An independent report by the League Against Cruel Sports has been exposed as propaganda. The report is openly contradicted by a scientific review from Scottish Natural Heritage. LACS’s The Intensification of Grouse Moor Management in Scotland, which was recently released with an accompanying video, and partly written by Andy Wightman, a Green Party activist, is presented as a science-based report, but BASC has denounced it as unbalanced and selective, downplaying the socio-economic contribution of shooting. BASC also claim that the report is misleading, making “unreferenced and sweeping statements based on a single fact or no evidence at all”.
Director of BASC Scotland, Dr Colin Shedden, said; “If you want to know what’s really happening… ignore extremists such as the League Against Cruel Sports and look at the facts. These are very sensibly set out in A Review of Sustainable Moorland Management, the report produced by the Scientific Advisory Committee of Scottish Natural Heritage.”
In its report, SNH says, “Experimental evidence shows that control of crows and foxes is effective in increasing postbreeding and spring red grouse densities as well as having similar beneficial effects for other ground-nesting birds, including lapwing, golden plover, curlew and hen harrier. By the same token, when grouse moor management is withdrawn from an area, numbers of crows and foxes increase, whilst those of breeding waders and hen harriers decline.”
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