Chamber and committees

I have a brief question for RSPB Scotland. Does any of the land that you manage contain dense forestry or gorse?

I have a supplementary question for Barrie Wade. You said that some licensing conditions have negative animal welfare implications. Can you explain what you meant by that?

The other solution would be to not send the dog down, I suppose.

Thank you; that is very clear.

At the start, you said that your approach is similar to the seven ethical principles for wildlife control, and you also mentioned that you use shooting. Can you outline a couple of other measures that you deploy for controlling predators?

Is that because your evidence is that foxes are not the primary predator of the species that you trying to protect in those areas?

So, when you say that it is a welfare issue, you mean in relation to the dog, because it will be tired from being down there so long and you feel that it would be ineffective.

Good morning. I have a question about population control. We have heard that the killing of foxes is necessary to control the population. Does RSPB’s evidence base show that routine killing of foxes has been found to be an effective means of population control?

Are there any methods that do not involve killing the animal? That is what I was getting at.

You have said that you do not use dogs to hunt foxes. Have you found in topography such as those areas that your approach has fallen short?

I have a supplementary question for Ian Duncan Millar. I want to check that I have understood the point that you were making about the exception for a 14-day licence. Were you saying that the reason that you oppose that is that, in a particular season, it would be required almost continuously, which would mean that it would create an administrative burden because you would have to keep applying for sequential licences?