It is very difficult to defend the way beavers are being killed on Tayside. With no legal protection and no strict rules, we reveal today that farmers and gamekeepers now seem to be shooting them at will.
However frustrated they may get at the damage the animals allegedly cause, it’s not acceptable to just reach for their guns. But it’s not only the land managers that are to blame.
Scottish ministers have to take responsibility too for allowing the crisis to develop by failing to take decisions about beavers for years. However knotty the issues and however divided the stakeholders, the Scottish Government should have figured out what to do long before now.
There’s a worry that behind the scenes ministers might be paying more attention to the business needs of farmers than to nature conservation. Unfortunately, our elected leaders have form.
We also report today how a zone for protecting marine wildlife on the west coast of Scotland was redrawn at the behest of a multinational quarrying company. There, the government has been accused of putting corporate interests before the environment.
Of course these conflicts are complicated, and there are legitimate interests on both sides. But the Scottish Government would do well to remember that much of our nation’s wealth depends heavily on how well we look after our natural heritage and our environment.
Sometimes it’s sensible to look after our wildlife, preserve our landscape and side with nature. Business is not always right.
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel