Rural Scotland ignored as government confirms ban on Humane Cable Restraints

Press Release

The Scottish Government has said it is to press ahead with a ban on humane cable restraints – a move described as a ‘dark day for biodiversity, wildlife and rural livelihoods’.

Scottish Land & Estates, the rural business organisation, has written an open letter to Gillian Martin MSP, Minister for Energy and the Environment, after she confirmed in correspondence to SLE that a ban on the devices would be brought forward as part of the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill.

Humane cable restraints (HCRs) are a modern device used predominantly by gamekeepers and farmers to control fox populations in order to protect livestock and other wildlife such as ground-nesting birds. Both humane cable restraints and live capture traps have met the same humaneness standard under the Agreement on International Humane Trapping Standards (AIHTS).

The ban will make it much more difficult for gamekeepers, farmers and land managers to control fox populations and the predation they carry out on other species.

NFU Scotland and the Scottish Gamekeepers Association were among the organisations also asking for HCRs to remain in use.

SLE Director of Moorland, Ross Ewing, said:

“Today is a dark day for biodiversity, wildlife and rural livelihoods.

“Anger and disappointment will reverberate through Scotland’s land management community on the back of this decision. In less than a year, the Scottish Government has taken steps to systematically decimate the toolkit for fox control – first by curtailing the ability to use dogs to flush foxes; and now bringing forward an outright ban on the use of snares and HCRs.

“To do so at a time where biodiversity is hanging in the balance is unconscionable, and it is Scotland’s most threatened, iconic species that will suffer as a result.

“Meanwhile the red fox range continues to increase with woodland expansion, and with it predation pressure which – as successive scientific studies have demonstrated – poses an existential threat to species including lapwing, capercaillie, golden plover, curlew, meadow pipit, merlin, snipe and hen harrier.”

Mr Ewing added that it was galling that the decision came just a day after a Holyrood committee held an evidence session on HCRs.

Ross continued: “Perhaps what is most exasperating is the timing of this decision – which comes just 24 hours after representatives of Scotland’s land management community gave evidence to the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee on the subject.

“It is not unreasonable to suggest that any meaningful consideration of that evidence at the Ministerial level would take longer, and it rather feels like yesterday’s evidence session was a meaningless exercise. It is especially frustrating given the time, effort and preparation that goes into engaging with the democratic process.”

Highlights from Ross Ewing's evidence to the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee can be watched here:

 

 

A copy of the open letter to the Minister for Energy and the Environment can be read here.

The full evidence session at the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee can be viewed here: https://www.scottishparliament.tv/meeting/rural-affairs-and-islands-committee-november-8-2023