Last week we discovered that SNH had reported to the EU Commission in 2013 that the mountain hare was in ‘Favourable Conservation Status’ (see here).
This startling revelation was revealed after a Parliamentary question from Scottish Greens MSP Alison Johnstone. We wanted to know more detail about how SNH had made its assessment, and it seems we’re not the only ones. Alison has submitted a further Parliamentary question, as follows:
Question S5W-12001: Alison Johnstone, Lothian, Scottish Green Party, Date Lodged: 13/10/2017
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the 2007 assessment regarding an ‘unfavourable/inadequate’ status, for what reason its 2013 Article 17 Habitats Regulations report to the EU Commission assessed the mountain hare population as “favourable”, and whether it will provide a breakdown of the (a) criteria it used and (b) the evidence it received.
Expected answer date 10/11/2017
Kudos to Alison Johnstone MSP!
The grouse-shooting industry has previously said that large scale culls no longer take place. Photographic evidence from the Cairngorms National Park in 2016 suggests otherwise.
Raptor Persecution UK 
Well done Alison. Yet another example of the Scottish Gree Party abreast of the issues and stepping up to the mark. The SNP are certainly not the progressive party they would like us to believe. And this issue won’t go away until it is resolved!
Yes, well done. Alison! Our only native hare too.
Yay the Greens and c’mon SNP – when is this independent review into the indusrtry which should not be named supposed to start? We’re waiting!! There’ll be no wildlife left in the uplands at this rate.
Some may remember the trial in Inverness involving the snaring of mountain hares on Lochindorb Estate near Inverness a few years ago.
During eight days of evidence the court heard that culls were carried out annually for a number of reasons including;
Protect grouse from Louping ill
Protect walkers front ticks and spread of Lyme s disease! Which is highly suspect.
The same number of hares were killed annually and populations were assessed by counting them from a Landrover.
A succession of gamekeepers gave evidence that not a single non target species was ever caught as by catch ( over a period of 40 years) an astonishing claim.
The verdict was not proven but it was very obvious that large scale culls were being conducted on a non scientific basis and with very spurious justification.
I wish to thank Alison Johnstone and Raptor Persecution Scotland for maintaining the principles of living in an aspiring democratic country, for, if it were not for that person and that organisation/website, much of what has been going on in our Scottish, and elsewhere in the British countryside, would have gone unreported, and no robust challenges made against flagrant criminality and cover-up backed by spurious statements with relation to the cruel slaughter of our Birds of Prey, Mountain Hares and other poor creatures.
We have in our midst and a legal system held in distrust by many of the caring and law-abiding public, due to the vagarious way that system has behaved with regard to the prosecution of those caught defiantly breaking wildlife and animal welfare laws. There have been allegations made about the conduct of our Police, Crown Office/Procurator Fiscal Service and Judiciary. Such allegations are only part of others not related to what is being discussed. In other words, the public is bewildered over sentencing, when cases can get as far as that. Criminality and recidivism, along with dire prison conditions, ensure that causes like protecting the environment/habitats, wildlife protection, farm animal treatment from farm to slaughter, fish farm impact, cruelty to domestic animals/pet trade, are given short shrift in many cases. This can be due to a priority list of what to give credence to, due to cutbacks in Police numbers, leading to many crimes not being given attention. The time and money is just there, even if determined and responsible officers and others want to follow through. What hope have of ever getting deterrent sentencing for offending gamekeepers and maverick shooting estate owners?
The little lights of standing up to Government and its cowed law enforcement system with regard to wildlife crime, come from Onekind, Animal Concern, Scotland for Animals and the SSPCA, and support and courageous field work from the Scottish League Against Cruel Sports. Our only hope is for a united and determined front to remove the stranglehold blood sports have on certain parts of our political parties, which see shooting estates as essential features of our economy, and which see this reprehensible elite as saviours of our countryside, as expressed by certain SNP Ministers. Are those of our politicians who are purblind on these issues, not willing to pull the scales from their eyes, and see the big picture of planet Earth being under severe and perhaps, irreversible changes, that are endangering all Life as we know it. The main priority is to stop the wholesale destruction of forests, species of all kinds, essential habitats, and Life in our oceans. Hunting, rising human population, atmospheric and marine pollution, over-fishing, mineral and timber environmental negative impact, and many other threats have all to be seriously addressed. To counteract this, we will ALL who are ethical and humanitarian, overthrow those misgoverning our planet, and when one considers Trump and his cohorts in the USA, we will have to have great courage and resources. At least, we can create in Scotland, and perhaps in England and Wales, a model of how to become the most advanced countries in the world, with regard to living humanely and within the boundaries of our resources. To have so much land given over to shooting estates, would be a gross anomaly, and a new and vigorous force would be designed to replace such an anachronism, and thereby install a more democratic way of managing our landscapes. Up till now, there has been a closet connection between such magnates of land and law, with whatever Government is in power, with the natural environment and its endangered species, we have only a short time to change course. In the USA, the forces of reaction and brutality towards the national parks, Native American Lands and Sacred Sites, Old Growth forests like the Sequoia with 4% left, marine and terrestrial areas of scientific interest, the Grand Canyon, are trying hard to effectively wipe out decades of conservation work, which was originally inspired by John Muir. Trump was allowed in here years ago to buy a shooting estate, and later got bought out, and then came back again with his intrusive golf courses. No more, should anyone be allowed into Scotland to buy part of our countryside and be allowed to do as they pleased. Putin in Russia is allowing the world’s biggest deforestation with the Taiga in Siberia supplying China and elsewhere. Mugabe in Zimbabwe exports Elephant calves to Chinese zoos, and allows the trophy shooters free rein. We are not any better.
Well done Alison and Raptor Persecution Scotland for highlighting in this instance the shocking slaughter of the native Mountain Hare. The killing should be stopped and importantly the evidence of what has been happening with this species should be properly investigated and the findings reported to the public. It is then that we will hopefully see who is and has been responsible in allowing this ‘unacceptable abuse and loss of wildlife in our countryside’. The Mountain Hare, as well as other persecuted wildlife species found in our uplands & those associated with driven Grouse shoots, should be afforded the care and protection they deserve. Wildlife should not be seen as being expedient for the sake of allowing political wriggle room for authorities that do not appear to be interested in challenging the abuse that is the Driven Grouse Shoot industry.
Is SNH run by scientists or political arse kissers ???