Chamber and committees

Petitioner submission of 30 September 2021

PE1859/I – Retain falconers rights to practice upland falconry in Scotland

Following the initial hearing of PE1859 by the Parliamentary Petitions Committee on September the 1st 2021 where the petition was upheld, I would like to make an additional point in advance of the next hearing. 

Falconers in Scotland who pursue the 4000 year old, heritage art of falconry, as recognised by UNESCO as part of the intangible heritage of humanity, often do so following the highly responsible and sensible option of flying their birds in the wild, high, open places that Scotland offers. 

For those flying eagles especially, as well as those flying large hawk species, there is acknowledgment that flying large avian apex predators comes with a debt of responsibility. The responsibility is many fold. One of the responsibilities is to ensure that the bird is maintained with a high level of skill and care and that its welfare is constantly maintained at the highest level, including its mental and physical fitness and enrichment. Doing so means that the falconer is already reaching and exceeding the 5 Freedoms for captive animals. To retain a high level of responsibility, the recognition that these birds are instinctive and reactive predators and obligate carnivores sees the falconers flying the very largest of birds, taking to the hills and mountains where the risk of the birds attention being drawn by pets and livestock is mitigated to nil. 

The Mountain Hare (Lepus Timidus) lives in these high places cheek by jowel with wild eagles and other predators, and as such, can be the focus of the free flying trained raptor.

Sadly, the change in legislation affecting the status of mountain hares now means that should a falconers bird take a hare, (whether or not it is intentional on the part of the falconer) he or she is now a criminal. 

To avoid the risk of prosecution, the falconer stops flying the raptor and thus confine it to an aviary or perch to live 30 or 40 years (or longer) of inactivity and likely endure a kind of melancholy madness, but doing so make a criminal of the falconer by his or her failing to meet one of the 5 freedoms, being the Freedom to Demonstrate Behaviour Natural to the Species.

The 2nd option will be to fly the bird (which by default requires vast areas of open and uninterrupted land, perhaps an absolute minimum being 30,000 acres) in areas that have absolutely no risk of holding mountain hares.

The reality is that these areas are those low level, non-mountainous regions of the central belt of Scotland.

Mountain Hares are found throughout the Grampians, Cairngorms, the Lammermuirs, the North west Highlands, the South West Highlands, the Galloway Hills, the Borders (southern uplands) and even for example the Orkney Islands.

Taking these and other mountain areas away from falconers leaves only the lowlands of the central belt.

Leaving aside the fact that these areas realistically don’t provide enough space for a Golden Eagle, for example, to stretch its wings, let alone fly naturally (that requires mountains AND strong wind), does the committee think it will be acceptable to have falconers flying large eagles ‘down the local park’? It is an utterly unacceptable and unsuitable substitute and would be irresponsible in the extreme to force this last resort on falconers, and any ‘incident’ that was brought about by this situation would be entirely the fault of the Scottish Government.