Charity firmly against snares

“NEW study shines light on hen harrier” (News, 4 August) discussed a new Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust report into diversionary feeding of hen harriers and other gamekeeping practices, and their effects on the grouse population.

OneKind charity was quoted in the article as saying that diversionary feeding could reduce the conflict between conservation of hen harriers and the management of moors for grouse shooting.

May I clarify that the final paragraph of the article, suggesting that the control of generalist predators by gamekeepers could become more acceptable, was a quotation from the research itself and not from OneKind.

OneKind is opposed to the methods used in the relentless control of corvids and foxes to increase the stocks of birds for sport shooting. Above all, as 12 August passes, we would remind your readers that the inglorious practice of snaring continues on Scotland’s grouse moors. It is unlikely that any scientific research could ever make these traps more acceptable: they are fundamentally cruel and indiscriminate.

Libby Anderson, 
policy director, OneKind