Chamber and committees

Petitioner submission of 30 November 2021

PE1859/T - Retain falconers rights to practice upland falconry in Scotland

The Scottish Government submission PE1859/O mentions utterly unconnected detail of schedule 4 species registrations, and repeats the irrelevant statements about other species that falconers can hunt.

It utterly fails to answer the fundamental question. How does a falconer tell a trained eagle that is soaring a thousand feet overhead, or a hawk sitting on a rock face or isolated tree on a hillside, that if it sees a rabbit or stoat that it may hunt it, but if a mountain hare is seen, it must ignore it, and failure to do so will criminalise the falconer?

It is my belief that this question arises from the fact the Scottish Government does not understand this aspect of falconry. Nor does it understand that some falconers choose Scotlands high and open places to fly their eagles so that they may do so without having to worry about the risk of injury to their birds through collision with tress, fences, wind turbines, power lines, roads and associated traffic. Human expansion and infrastructure is placing this most demanding aspect of falconry under excruciating pressure, and the current legislation risks the extermination of this noble and ancient form of flying trained birds of prey and all the conservation and welfare benefits that come with it.

It is also my belief that this was not the intention of the government legislation and that falconry is an unintended by-catch.

We therefore repeat the request-will the government amend the new legislation that places the mountain hare on schedule 5 of the Wildlife & Countryside Act with the amendment ‘Except for the practice of Falconry’ which would allow falconers to fly their birds and safely fulfil their obligations under the 5 Freedoms For Captive Animals.