Sign this petition today please

Mark 11 Comments
Mountain Hare. Photo: Tim Melling

Tomorrow Scottish MSPs will vote on whether to make Mountain Hares a protected species.

Mountain Hares are killed in large numbers on so-called sporting estates, largely grouse moors. The main reason, or excuse, is that Mountain Hares carry a tick which carries a virus which affects all sorts of other wildlife but including Red Grouse. Grouse moors don’t want Red Grouse to die of a disease, they want them to be shot in the grouse shooting season which starts on the Inglorious 12 August. There is little evidence to suggest that hare shooting affects the incidence of the disease in Red Grouse so this is all just an old wives’ tale, and the wifies are probably married to gamekeepers.

Sometimes we are told that Mountain Hares are pests of forestry – they are a bit, but not much. Fences work quite well.

One of the less-trumpetted reasons for killing Mountain Hares on grouse moors is that Mountain Hares are a favoured food of Scotland’s National Bird, the Golden Eagle – and Golden Eagles aren’t welcome on grouse moors either, because they will also eat Red Grouse (and dead sheep but nobody makes any money out of shooting dead sheep), and they also disturb the Red Grouse on shoot days (although arguably not anything like as much as a line of beaters driving all the wildlife on a moor past a line of guns blasting away). So, fewer Mountain Hares equals fewer Golden Eagles equals more shooting.

This is the status of Mountain Hares on a range of Deeside and Donside grouse moors:

Long-term Mountain Hare numbers on grouse moors. https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1365-2664.13235

…compared with their status on non-grouse moors in the same area:

Long-term Mountain Hare numbers on montane areas. https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1365-2664.13235

Our wildlife, even in National Parks such as the Cairngorms, is being kicked out of balance by one niche hobby – driven grouse shooting.

The vote in the Scottish parliament tomorrow is important – sign this petition to register your feelings please.

A truxckload of culled mountain Hares. Would this type of Mountain Hare cull be in your Moorland Management Plan?
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11 Replies to “Sign this petition today please”

  1. Please sign. No MSP should be able to look at themselves in a mirror if they vote against this tomorrow.

  2. I signed it sometime ago. The opposition outside parliament is being led by Alex “from Planet Slaughter” Hogwash, enough said please sign it.

  4. If you’ve not already, write to your MSPs; constituency and list. Beware, the cut and paste replies from tories talks about not wanting a total ban. The amendment doesn’t seek a total ban, so if you can, cut off the option of that response in your letter.

  5. Thanks again Mark. Signed it and shared on FB. Great piece and simple, precise wording for folk who don’t live in The Highlands and maybe know nothing about sporting estates and shooting, etc.
    Let’s hope they listen this time. The last petition to ban Grouse shooting completely went down poorly in the Scottish parliament. Some SMPs probably go off shooting at the weekend too I am guessing.

    1. Our association has written to Nicola Sturgeon (most of us don’t live in Scotland) for the umpteenth time, and also thanked the Mountain Hare Champion Alison Johnstone MSP for tabling the amendment.

      Fingers crossed for some respect for animals tomorrow.

  6. Maybe “The Disliker” can give us the benefit of his/her “rural” wisdom on this issue?

    1. Is that you, hiding behind that stone wall? Come on out, don’t be shy! I’m sure we’ll all be very impressed with your explanation, and be forced to concede to your obvious expertise by the fact that you have a flat hat and a tweed jacket.

  7. Mark

    I thought you and your readers may be interested to learn that
    the Scottish Government is going to have a busy day tomorrow. As well as considering whether to give protected status to hares, it will also be deciding whether to increase the penalties for wildlife crimes. All the amendments lodged under the Animal and Wildlife Penalties, Protections and Powers Bill will be considered and Mairi Gougeon, Minister for Rural Affairs and the Natural Environment, will outline the Scottish Governments position on each of them at the Stage 3 debate tomorrow, which you can watch on the Scottish Parliament website at https://www.scottishparliament.tv/

    Let’s hope that not only will the hare be protected but the penalties increased to such an extent that they are regarded as serious enough to permit the police to undertake covert surveillance.

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