Scottish Gamekeepers’ Association Chairman Alex Hogg has published his latest blog today. It’s a classic.
“It gives me great pride to know that we, as professional wildlife managers, are striving to be the best in Europe. Nowhere else will you find such a rich diversity in such a small area. This is down to Keepers protecting Scotland’s flora and fauna“.
Unfortunately he doesn’t specify what they are striving to be the best at.
He also mentions a recent police wildlife conference held in Galashiels, and suggests that the large turn-out “showed that Keepers are keen to gather information and the take-up on courses such as snaring and deer competence is very high“.
That’s interesting, because according to a recent parliamentary question and answer session, less than one third of the snaring operators in Scotland have attended the compulsory two-hour snaring course required to comply with new regulations that begin on 1st April 2013. As Libby Anderson of OneKind put so succinctly:
“1,376 snare users have attended, out of a shooting industry estimate of 5,000 snare operators. Will the remaining 3,624 be trained by 1st April, given that it has taken over two years to train the first third?”
Sounds like the courts may be busy this year if visitors to the countryside notice any snares that do not have an ID tag attached (the ID tag is issued by the police to the individual snare user, but only if the user can produce a certificate to show completion of an approved snaring training course). If you spot a snare in use in Scotland after 1st April, check to see whether it’s got an ID tag attached. If it hasn’t, report it to the police!
He also mentions ‘the fact that Keepers must read the conditions of the General Licence before trapping any crows“. That’s not actually a true ‘fact’, Alex. SNH, in their wisdom, decided to drop the requirement that the GLs must be ‘read’ – instead, the user must simply ‘understand’. This change was the result of lobbying from a number of game-shooting organisations, who claimed that the old requirement (to read the conditions) was discriminatory against anyone who couldn’t read. We suspect the real reason was to exploit some sort of legal loophole to avoid a future conviction for misuse, but that remains to be seen.
Anyway, the latest Hogg blog can be read here – we only wish he’d write more frequently….
Raptor Persecution UK 
They’re certainly the best in Europe at “XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX”, and that’s a fact !!!
[Ed: sorry Nirofo, edited for the usual reasons….]
Well Ed, SGA members have certainly been on far more snaring courses than all their European counterparts, put together, the reason being of course due to the fact that most continental countries have long ago banned snares because of the obvious cruelty to wildlife they inflict.
More like ‘Professional wildlife killers’. Protecting Scotlands flora and fauna? What a load of old Hoggwash, if it wasn’t so serious it would be funny!
Shame he was not exhorting his well educated colleagues to read up on the muirburn code…I’m sure he wouldnt want his mates to accidently burn blanket bog or a scree slope….or a known harrier nesting area….
Re the number of users taking up the snaring courses…perhaps someone exaggerated the number of users to help stop a Ban?..surely not…
Hmm, striving to be the best – but the best at what? The best at illegally killing protected species? The best at poisoning protected species? The best at shooting protected species? The best at trapping and bludgeoning protected species? The best at damaging ecosystems? The best at lying? The best at hypocrisy?
And of course…he’s the best wind up artist of all throughout Scotland and yes possibly Europe.
He does talk the keepers language to perfection though.
“Professional wildlife managers” my backside, our bins were emptied today by our executive recycling managers, they are far more ambitious though they are striving to be the best in the world. Hey, if no one else will sing your praises, blow your own trumpet!
My concern though is that if he thinks they are among the best in Europe its god help Europe.
“Nowhere else will you find such a rich diversity in such a small area. This is down to Keepers protecting Scotland’s flora and fauna“.
I’m pretty sure you will, I’m fairly sure in many places in Europe you find predatory species co existing with prey species, this is down to evolution
I cant get over this “professional wildlife managers“, you can imagine him doing an interview.
“so what do you do”
“I’m a professional wildlife manager”
“and what does that entail ?”
“well, we have to kill lots of wildlife so its safe for the grouse and pheasants”
“why do you have to make it safe for grouse and pheasants”
“so we can shoot them”
“does anything benefit from all this killing”
“aye, its safer for rarer species like curlew, golden plover and snipe”
“why are they rarer”
“er, cause we shot them all”
Some management