IT seems the blood-sports organisation Scottish Moorland Group is at it again ("Feathers ruffled at plans to cull ravens", The Herald, April 24).

Having already slaughtered thousands of mountain hares, it now turns its shotgun barrels to the destruction of ravens. What is most concerning is that Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), or rather its licensing wing, has yet again permitted the well-heeled and self-appointed “managers” of the countryside to tinker with its bizarre notions, and has permitted the killing of hundreds of birds, contrary to the existing laws protecting the raven. It is surely time the SNH supervision of wildlife were dissolved and replaced with an independent scientific body that can view ecological situations in a proper context. The hundreds of thousands of wildlife enthusiasts in Scotland are getting rather cheesed off with those supposedly charged with protecting our wildlife.

Bernard Zonfrillo,

28 Brodie Road,

Glasgow.

URBAN gulls? Rats with wings (Letters, April 24).

Gordon Casely,

Westerton Cottage,

Crathes,

Kincardineshire.