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 Poaching is a crime
A fresh initiative to counter poaching of deer and salmon poaching and also by hare coursing, will be launched by Fergus Ewing MSP, Minister for Community Safety, at the Birnam Institute, Birnam, by Dunkeld, Perthshire on Monday 18th January at 2.00 pm. A new poster and leaflet to heighten public awareness of these crimes and report suspicion and evidence of them, has been produced for a new drive by the Police and other agencies and organisations under the Partnership for Action against Wildlife Crime.
As well as words from the Minister, short presentations will be given by Deputy Chief Constable Iain MacLeod, Central Scotland Police, and Douglas McAdam, Chief Executive, the Scottish Rural Property and Business Association (SRPBA), who is Priority Lead on the PAW Policing Poaching and Hare Coursing Group. Indoor proceedings will be followed by a photocall at the nearby Cally Woods, Birnam where poaching of fallow deer is rife. Owner, Atholl Estates, estimates that in addition to the 150 deer that it culls in the woods a further 40 - 50 are illegally poached. The Minister will be shown and pictured with fresh evidence of poaching - head and feet of poached deer. Partners on the PAW Group heading this initiative are BASC Scotland, SRPBA, the National Wildlife Crime Unit, Tayside Police, the Association of Chief Police Officers of Scotland (ACPOS) and the Association of Salmon Fishery Boards. |
