from The National, 26 November 2014
A display of 2,000 dead moles near a grouse moor in the Lammermuir Hills in East Lothian has been condemned as “disgustingly Victorian”.
The animals’ bodies have been strung up in a long line on a fence through fields south east of Haddington. They were photographed and counted on Sunday (23 November) by a birdwatcher, Geoff Morgan, and posted on Twitter.
Landowners, gamekeepers and farmers regard moles as pests and regularly cull them, but the scale and manner of this mass killing has shocked animal welfare groups.
“Queen Victoria must be alive and well,” said John Robins from Animal Concern. “This unnecessary massacre of native wildlife shows the outdated mentality of some people working our land today.”
He pointed out that hanging out corpses on a line went back to the days when gamekeepers and shepherds had to prove that they were doing their job so they would get paid. “If these moles have been poisoned their carcasses could in turn poison birds such as buzzards, harriers and hawks,” Robins suggested.
“I’ll be asking government vets to ascertain how these animals were killed and if they were killed lawfully.”
Libby Anderson, policy director at OneKind, an Edinburgh-based animal welfare group, accepted that hanging dead moles on fences was a longstanding practice. “But for many people it’s highly objectionable to see a line of dead animals, simply serving as a reminder of widespread wildlife killing,” she said.
“We’re not suggesting that the reality should be hidden away, but the display of corpses is surely a tradition that we can do without.”
Ronnie Graham, a wildlife campaigner and member of the Dumfries and Galloway Raptor Study Group, tweeted: “moles need to be controlled but to display them like this is disgustingly Victorian.”
He told The National: “The practice of hanging moles on fences to show off the prowess of the mole catcher is a tradition which belongs in the Victorian era and has no place in the modern day working countryside.
“Today’s hill walker or rambler does not want to be faced with an endless gibbet of dead animals when out for a stroll regardless of how essential mole control may be. The constant bleating of the sport shooting and farming communities that we have become detached and have lost some mythical understanding of their country ways can only be exacerbated by this type of behaviour.”
The Sunday Herald reported in September that more than 1,500 mountain hares had been shot in the Lammermuir Hills this year. The mass cull was condemned by wildlife groups, but defended by landowners as necessary to protect grouse from disease so that they can be shot for sport.
According to Graham, the “grisly find” of 2,000 dead moles in the same area in which mountain hares were slaughtered would damage tourism. “This can only harm the reputation of Scotland as a green, ecologically aware, forward thinking, young country and an amazing destination for ecotourism,” he said.
Scottish Land and Estates, which represents landowners, did not respond to a request to comment before The National went to press yesterday. Moles are seen as a pest because they can inhibit plant growth and the hillocks they create from burrowing can contain stones that damage mowing equipment.
According to the British Guild of Molecatchers, there is a moral and legal obligation to reduce the suffering of moles, which can be legally trapped or gassed with aluminium phosphide. “Neglect, abuse and greed must be replaced with respect and honesty towards these rarely-seen creatures,” it says.
“This requires a commitment to professionalism on the part of the molecatcher, and respect for such commitment on the part of the landowner wishing to be rid of moles.”
This story was followed up by the Edinburgh Evening News.
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