Call to phase out ‘inhumane’ guga hunt by working with Hebridean islanders | Birds

Animal welfare campaigners have called for talks to phase out the “inhumane” hunt for baby boobies known as guga, which are killed annually by hunters on a remote Scottish island.

OneKind and the League Against Cruel Sports said it should be gradually phased out in dialogue with Hebridean islanders who see the hunt, which has been going on for at least 400 years, as a cultural pursuit and sustainable food harvest.

Both groups are highly critical of a “demonstration-driven” campaign to push the ban cause high on the political agenda, launched earlier this year led by Save the Wilderness, an anti-hunting group founded in 2015, and other activists.

Their “creative disruption” included a 60-hour occupation of the roof of NatureScot, the conservation body that issues hunting licenses, by Hunt Guga and a campaign by Conservation the Wild founder Rob Pownall to win the Holyrood election disguised as a gannet.

Save the Wildlife enlisted Succession actor Brian Cox to tell the story. graphic animation movie; Cox said the practice was “unnecessary cruelty.” Pownall said: “Pot booby hatchlings are being snatched from their nests and beaten to death simply for the sake of tradition.”

Robbie Marsland, director of the League Against Cruel Sport in Scotland and a veteran of Canadian campaigns against whaling and seal batting in Iceland, said these tactics were counterproductive and had solidified support for guga hunting on Lewis in the Western Isles.

Marsland said he supports two petitions, including one started by the Wild Conservancy with 183,000 signatures. But he said the best way to end the practice was to agree, through dialogue, on a solution that “dignified and respected” the tradition.

“This is a hunt for food, there’s no doubt about that,” he said. “It’s not a sport, it’s a tradition. People in Lewis don’t think it’s terrible.”

A spokesman for Save the Wild said its “bold and creative approach” had brought the issue to national attention. “It is never comfortable to bring to light a hidden oppression, but it is necessary,” they said. “Any issue that touches on culture, tradition and the treatment of animals will stir strong emotions on all sides. But we believe the public has the right to know what is happening to wildlife in their country.”

Guga hunting is unique in the UK in that it has legal protection under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 due to its deep historical roots on the Ness, a peninsula in North Lewis, and its subsistence foraging role.

Hunters’ spokesman Murdo MacRitchie said the claim that their harvests were barbaric was a sad caricature.

“Like many rural communities, we live close to our food sources. We have sheep, cattle and chickens on our farms. We catch haddock, mackerel and lingua in the seas around us. These are part of the food chain that has sustained island life for generations,” he said.

“It only takes a few seconds to catch it until it faints, and the bird is dispatched immediately. There is no pleasure in this time period. As with any animal raised or taken for food, this is the most difficult part of the process, but it is undertaken as a serious responsibility and never as an act of cruelty.”

NatureScot’s board is expected to approve a new license for this year’s hunt, but may again lower the cull limit, which it lowered to 500 last year in response to concerns about the effects of bird flu on the region’s gannet population.

Once a year, about 10 men sail to Sula Sgeir, a deserted island 40 miles (64 km) north of Lewis, and traditionally camp there for up to two weeks, living communally in stone pairs. Last year’s hunt was much shorter than a one-day visit after the quota was reduced to 500.

Guga, baby gannets that have not yet fledged, are trapped in their cliffside nests using long poles with a retractable noose and then bludgeoned unconscious before being decapitated; The carcasses are then cleaned, thrown, burned over an open fire and salted, then stacked and left to dry in the open air.

At its peak, approximately 2,000 prepared guga would be brought back. Considered a delicacy by enthusiasts, the intensely salty, fishy and gamey taste is an acquired taste; novices may find this off-putting. Still, guga is shipped to customers all over the world.

OneKind and the League Against Cruel Sport Scotland said in a new joint report that the legislation was outdated and gave guga hunting privileges, while no other animal-based food production, such as slaughterhouse, was allowed.

Lorna Young’s report said there was evidence the techniques were inhumane, breached essential licensing requirements and disturbed fulmars, European storm petrels and Leach storm petrels, which also live on Sula Sgeir.

Young argued that the 1981 law and legal protections for animals in the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006, currently under review, were based on imprecise definitions and were incompatible with modern evidence about animal suffering, their rights and sentience.

“The lack of independent oversight or control of Guga hunting precludes any effort to carry out an animal welfare impact assessment. In fact, given the public commitment to evaluation of the Scottish government’s policies, the failure to review this license condition appears particularly negligent,” the report said.

A NatureScot spokesman said a new gannet survey would be carried out to check whether the population was stable.

“In accordance with existing legal frameworks, we will carefully consider the 2026 license application to determine whether its grant would impact the long-term stability of the gannet in Sula Sgeir,” they said. “The assessment by NatureScot will be supported by the latest scientific evidence, including an updated population viability analysis model.”