“Dr Aileen McLeod MSP Minister for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform – and chair of PAW Scotland
‘AS THE new chair of the Partnership for Action Against Wildlife Crime Scotland, I am pleased to welcome NFU Scotland as our latest partner organisation.
We believe that one of the main difficulties in preventing wildlife crime is that incidents often go unreported due to the remote locations in which they take place. NFUS members are particularly well placed to help with this, by acting as our eyes and ears in the countryside.

In return, I hope that we can help to raise awareness of wildlife crimes that can affect farmers, and provide useful advice on best practice when working around wildlife.

The discovery in early 2014 of a large number of dead red kites and buzzards on farmland in Ross-shire has generated a huge amount of publicity and interest in raptor persecution – not least amongst the farming community.

This incident caused understandable outrage in the local area and beyond, and I am extremely grateful for the donations pledged by farmers, landowners and the wider public to a reward fund set up for information leading to a successful prosecution. There has been much speculation about the cause of this mass poisoning and I would like to take this opportunity to clarify some details.”

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Source: The Scottish Farmer