End to RSPB rhetoric

The Scottish Gamekeepers' Association condemns the use of poison, but analysis of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds' own figures shows that less than 4 per cent of Scotland's red kite population have been illegally killed, a huge improvement on previous years (your report, 29 December).

The SGA questions why the RSPB tries to discredit the game industry which pumps 240 million annually into the rural economy, endows the Treasury with millions in the form of VAT, and is scientifically proven to benefit Scotland's wider biodiversity.

The SGA would welcome an end to the RSPB's rhetoric, and invite it to work with the industry and find a balance in our countryside, instead of the "predators above everything else" policy it currently promotes.

ALEX HOGG

Braemar

Aberdeenshire