The passing of the Wildlife Management & Muirburn (Scotland) Bill yesterday, voted for by almost everyone (except the Scottish Tories and the SNP’s Fergus Ewing MSP) has been the hot topic of conversation today.
For many, the Bill has been the focus of daily life for exactly one year, when it was first introduced on 21 March 2023. And of course, the issue of raptor persecution on grouse moors, which is what triggered this Bill in the first place, has been the focus of daily life for many of us for longer than we care to remember, well before the introduction of the Bill.
With such a long history of campaigning, the responses to the passing of the Bill yesterday were entirely predictable. Conservationists are very happy with it, recognising it as an important stride forward but fully cognisant that our work here is not yet done. You can read responses from REVIVE, the coalition for grouse moor reform here, from OneKind here, and from RSPB Scotland here.
The grouse shooting industry is furious with it, mainly, from what I can tell, because it feels humiliated. It’s an industry founded on privilege and self-entitlement and has done pretty much what it wants for about 150 years, unhindered by the societal rules by which the rest of us must abide. To have the Scottish Parliament vote to introduce legislation that will finally hold the industry to account is hugely embarrassing. Imagine having to listen to a Government Minister say this about you in the Parliament’s debating chamber:
“There were those who disagreed with the principles of the bill, but if the grouse-shooting community had shut down raptor persecutionā stopped the killing of our most iconic birds of preyāwe would not have had to legislate in this way. Sadly, that community did not shut it down, so it is now up to us to make sure that it does so. It is for that reason that the bill is before us today”. – Scottish Agriculture Minister Jim Fairlie, 21 March 2024.
I guess that’s why there wasn’t a single representative from the industry sitting in the public gallery at Holyrood yesterday.
Not that I have any sympathy. The grouse shooting industry has been given chance after chance after chance to rid itself of the criminals within. It has failed to do so, instead going on the offensive, repeatedly denying that raptor persecution even exists and conducting a disgusting campaign of hate, smear and abuse targeted against those who were prepared to call them out.
I don’t believe that every grouse shooting estate is ‘at it’, but I do believe that there are more ‘at it’ than are not. And even the ones that are not, they do know who is responsible – the entire industry knows – but the industry has refused to blacklist. Now they’re all going to suffer the consequences.
You can read the responses to the passing of the Bill from the Scottish Gamekeepers Association here, from Scottish Land & Estates here and from BASC here.
BASC’s response is particularly interesting as it claims the new legislation “is unworkable for gamekeepers and land managers” and “will be ruinous to the rural economy“. Does that mean that BASC thinks that sustainable grouse moor management isn’t viable? That grouse moor management relies upon the illegal persecution of birds of prey, the use of inhumane snares to trap foxes and other wildlife and the routine setting alight of deep peat moorland? That would be an extraordinary admission!
So what happens next?
Now the details of the Bill have been finalised and passed, NatureScot can get on with finalising the details of the codes of practice for grouse shoot licensing and muirburn licensing that will be used to support the implementation of the new legislation. I’ll post details when they become available.
The timing of the ban on snares and wildlife trap licensing is yet to be determined.
It is fully expected that grouse shoot licensing will be in place for the start of the 2024 grouse shooting season on 12th August. The muirburn licence is more complicated and it is anticipated that won’t be in play until September 2025.
Here is a copy of the Wildlife Management & Muirburn (Scotland) Bill as passed:
UPDATE 26 March 2024: More reactions to grouse moor licensing in Scotland (here)
Raptor Persecution UK 
Fergus, as ever the friend of the hunting and shooting community.
I am very surprised it actually managed to gain ground, and get through parliament,āand before anyone reads this wrong, I am fully in favour of the bill, and have petitioned for it.
Our wildlife, and birds of prey need this bill, like the report mentioned, the game industry have had more chances than can be counted to clean up their act, and stamp out the illegal killing or birds of prey, and wildlife, using snares, guns, traps, bait etc are all barbaric forms of torture which are regularly used to persecute our wildlife, for what?, just to save a few game birds from being eaten , instead of being shot, there is no excuse for the behavior of the game industry.
Alongside the illegal killings, we have them burning peat, clearing land, and not obeying the rules of the land, like they are not obliged to follow the law like everyone else in the country.
I hope that at last there will actually be cases taken to court where the industry are held accountable for their crimes, and, meaningful sentences are handed out, I would like to see sanctions put in place if a crime is committed on shooting estates, hold them to task for the crimes, there is absolutely no truth behind the usual comments of” we don’t know how it happened, or who did it”āI call that b.s., they know only too well who did it, and why, and I expect payments are given when it happens.
They have had free reign for too many decades, and I do expect some resistance from them, let’s hope they discover it is not viable to continue killing game birds as their spokesperson mentioned, now they will no longer be able to kill birds of prey, and wildlife, and no longer destroy peat, and the natural habitat for wildlife , so perhaps the game industry will call an end to their barbaric sport, and return the land to nature, or put it to better use than killing birds and animals, but not for agriculture,āor animal farming as this would also have an adverse impact on wildlife, put it back to forest,āand wild meadows.
Sorry to be pedantic, but free rein!
The question is will it be rigorously enforced. If those caught breaking this law will they get a light tap of the wrist and effectively ālet offā or will there be proper sentencing? Current experience suggests notā¦..
We should be careful not to describe the legislation as something for which estates will ‘suffer the consequences’. That implies a detriment and, whilst it is possible to see any regulatory powers as ‘burdensome’, regulation is never (usually) a detriment to well-managed businesses. They might complain with the rest, about the burdens, but regulation benefits good businesses by imposing higher standards on the cheapskates.
So good estates should welcome regulation, even if that welcome might be disguised or muted.āBut plainly they don’t: neither do shooters, gamekeepers or anyone. On the face of it, that’s a puzzle.
Maybe it is indeed just the shock of an unprecedented imposition of standards on an industry built on privilege and self-entitlement. No doubt that is a factor. But I think the greater concern derives from an unusual feature of the grouse shooting industry, which is that the ‘good guys’ need the ‘bad guys’.āRaptors range widely and are scarce.If a hen harrier is ‘disappeared’ on a ‘bad’ estate, that almost by definition has a population level effect and is of direct benefit to neighbouring, in fact all, ‘good’ estates too.ā
Of course omerta and other social aspects are strong too but if you look for a reason why the industry as a whole is hysterical beyond apparent reason about the legislation, the fact, if it is a fact, that it will worsen the economics of all by improving the prospects of raptors is a place to start looking.
Thanks to everyone who worked to achieve this.
What great reads from NGA, BASC and SLE!āI canāt wait to check out the Shooting Times and other pro shooting rags.āShould make for an entertaining half hour!!!āHappy days. š
Congratulations Ruth and all those who helped, there are many, I followed and contributed a little for many years but lost faith, We blame the Tories however SNP kicked the can down the street for so long I thought nothing would change in my lifetime, just looked at SLE response, they must be on drugs. thank you very much for keeping the faith, I first visited Scotland in the late seventies when it was a mecca for Raptors, hopefully it will return to this
Eureka
the days of suspended sentences for raptor persecution needs to come to an end ! Proper jail time and revoking of gun licence for life ! That’s what is needed
all we need now is the same sort of protection for raptors on pheasant and partridge shoots in England and Wales and Scotland and Ireland
I sincerely hope so, this barbaric cruelty has to stop
Those MPs that didn’t back it will be members of the brown envelope club. You’d think there were vast clouds of hawks decimating the grouse population. These birds don’t kill for fun,they do it to eat,unlike the owners of these estates. If they’re caught breaking the law it should be a ban from operating for 5 years along with a fine of suitable largeness for the rich. I won’t hold my breath.
The Bill will “provide a mechanism that allows Ministers to remove a licence to shoot grouse where a raptor persecution incident can be linked to the management of the land” according to RSPB.
āI wonder if one (or how many) suspicious and sudden disappearances of satellite tagged raptors and their tags over a driven Grouse estate will constitute such a persecution incident?
SLE says. of grouse shooting –
“contributions it makes to combatting climate change and reversing biodiversity loss”.
– do they have research?
Unlikely. Same as with the oft-repeated claims about the HUUUUUUUUUUUGE contributions to local economies that shooting estates make.
Again I think itās only words and to many loopholes andādoges for the landowners to use,
has one person says 150year of practice the change to them will be too hard to adjust they will continue they are too arrogant for this.
Colin I
I’ve walked a lot through these shoots and I’m not a lover of the practice no matter what birds are being shot. The sheer terror noises these birds give off when they are being hunted is terrible, you can hear the fear as dogs chase them out to be shot for no reason. It’s an awful practice and isn’t needed no matter how much money they pay. What makes it worse is they don’t even do anything with the dead animals usually just burn them so it’s a double waste.
Why can’t they just shoot clay I don’t understand it. I guess they don’t have the skill, maybe?
When I’m walking I love seeing these birds stick their heads up to give the quick churp churp. I think maybe people with all this land should give it back so it can be a national park that everyone pays to keep it from taxes.
There is not much left to say you have said it all except I will only rest when the first proof of it working is displayed zero tolerance to any law breaking or killing anything illegally jail and revoking license renewal on these estates . Well done everyone.
20 years ago hunting was supposedly banned when the 2004 the Hunting Act was passed. Since then hunting has continued unabated through the cynical subterfuge of ‘trail hunting’ (not to be confused with drag hunting or clean boot hunting). Those who do it openly flout the intention of the law by hiding behind legal ambiguities and what has turned out to be very poor framing of the law itself (notably the absence of a ‘recklessness clause’). This led to police forces immediately declaring the law ‘unenforceable’.
I hope this new Scottish Wildlife Act is better framed and that detection and enforcement will be rigorous.