Representatives from the farming community have met MSPs as part of their public condemnation of the death of birds of prey in the Highlands.
The total number of deaths has reached 20 - 14 red kites and six buzzards -in the Conon Bridge area of Ross-shire.
Tests have shown that several of the creatures had been poisoned.
NFU Scotland's Highland regional chairman, Jim Whiteford, and farmers from the Conon Bridge area met MSPs Rob Gibson and Dave Thompson at Dingwall market.
As farmers and landowners are working with Police Scotland two officers also attended the meeting.
That followed a pledge of £12,000 from farmers and landowners from the Moray Firth towards the reward fund for information about the deaths of the birds of prey,which they have strongly condemned.
Mr Whiteford said: "This is a horrifying and dreadful incident which has appalled local farmers. We want to work with all interested parties, agencies and the police to get to the bottom of this.
"It was gratifying that our local politicians and Police Scotland took the time to meet with us today to discuss the ongoing situation.
"Farmers and landowners want those responsible to be found and prosecuted, and they have shown their clear support and commitment through their contributions to the growing reward fund.
"The deaths of these birds is senseless and unacceptable, and we continue to urge anyone with information to come forward and contact Police Scotland."
Mr Gibson added: "Both locally and nationally, wildlife crime now has a much higher profile and that will help to solve this case."
Mr Thompson said: "Hopefully the worst of this incident is behind us and we can focus on bringing those responsible to account."
The meeting comes after farmer Ewan Macdonald's land was raided by police investigating the deaths.
The birds had been found in the vicinity of his land, but searches of his three farms by police found nothing linking him to the deaths. Following the search he said that the area's farming community's reputation has been tarnished, and called for an action group to be set up to investigate.- For agriculture views and news pick up a copy of the Scottish Farmer or see www.thescottishfarmer.co.uk
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article