Help at long last for our hares

Sir, – At long last the protective hand of the law is given to our mountain hares in Scotland.

In the last few years on average 26,000 were pointlessly slaughtered annually on shooting estates using the flawed logic that they carried a tick that could transfer to grouse and harm them.

The late Dr Adam Watson studied

mountain hares from the 1950s and just before his recent demise stated, with scientific backing, that in some areas our hares were down to 1% of their previous status.

The pro-shooting lobby see this new law as a “grave mistake”, largely for selfish reasons.

To them mountain hares are a quarry species that, like deer grouse pheasants etc, can be shot with impunity regardless of their declining numbers.

When the iconic

mountain hare is seen as a recreational target and shot for pleasure, which it is, as the bodies are dumped in stink pits with other animals, then you have to question the mindset of those who participate in this.

It seems a kind of low key trophy hunt with no real purpose other than to kill, not for the pot but for reasons that might surface from a psychiatrist’s couch.

The fact the mountain hare now has full protection status with a

landslide majority vote in favour from our MSPS, and a massive petition response, demonstrates the public increasingly will not be duped by those who see our wildlife as something to be targeted through the crosshairs of a rifle. David Mitchell.

6 Henry Street, Kirriemuir.