Charity calls for end to mountain hare culling season

[DTD]

FROM STV NEWS:

An animal welfare charity has called for an end to mountain hare culling on the first day of open season.
OneKind say tens of thousands of mountain hares will be killed by gamekeepers between August 1 and February 28 in a bid to manage their land for red grouse shooting.
The charity is calling for an end to the practice and said many hares are also "shot freely for sport". An online petition to Roseanna Cunningham, the Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform, has also been signed more than 19,000 times.

Bob Elliot, OneKind director, said: "The First Minister has been clear that the culling of mountain hares is not acceptable yet once again the killing season has begun.
"It's time to say enough is enough to the routine shooting of hares by gamekeepers managing their land for red grouse shooting and by hunting parties for the thrill.
"We need to ensure this year's open season on mountain hares is the last and call on the Scottish Government to put an end to the large-scale culling of this beautiful animal."
A freedom of information request last year revealed on average 26,000 mountain hares are killed in Scotland - with an all-time high of 37,681 in 2014.
Scottish Green MSP Alison Johnstone launched a consultation in June, with more than 1,100 responses received in its first month.
She said: "We need to ban the mass killing of Scotland's hares. The voluntary restraint urged by the Government's nature agency has proved inadequate.
"My proposed Bill would protect brown and mountain hares, ensuring that they could only be killed as a last resort.
"The consultation on my Bill is open for another six weeks and I'd urge everyone who is interested to respond and help shape the final Bill."
Tim Baynes, of Scottish Land & Estates, said: "The control of mountain hares is already subject to regulation at Scottish and European level.
"Significant research and opinion from Scottish Natural Heritage and conservation bodies state that mountain hare populations are not endangered and in some areas they are thriving.
"A ban is not only unnecessary, but it goes against existing evidence showing that mountain hares, along with deer and rabbits, may sometimes need to be controlled, to protect against over-grazing in some areas.
"Any cull of mountain hares is carried out within defined parameters, ensuring that a sustainable population remains.
"We recognise that this is a complex area of land management policy but it is incumbent on all sides of the debate to take into account the evidence gathered by government, researchers and land managers on the ground."
A Scottish Government spokesman said: "The Scottish Government believes large-scale culling of mountain hares that could threaten their conservation status cannot be justified.
"Professor Werritty's independent group on grouse moor management is looking at whether further regulation of mountain hare control is required.
"The group is due to report later this summer. It would not be sensible to take action in advance of receiving that report."

 

[The hunting Finn]

Long season for mountain hare up there! Seems like you have to fight for your rights to almost any kind of hunting in UK at the moment, at the same time the hunting rules is beeing loosen up in Finland. I think its very strange to suggest a total ban just like that! If a restriction about a game species is about to come up here the fist step would probably be a momental or spatial restriction. Mountain hare is one of the most important game species (talking about small game) and I can´t imagine what kind of response a suggestion of a hunting ban would cause here. Mountain hares have never been hunted because they should cause any troubles or because it should benefit some other species but for, hunting them with dogs (not lurching) it is a popular hunting method and for food. The annual bag has deceased during the last years due to several reasons and is nowadays about 100 000. It has been typical for the population to fluctuate very heavily during years, but the declines has never been caused by hunting (even though the bag has been up to 500 000 in older days), but by diseases. On the contrary there are many people beliving (I don´t know whether there is any scientific proof for this though) that a dense hare population needs a very heavy harvesting to remains healthy.
The biggest threaths to mountain hare in the future is the brown hare and the climate change.

I really hope that you can keep up with your mountain hare hunting and if someone needs help with the culling - I volunteer!

 

[countrryboy]

I would imagine ur last sentence to be true HF, well it is with grouse before modern grit it was often said in a boom year the biggest problem u have is shooting enough grouse.
Esp in the higher harsher places where grouse/ blue hares live too many mouths coupled with harsh winter soon leads to starvation so many dying over winter plus the survivors in poor nick for breeding. Grouse used to be very cyclic often regular 5 year cycles from boom to bust.
Also throw in any disease or worms which are always worse when populations are high.

It simply another way to try and hamper grouse shooting.

Yes in many areas blue hares can be scarce but that is because of habitat or predation NOT shooting.
A well managed grouse moor is the ideal habitat for hares and they flourish so do need to be shot to keep populations under control.

If over hunting/shooting is such a problem why can/do the same estates regularly manage to still shot them year after year???
If u really did over shoot them ud only get a couple of years then nothing.
It simply would not be possible.