THOUSANDS of ravens are being killed in Scotland every year, according to new figures.
Despite being a protected species, Scottish Natural Heritage has issued 439 licences permitting the cull of 3344 of the birds since 2016.
Animal charity OneKind say the killing has “spiralled out of control”.
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The details from Environment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham came in answer to questions from Labour MSP Claudia Beamish about a controversial “experimental” cull of corvus in Perthshire.
SNH issued a licence to a group known as the Strathbraan Community Collaboration for Waders, allowing them to kill ravens for research, to see what happens to the number of curlews, lapwings and other river birds.
The answers to Beamish show that the licence issued also permits the use of cage traps and was issued with no stakeholder consultation.
Since it was first reported on the Raptor Persecution Blog, and in The National back in April, some 165,000 people have signed a petition calling for the license to cull to be revoked.
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That led to SNH promising a review, but the details from Cunningham show that regardless of what the review finds, there will be no repealing of the licence.
The number of ravens permitted to be killed was 1129 in 2016, 1133 in 2017 and 1082 in 2018, though the government says the actual number of birds killed was seemingly far lower.
In previous years raven cull licences were issued for “preventing serious damage to livestock, foodstuffs for livestock, crops, vegetables, fruit, growing timber, fisheries or inland waters.”
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The birds are predators and opportunistic, and are blamed for attacking young animals.
Persecution in the 19th and 20th century saw raven numbers severely depleted.
When the National asked SNH for a comment they sent us a picture too graphic to print in a family-friendly newspaper, showing a lamb with its eyes plucked out.
Beamish said: “The scale of the killing of ravens is a cause of deep concern.
“With the raven population still recovering from historic persecution, it is difficult to see how permitting the cull of 1082 birds can possibly be sustainable.
“It is about time Scottish Natural Heritage explained why they are content with the mass killing of these creatures.”
Harry Huyton, director of OneKind, said: “We are shocked to find that so many ravens are being routinely killed across Scotland.
Ravens are supposedly a protected species, recovering after a long history of persecution. Yet instead of celebrating the recovery of these intelligent and charismatic birds, it appears that they are being routinely killed, with the approval of Scottish Natural Heritage.”
He added: “Raven killing appears to have spiralled out of control, and it has done so with very little public scrutiny.”
SNH’s head of wildlife operations, Robbie Kernahan, said they issued licences on a regular basis to “protect livestock from raven attacks during lambing season”.
He added: “Before issuing any licence we must be satisfied there will be no detrimental overall effect on the species concerned.”
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