Scottish Landowners Target Birds Of Prey

A group of landowners in Scotland are calling on the Government to allow them to kill some birds of prey to protect stocks of game birds.

The Scottish Rural Property and Business Association (SRPBA) said similar arrangements were already in place for farmers.

Existing powers allow ministers to sign off on the killing of some birds of prey by sporting estates, but the powers have never been used.

Now landowners want to be granted licenses that would allow the targeted cull of more common species such as Buzzards and Ravens.

The owners of sporting estates argue that without careful land management, predators can wipe out stocks of game birds - like red grouse.

Profits and jobs can be wiped out too.

Farmers and other land interests have been allowed to kill some protected birds in the past and every year up to 30 protected birds are found dead, including rare species such as Golden Eagles and Hen Harriers.

A spokesman for the SRPBA, Doug McAdam, said that he wanted to see the same principle applied to sporting estates.

He commented: "Legal management tools always help and clearly where there's areas of criminality, we have got to look at what are the causes of those crimes, and undoubtedly in some cases there may be frustration.

"I think all the game industry is asking for is to be treated on a level playing field with other industries, this can only help the problem."

The RSPB said any legal killing would be wrong while the illegal slaughter of birds of prey continued.

They believe the call is for commercial gain. Shooting, especially driven grouse shooting, is vital to the economy of rural Scotland and is worth £240m a year.

Head of species and land management for the charity, Duncan Orr Ewing, commented: "I find this particularly bizarre and I think this is holding society to ransom.

"Society has decided that these birds need protection and are vulnerable."

Conservationists believe that the real scale of the killing is much greater than the official figures show.

The call comes in a BBC documentary looking into the illegal trapping, shooting and poisoning of birds.

'Fair Game? Scotland's Sporting Estates' looks into the illegal killing of birds of prey and examines claims that the law is being flouted across Scotland.

It also features allegations that estates are the victims of an organised campaign and that dead birds are being planted on the hills to incriminate them.

(JG/BMcC)