Tag: mountain hare

Alison Johnstone MSP | Protect Scotland’s mountain hares

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“In June your support helped get my amendment passed in the Scottish Parliament to make mountain hares a protected species and to bring about an end to their mass slaughter on Scotland’s grouse moors. It was an important victory in its own right and also because it’s the first time that decisive action has been taken against wildlife persecution on Scotland’s grouse moors. Sadly, however, the Scottish Government has yet to deliver this protection. The open season is due to start again and killing mountain hares without licence can commence once more from today. We must not let this happen. You’ve already helped so much, but we need to make another push.” Alison Johnstone MSP, 01 Aug 2020

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Alison Johnstone MSP | “Fury of the hunting lobby has been astonishing”

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On June 17th we noted that, “Some remarkably good news. The Scottish parliament has just voted to protect Mountain Hares”. So what’s the response of the shooting industry to NOT being able to kill Hares? The gamekeepers have risibly suggested the vote was ‘undemocratic’ and think that setting up their own political party would be a good idea! It sounds excellent to us: there’s nothing like losing multiple deposits to help you understand just how unpopular you are. The so-called Countryside Alliance have threatened to go after Alison herself: baseless ad hominem attacks on ‘animal rights extremists’ are the norm for hunting lobbyists so that hardly comes as a surprise.

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Victory | Greens End Hare Slaughter

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Some remarkably good news. The Scottish parliament has just voted to protect Mountain Hares. This is a huge blow to the intensive grouse industry which has been massacring hares in huge numbers to ‘protect’ the artificially high numbers of Red Grouse they farm for the gun. Like birds of prey, stoats, weasels, corvids and whatever else the ‘industry’ decide should be eradicated, Mountain Hares have been relentlessly targeted much to the gloating amusement of the estate’s gamekeepers who have been caught parading vehicles rammed to the gills with dead hares far too often – which undoubtedly has helped cause the public to vote in favour of their victims and against them.

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Vote to end Mountain Hare slaughter

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The driven grouse industry really dislike Mountain Hares. Not because they eat grouse chicks. Not because they are all bouncy and quite cute and distract shooters. Not because guests to very expensive shooting estates are kept awake at night by their chattering. Not even because they leave little piles of droppings that guests don’t want to dip their expensively clad shooting boots in…Nope, it’s because hares might carry ticks that can carry a virus that can infect grouse. Come rain or shine, increase or decline, public disgust or – no, just public disgust – gamekeepers on upland shooting estates shoot thousands of hares every year to protect their employer’s profits. Green MSP Alison Johnstone wants this disgraceful slaughter of native species stopped. And we can help her…but we need to be quick!

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Revive | Chance to End Mountain Hare Killing

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The Revive coalition (a coalition of like-minded organisations working for grouse moor reform in Scotland) have just sent out a newsletter asking as many people as possible to write to Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) asking them to sign an amendment that would make Mountain Hares a protected species, potentially seeing the end of grouse moor estates shooting them in huge numbers as ‘vermin’.

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