Wildlife crime - penalties and investigation

What it asks

What the petitioner did first

1. 25 Oct 2018
   Public Petitions Committee

   New Petitions
   1 mention
2. 4 Apr 2019
   Public Petitions Committee

   Continued Petitions
   1 mention
3. 10 Oct 2019
   Public Petitions Committee

   New Petitions
   1 mention
4. 23 Feb 2021
   Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee

   Petitions
   1 mention

1. Scotland123 33.7%
2. United Kingdom114 31.2%
3. England102 27.9%
4. Wales13 3.6%
5. United States4 1.1%
6. France2 0.5%
7. Canada2 0.5%
8. Ireland2 0.5%
9. Germany1 0.3%
10. Argentina1 0.3%
11. 1 other countries1 0.3%

1. LYDIA REID 16 Aug 2018
   Most folk abhor cruelty to animals but if you do not know it exists how can you even abhor it Also we have many species in Scotland in danger We need stronger methods of detecting and harsher punishments
2. John Butterfield 16 Aug 2018
   With the Cairngorms National Park being as bad a wildlife crime scene as any English National Parks it is time to make detection and conviction of those involved more straightforward.
3. Les Wallace 16 Aug 2018
   A very timely and extremely well informed and set out petition. Well done Alex!!
4. robert graham 16 Aug 2018
   YES
5. frank hopkin 16 Aug 2018
   i agree with all your suggestions..Stop All grouse shooting!!!!
6. Ian Hopkins 16 Aug 2018
   We've all heard the saying "seing is believing ". It's time the courts accept this!
7. Mark Lund 17 Aug 2018
   Great petition...(I will read it later...I'll sign anything supporting this cause).
8. Simon Pugh 17 Aug 2018
   In times of massive environmental threats, we need to do everything to protect our vulnerable habitats and the life they harbour.
   
   And we need to do it now, before it's too late.
9. Peter Herbert 17 Aug 2018
   The criminal animal slaughterers laugh at the present penalties and judges and magistrates must be made by fresh legislation to take these crimes more seriously.
10. Brian Minshull 17 Aug 2018
    It is a crime that countryside crime so often goes undetected and even if it is detected, that it is rarely successfully pursued and appropriately prosecuted. Act now.
11. Fiona Thomas 17 Aug 2018
    More has to be done to stop the rampant wildlife crime in the British Isles.
12. Pauline Greenhalgh 17 Aug 2018
    Yes to any and all suggestions.
13. Jeff Clarke 17 Aug 2018
    We must all do more but governments especially have a duty to protect our biodiversity and abundance of nature. Stop the explotation of the environment to justify killing for fun. Ban Driven Grouse Shooting. It is the principle cog in this machine of destruction.
14. Mark Fanshawe 17 Aug 2018
    Shocking..
15. Alice Rose 17 Aug 2018
    Please protect our wildlife! They are attacked from all sources!
16. Jan Cole 17 Aug 2018
    If the shooting industry wants to survive, it has to learn to work with, and conserve, wildlife. This mass destruction of wildlife and habitats for the benefit of a rich minority has to stop now.
17. Peter Findley 17 Aug 2018
    Video evidence is precisely that. It should be admitted regardless of the type of crime. The law is clearly discriminatory and should be amended.
18. susan fleming 17 Aug 2018
    ABUSES & CRUELTY AGAINST WILDLIFE WILL NOT BE TOLERATED
19. Katharine McEwen 17 Aug 2018
    Roundly agree!
20. Tony Cartwright 17 Aug 2018
    Ban burning Heather and grouse shooting
21. Geoff Busby 17 Aug 2018
    It's time criminals were prosecuted for wildlife crime
22. Antje Molton 17 Aug 2018
    Your suggestions make sense. No more Grouse shooting.
23. Paul Speak 17 Aug 2018
    Yes, increase penalties. Yes, accept video evidence, however obtained. An amendment to the Regulation of Investigatory Powers (Scotland) Act could easily facilitate this. Evidence is evidence and should not be ruled out by CPS, a Court must see the evidence.
24. John Leitch 17 Aug 2018
    This situation regarding the open and total disregard that these people show both towards our wildlife and our laws protecting them is a travesty. The Scottish government must take action NOW
25. Joan Pringle 17 Aug 2018
    This is great news...hope it gets passed , wildlife gets a raw deal in Scotland
26. Stephanie Clark 17 Aug 2018
    So few successful prosecutions, video evidence ruled inadmissable & in those few cases a conviction is obtained penalties are derisory.Please Protect our remaining wildlife!
27. Mark McConville 17 Aug 2018
    Enough is enough. Certain organisations and individuals are literally getting away with murder. My full support here. Ban all blood sports.
28. Catherine Hobbs 17 Aug 2018
    we demand action !enough is enough
29. Carole Leigh 17 Aug 2018
    We must remind ourselves we are not the only species that matters. We need to protect ALL of our wildlife.
30. Val Knowles 17 Aug 2018
    Please protect our wildlife. If not for us, for our grandchildren. Let them have the chance to see and hear the animals that we love so much.
31. Arthur Angel 17 Aug 2018
    Just NOT necessary to kill these magnificent birds.
32. Kevin Howett 17 Aug 2018
    Far larger fines and custodial sentences are required to prevent wildlife crime, which appears to be endemic in current land management of our Uplands. All evidence, in any format should be admissible in court cases. But there also needs to be far greater protection for all native wildlife to prevent the killing in the name of land 'management'.
33. Phillip Smith 17 Aug 2018
    Please respect wildlife by enforcing laws.
34. June Curry 17 Aug 2018
    Grouse shooting is barbaric it must stop. I agree with the suggestions.
35. Stewart Love 17 Aug 2018
    All wildlife crime penalties should be increased to 3 years. Evidence from video cameras should be allowed in court.
36. Sharron Jones 17 Aug 2018
    I agree that the penalty should be increased to 3 or more years & to the use of covert cameras.
37. Victoria Coldman 17 Aug 2018
    Stop killing
38. Joyce O'Hara 17 Aug 2018
    Our precious wildlife must be better protected.
39. Steven McLean 18 Aug 2018
    The wildlife crime penalties currently in place are not a deterrent and need to be drastically increased in order to be effective.
40. Andrew Wildman 18 Aug 2018
    When is the Scottish parliament going to wake up and realise that the majority of the people that put them there are sick and tired of them allowing the amazing wildlife of Scotland to be killed just to appease a hand full of people, they aren't the ones that gave the MP's their job it was the people, so listen to them.
41. Clive Ramage 18 Aug 2018
    Killing our rarest wildlife to protect farmed animals that are kept in wild places (so that the rich few can have their sport) is moronic. It needs to be stopped now!
42. Ben Hartmann 18 Aug 2018
    I agree
43. Alan Petrie 18 Aug 2018
    Ban all grouse shooting immediately. The benefits to wildlife and the environment are vast. It will also encourage eco tourist which is a much bigger money spinner and requires no subsidies.
44. Paul Fisher 19 Aug 2018
    We love Scotland and spend much time and money there, but we go for the wildlife that you are destroying. Stop killing our wildlife.
45. Dr Mark G. Telfer 19 Aug 2018
    It is important that raptor persecution and other wildlife crimes are tackled seriously and this is an essential step.
46. Betty Lee 19 Aug 2018
    Driven Grouse Moors. The owners receive obscene sums of money from taxpayers to create a monoculture for grouse and to 'control' predators ie cruelly destroy our much loved golden eagles, hen harriers and others of our best remaining wildlife. There is no justice as the powers thay be cannot or are unwilling to enforce the law. Criminal activities continue and I personally am sick to death of hearing on a daily basis about illegally slaughtered birds and mammals dying unavenged. The sooner the British public wakes up to this disgraceful state of affairs the sooner Driven Grouse Shooting will be banned!
47. Mr Greer Hart 20 Aug 2018
    I did my hunt sabbing many years ago, and was horrified by the thugs hired by the fox hunting fraternity to intimidate young and non-physically intimidating people. What we experienced was a collection of blood sports types that should have ceased to exist in the modern era. The Scottish Government should not stop playing games and listen to the majority public on animal welfare issues, and stop backing the supposedly great contributors to rural employment shooting estates, when it has been well-shown that more is to be gained from conservation work and re-establishing the natural environment of Scotland and the rest of the UK. No ethically fit Government should condone anachronistic blood sports, which are guilty of criminal practice when they defy the laws governing the protection of birds of prey, and other vulnerable creatures. Who honestly believes that their gamekeepers are custodians of the countryside, and that foxes and badgers enjoy being hunted or baited? The penalties for such crimes are derisory and we have a prosecution and judicial response to those who have offended, which is limp. It is obvious an good ole boy system exists, just like the Deep South had. Modern video and drone evidence should be given more credence, but we are really dealing with obstruction here. The humane among us must keep up the pressure and inform more of the public about the lack of proper application of the law with regard to what goes on in the countryside. More people should be joining some or several animal welfare and conservation of the environment organisations, giving them more muscle to effectively challenge the constipation that exists with our dilatory politicians and forces of law and order.
48. Brian Robertson 20 Aug 2018
    There can be no doubt that this aspect of Scots Law makes a mockery of any claim that we take wildlife conservation seriously.
49. Miss Rhona Peet 23 Aug 2018
    I whole heartily support this petition. For to long there has not been enough done to prosecute or find the offenders
50. LYDIA REID 26 Aug 2018
    I have concerns about this petition
    A high number of the people signing this petition are not from Scotland