Sunday 16 January 2011

News on Hen Harrier persecution in Scotland!

Check out the Raptor Politics website for a link to the latest on Hen Harrier persecution in Scotland. A report was carried out to investigate the issue of Hen Harriers and their demise on Scottish grouse moors. This report was put on hold by landowners but has now surfaced.

The shooting industry is worth millions in Scotland and gamekeepers and landowners are keen to defend this so are extremely protective over their game birds. Raptors will predate game birds but they also bring in millions through tourism. These birds especially Hen Harriers have gone from vast tracts of moorland in Scotland and it is thought this is because of persecution and illegal poisoning. The gamekeepers defence is that there are too many birds of prey on the land and they want licences to cull certain species/numbers, because gamekeepers have a job to do, if they don't produce the numbers of birds required they could be out of a job. Landowners expect the game birds to be available for the high paying clients throughout the shooting season placing more pressure on the keepers. So should the book stop with gamekeepers or landowners? Read this report for a view from the different sides.

One thing that is brutally true in all this is that birds of prey are still illegally persecuted and certain species are missing from large tracts of their natural range all in the name of human pleasure and greed.

See the link below for the Raptor Politics site with the link to the Hen Harrier report have a read and make up your own mind.

http://raptorpolitics.org.uk/?p=3117

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