Released to press on 30 June 2017
OneKind’s Director Harry Huyton met with Grant Moir, CEO of the Cairngorms National Park Authority this week (Monday 26th June) to hand over a postcard calling for urgent action to be taken to end mountain hare culls within the Park.
8625 people added their name to the back of the postcard and a further 500 people sent their own individual postcards to the Park calling for mountain hare culls to stop.
OneKind Director Harry Huyton said:
“Our National Parks should be safe havens for wildlife, yet mountain hares continue to be killed in huge numbers in the Cairngorms. I’m delighted that over 8000 people have joined us today to ask the Park Authority and the Scottish Government to step up and put a stop to the indiscriminate and widespread culls and commercial hunting within the Park.”
The animal protection charity launched their campaign to the Cairngorms on 1st March this year to coincide with the first day of the closed season. Mountain hares in Scotland are protected from 1st March to 31st July. Outside of this period, the animals can be shot freely for sport and are also killed as part of large-scale culls to manage land for red grouse shooting.
The only official estimate found that 24,529 mountain hares were killed in one year back in 2006/07, ten times more than the number of badgers killed in England’s badger culls in 2015.
Following the meeting, Cairngorms National Park Authority CEO Grant Moir said:
'Mountain hares are an important species in the Cairngorms and we want to ensure healthy populations across their natural range.”
“The CNPA Board recently discussed the issues around mountain hares and we will further consider our approach as part of our input to the independently-led group which is being set up by Scottish Government to look at the environmental impact of grouse moor management.'
Harry Huyton continued:
“I am delighted that the Cairngorms National Park Authority are taking our concerns seriously and look forward to seeing progress in ending the culls. In the meantime, OneKind will continue to work hard to expose and end the killing of mountain hares in the Cairngorms and across Scotland.”
Notes to the editor:
- OneKind is a Scottish animal protection charity working to end cruelty to Scotland's animals.
For further information or photographs please contact Sarah Moyes on 0131 661 9734sarah.moyes@onekind.org
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