I AM sure the RSPB and the various contributors to your Letters Pages who have been calling for the licensing of grouse moors will welcome the fact that raptor crime is at a record low ("Crimes against birds of prey swoop to record low", The Herald, October 17).
The maps produced by the Partnership for Action Against Wildlife Crime PAW) show that current strategies are clearly working and hopefully in the very near future will completely eradicate this totally unacceptable crime. It is also valid to point out that tagged birds are still wild creatures and can succumb to many alternative fates other than wildlife crime, yet there appears to be an assumption that any bird which goes missing must have been illegally killed.
Roseanna Cunningham's statement is obviously more influenced by the pressure from bodies such as RSPB to achieve political rather than conservation goals. She should be praising grouse moors and their gamekeepers for the magnificent efforts which costs the taxpayer nothing and protects many at risk species.
Unfortunately it is extremely optimistic to hope that the RSPB, its camp followers and politicians will accept that current policies are working and focus their efforts on assisting the keepered moors in their efforts rather than demonising this most important element of the conservation work. Licensing is just a bureaucratic irrelevance to real conservation.
David Stubley,
22 Templeton Crescent, Prestwick.
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