Last month the Scottish animal welfare charity OneKind lodged a petition at the Scottish Parliament calling for ‘an end to the killing of wildlife on grouse moors and elsewhere in Scotland’.
Below is some background information from OneKind on why they’re calling for the Scottish Parliament to conduct a full review of the animal welfare impacts of the use of traps and snares on grouse moors and elsewhere in Scotland.
[A gruesome stink pit photographed on a grouse moor in the Angus Glens. This fox, some rabbits and a cat had been killed and then dumped in a heap so their putrefying corpses would attract the attention of passing scavengers who would then be caught in snares set close by, killed, and then added to the pile].
The focus of the review called for in this petition should be:
• The ethics and sustainability of the routine and repeated killing of the same species in the same location;
• The case for banning snares, Larsen traps and certain other types of live traps outright, on animal welfare grounds;
• The animal welfare issues surrounding lethal traps such as spring traps, both approved and non-approved categories;
• Mechanisms to ensure proper scrutiny of all practices undertaken by hunters, shooters and trappers and only to permit the use of traps under exceptional circumstances; and
• Whether activities closely associated with causing unnecessary suffering by means of trapping and snaring, such as driven grouse shooting, should be banned.
[A stoat killed in what is currently a lawful trap, set on another grouse moor in the Angus Glens. This sort of wildlife abuse is routine, with some estates hosting thousands of traps like this].
Petitions at the Scottish Parliament are different to those at Westminster – they are generally active for about six weeks, anybody from anywhere in the world can sign them and there is no minimum number of signatures required before the petition will be considered by the cross-party Petitions Committee.
OneKind’s current petition is doing moderately well with 5,542 signatures and one more week to go before it closes on Weds 13th November. It would be good to send a strong message to the Scottish Government that the systematic abuse of wildlife on Scottish grouse moors is no longer tolerable.
If you agree, please consider signing the petition HERE
Thank you
Raptor Persecution UK 
Was sure I had signed this…have definitely done so now. There is no justification for any of this killing by these ‘people’.
Catch these thugs and punish them before we have no wildlife left! 😠
Save the wildlife !!!!!! There is no excuse for this madness
signed and more than happy to do so, snares in particular have long been abused and should long ago have been consigned to history.
,
How can any so called civilised society tolerate this cruelty and abuse . Ban all animal cruelty and apply heavy prison sentences as a deterrent . There is a close correlation between animal cruelty and psychopathy leading to violence against humans too
Consigning things to history should include all the archaic practices, carried out in the name of sport.
It is time to curb the killers.
Doug
Signed. 🙏
Done. let’s get this stoped ASAP
Stop the killings
Bastards stop this cruelty
Barbaric cruelty.
Stop all the hunts.
Signed and let’s ge something done about this xx
I feel that the estates must be made to pay for what they’ve done. Hit these estates where it hurts. Any bird that disappears on an estate should have something they hold dear destroyed. It’s the only language they will understand until the killings stop.
It’s disgusting if it is a Scottish wild cat i thought they were protected
This is disgusting and should be stopped, I’m sick to my stomach knowing this kind of cruelty and unnecessary killing of wildlife goes on.
Do the right thing.
Signed. Can anyone confirm if that’s a native wildcat in the picture?
It certainly looks like one re its side and pelage, although the tail doesn’t look as if it’s strongly banded – but it’s cetainly not like that many domestic moggies that’s for sure. The Angus Glens are one of the core areas left in Scotland for wildcat and I’d be bloody amazed if they’re still not dying there as part of the general slaughter going on on the moors. Since this lot love to glory in supposed conservation failures they can try and attribute to genuine conservationists (such as with the capercaillie), I suspect they’d be secretly pleased if the wildcat slipped away completely, shed a few crocodile tears and say it happened because of attention being diverted to the reintroduction of lynx, blaming gamekeepers for raptor deaths etc.
I visit Scotland every year for 6 weeks to try and see your wonderful wildlife. This is unacceptable and something must be done.
The crimes against wildlife needs to be stopped right now. Its utterly barbaric & abhorrent that this bloodthirsty despicable killing of our beautiful wildlife is still going on in this day & age!!
The whole of the UK should become a natural reserve for all wild animals with no killing. Scotland should be the first to do this and protect all creatures.
end the murder of our wildlife NOW
This kind of brutal abuse of wild animals
Is outrageous. How can anyone say that the torment & torture they endure is ok
Stop this terrible practice now..
Signed! For crying out loud – stop the killing of our natural heritage NOW! The driven grouse shooting industry is a tiny bunch of people that are having a massive negative impact on our upland landscapes. They treat our wildlife as if it is scum. They shove out propaganda, making out that their actions help to conserve our natural heritage when, in fact, they are actually destroying wildlife for the sake of destroying the very birds they are conserving. The whole situation is kill, kill, kill. How long does the environment have to wait before someone in charge makes the decision to finally rid our country of the driven grouse shooting industry?
This disgusting cruel sickining behaviour has got to stop .humans are destroying the planet
Legislate to preserve the wildlife and biodiversity before it’s too late.
Please stop this barbaric practice
Man is destroying our planet. Stop the killing of innocent animals that deserve to be here
Uphill struggle on this, the answer from my MSP when I asked about stopping the use of snares.
“Afraid I don’t agree with you.
I think there is a role for snaring albeit a role that is bring tightened up by changes to the regulations planned by the Scottish Government.”
Graeme
Stop killing our wildlife 😡🤬😡
I will never agree to killing wildlife they thereleave alone bloody cruel
The continual abuse of wild life on grouse moors is a barbaric and sickening practice. Orchestrated for the privilege of blood thirty morons, who think they are above the law. Rubbing shoulders with there elitist friends in high places.
So sad 😢, the hunters should be hunted.
Must be stopped ,its not right ,cruel
Stop the killing! Death is not sport
Strange how many of the posts on this subject contain the same or similar grammatical errors. Out of 33 posts at this point some sixteen fail to use full stops. Could that be multiple posts from the same person.
End this evil now!!!!
Living in the dark ages with all the torture of these defenceless animals
It’s disgusting.
Tradition or not. It’s time someone put an end to this barbaric practice!
How can any so called civilised society tolerate this cruelty and abuse . Ban all animal cruelty and apply heavy prison sentences as a deterrent . There is a close correlation between animal cruelty and psychopathy leading to violence against humans too
We are loosing most of our wildlife!! Stop the killing – murder of our creatures that share this planet with us ! 😡
Why do this….you’re destroying those beautiful innocent creatures, you don’t have a right, you are not superior! Stop it. Humanity is so sick and ignorant.
Disgusting, inexcusable and very disturbing. Anyone that would do this to an innocent animal has no common sense, morals and needs to stop living in the dark ages and evolve already. Leonardo da Vinci Quote: “Whoever does not respect life, does not deserve it.”
I live in Morayshire. It’s a playground for the hunting, shooting, fishing brigade. Given that the world has to change, it.’s time for us to look to new and more peaceful pastimes. The tourist industry can change…it just needs modern thinking.
It’s time this mindless cruelty was ended
Heartbreaking and gutwrenching. When will this despicable behaviour stop
STOP KILLING OUR WILDLIFE!
No Living creature is yours to kill.
I’m appalled and in disbelieve of the awful barbaric why these beautiful animals are killed just because of humans xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx .the moorland is the wild life home and man has no right to destroy it . Game hunting should be banned as soon as possible before it’s to late and we loose our beautiful wild life .