Large areas of upland Scotland are used for driven grouse shooting with the land being managed to maximise the number of red grouse available for shooting. In order to keep red grouse numbers as high as possible, gamekeepers routinely kill predators such as foxes and stoats, undertake large-scale mountain hare culls and, on some estates, illegally persecute birds of prey, such as hen harriers and golden eagles.

OneKind Director, Bob Elliot, said:

‘There is nothing glorious about the day which marks the start of the shooting of large numbers of grouse.

‘Wildlife culling is carried out all year round, on an enormous scale, to eradicate predators from the moors. These animals can be legally trapped, shot and snared in Scotland’s countryside with very little in the way of public scrutiny, inspection, or regulation by the authorities. There is no restriction on the number of species that can be killed and so grouse moor managers may kill as many as they like, when they like, just so people can shoot red grouse for fun. People are now far more aware of the issues of intensively-managed grouse moors, and the more they hear, the less they like it.