I suspect the real reason for Niall McKillop's continued unjustified attempts at discrediting the Scottish Raptor Study Group (Letters, July 14) is due to the fact that this body has its eye closely focused on what is actually happening in the field and on grouse moors in particular, and it paints a completely different picture to his. He also seemed to be selectively myopic in ignoring one of the main points in my letter - persecution - which he seems to have difficulty in understanding.
Most informed conservationists would regard a keepered moor, in its proper context, as an environmental benefit. A keepered grouse moor as it exists today means intensive trapping, poisoning and shooting of those species which pose any sort of threat to the grouse bag.
As someone who is out frequently on the hills and moors I see with my own eyes buzzards and kestrels trapped in crow cages and left to die, despite the requirement for these traps to be checked on a daily basis; dead raptors slumped over rabbits laced with poison; the decapitated carcass of a female hen harrier spread out close to its nest in a macabre ritualistic manner; and a gamekeeper shooting a short-eared owl. All this has been reported to the police.
This is the reality of "keepering" on grouse moors. So much for the bio-diversity which is the "finest in the world", according to Mr McKillop. The cruel irony in all of this is that raptors are being slaughtered in order supposedly to protect another bird, the red grouse, so that it, in turn, can be blasted out of the sky on or after what is referred to as the Glorious Twelfth. And all this in the name of sport.
When a man wantonly destroys the works of man we call him a vandal. When he destroys one of the works of God we call him a sportsman, wrote Joseph Wood Krutch Readers will, of course, make up their own minds as to the merits of this debate. However, by his continued defence of the indefensible Niall McKillop does himself and the game-keeping fraternity no favours at all, and only brings closer the inevitable control of continued law breaking through jail sentences and grouse moor licences. If his definition of myself and others being preoccupied with "sentimentality and social mores" means a strong desire to preserve our natural heritage and exposing the condoning of wildlife crime on grouse moors, then I plead guilty on both counts.
Kenny Sludden, Castleview, Colonels Entry, Douglas, South Lanarkshire.
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