A seal protection campaigner has described as "rubbish" claims there are too many grey seals and that they should be culled.
The comments by marine scientist Mark Carter come after a dog was so badly mauled by a seal in a burn on the Ythan estuary north of Newburgh, Aberdeenshire, that he had to be destroyed.
Matthew Will, of Inverugie, near Peterhead, was shooting ducks last Friday evening when his black labrador Fly went into the water to retrieve a bird near a seal colony and was attacked by a seal. His injuries were so severe Mr Will had no option but to shoot the dog to end his suffering.
Following the incident, Audrey Forbes-Clarke, Ythan fishery manager and Udny Trust factor, claimed it was the second attack by a seal on a dog this year. She said: "Seals are very vicious animals and becoming a plague locally." Ms Forbes-Clarke has called for a licensed cull, suggesting that the seals could attack a child.
Mr Carter, of Seal Scotland, a group of organisations and individuals that aims to end the killing of seals, said his heart went out to Mr Will, but denied seals were vicious and firmly rejected the idea they might pose a threat to children, saying he had never heard of a seal attacking a child.
He said: "This is a tragic thing to happen. I'm a dog person and my sympathy goes out to the man and his dog.
"But seals don't normally attack dogs. I would imagine the seal felt threatened.
"We don't have that many grey seals. We should be looking after them, not using words like 'vicious' and 'plague'. The idea that there are too many of them is rubbish."
The UK has 38% of the world's grey seal population and 88% are found in Scotland, with Orkney and the Outer Hebrides having the largest populations.
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