushed through pretty damn fast no doubt to circumvent any resistance that could've been mustered given more time. The only media coverage I saw of this from our side was the Fieldsports Britain members vlog that Charlie put out yesterday

Edit: Just seen SACS have a piece

 

[Mick9abf]

The attempt to reverse the tail docking exemption failed....mountain hares will be fully protected.

Scottish government also now going to consider allowing the SSPCA to investigate wild life crime...

An independently-chaired taskforce will start work this summer to consider whether the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Scottish SPCA) should be given extra powers to investigate wildlife crime, following a Scottish Government commitment on the matter during Parliament’s consideration of the Bill.

Investigations...... they are completely inept.

 

[Heym SR20]

What irritates me is who the f.... is voting all these bloody idiots into power, whether it be in Westminster or Holyrood.

Put them all in a brewery, pour all the beer into glasses and they wouldn’t even know how to drink it.

Yet they are running the country with one decision after another based on twitter reaction.

We are facing economic meltdown, our third city Aberdeen major industry - oil - has effectively been mothballed by recent decisions of the likes of BP, we have the highest death rate from COVID based on deaths per million certainly in Europe if not the world - and Scotland is no better than the rest of the UK, none of the children are being educated so we will have a whole generation of yet more kids not well qualified to contribute to the economy.

And they find time for this sort of nonsense.

 

[gerarddwatts]

Investigations...... they are completely inept.

Which, I suppose, is good news!

 

[gerarddwatts]

Probably the worst aspect of this whole shoddy mess is the way the Scottish Government process has been abused, perverted and manipulated in order to permit, and then vote on, a very late amendment, thus preventing a proper scrutiny and consultation. Simply outrageous.

I see little prospect of any change and am depressed about the future of Scotlands wildlife management. Scotland will always be run by the urban MSPs, usually to the detriment of the rural population.

Currently the SNP administration depend on the green blob, which is why this shameful nonsense is permitted.

 

[User00025]

Yes slip in an amendment. Essentially it is to prevent "the slaughter of mountain hares for fun"...... ( wild justice` s words..)
Its a war of attrition and we are loosing. Don`t enjoy your deer stalking whatever you do.
Its not to be enjoyed ,must not be fun...................somebody`s got to do it though.

Simple no stalking, just humanely poison them.