People like Jim are the real threat to countryside

Sir,—Jim Crumley has expressed his personal view in the article A step in the right direction, Courier, June 6.

In my personal—and professional—view this article is ill-informed and the work of a self-styled ‘expert’ with no concept of the reality of countryside issues.

The Animal Health & Welfare (Scotland) Bill was designed to alleviate unnec- essary suffering, a measure the Scottish Gamekeepers Association (SGA) fully supports. Our call for tail shortening has absolutely nothing to do with Victorian values or cosmetic purposes as alleged in the article and everything to do with practical and humane reasoning.

Jim would do well to remember that, despite his personal wishes, game shooting, which brings millions of much-needed pounds into rural areas, creates employment and creates and maintains biodiversity, is still legal.

The article claims that the SGA see foxes as an inconvenience; funnily enough, so do the RSPB, SNH and many of our representatives in Holyrood! If everyone were to adopt Jim’s train of thought we would very soon have fewer free-range pigs, lambs and fowl to say nothing of the complete demise of many endangered ground nesting birds.

Rather than the SGA—an organisation working with police and Government to raise standards in all wildlife and habitat issues—being a threat to our countryside, I would suggest it is those with the attitude reflected in Jim’s article who are the real threat.

Perhaps he should buy another book to replace his copy of Sand County Almanac. As good as it might be, it is sadly out of date for most of Scotland’s rural problems.

A minor procedure

Sir,—Jim Crumley’s personal view (Courier, June 6) rotates around the recent animal welfare debate in the Scottish Parliament, particularly the issues surrounding the tail-docking of working dogs.

He skilfully manages to extend this to wider issues surrounding land ownership and indeed land management. He even states, “There is a growing body of opinion in the land among those who can see more than a grouse when they see a heather moor”.

While his use of language may be confusing, his use of logic is even more obscure. Moorland is a transitional habitat that is retained, in its August purple glory, by management for grouse undertaken by gamekeepers. Without grouse management, and gamekeepers, there will be no heather moorland.

Gamekeepers, and the Scottish Gamekeepers Association, are identified as the sole supporters of the retention of tail-docking for working dogs. The reality is that a wide range of organisations, and an even wider range of individuals from all walks of life, lobbied hard to retain this important welfare exemption for working gundogs.

What we, the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC), the Scottish Countryside Alliance and others like the SGA were trying to do was to ensure MSPs recognised tail-docking was a minor procedure that would protect working dogs for life. Jim Crumley admits he has never kept a dog, so what does he know, therefore, about the welfare and indeed well-being of dogs?

It is our intention, over the coming months, to demonstrate that tail-docking for working gundogs is indeed consistent with the wider provisions of the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Bill. We hope to be able to allow vets to continue to dock the tails of gundog puppies when they regard it as necessary.

Jobs must go to best qualified

Sir,—On Monday you ran two articles together in the local news section of the Angus edition. A report from HMIC stating the police in Tayside needs to quadruple its ethnic minorities and a jobs fair for government agencies and housing associations where a representative states, “we don’t get enough people from ethnic minorities applying”.

In these PC times I know I will probably be accused of being racist, but am I naive in thinking that surely the people I employ through my taxes should be the best candidates who apply for these positions?

I would be dismayed to think that someone was denied an opportunity in these jobs because someone less qualified but from an ethnic background was given a job ahead of them.

If you take the HMIC statement that the force should made up of a percentage of the people it represents I take it they will be setting up jobs fairs in prisons to make sure they have correct number of criminals in their ranks to represent that fraternity in our society?

Reasons for new toll plaza

Sir,—John McGoldrick (Letters, June 6) surely already knows the answer to his question as to why FETA authorised construction of a new toll plaza.

First of all, the old toll plaza wasn’t up to scratch for those who work there. Secondly, electronic tolling is cheaper administratively than handling large sums of cash.

And, finally, we didn’t take a risk in doing all this work as FETA was specifically set up by the Scottish Executive in 2002 to move from a toll to a road user charge.

That our political masters subsequently changed their mind and have instead continued with a tolling regime conceived in the 1950s under completely different traffic conditions to today’s is not a fault that can be laid at FETA’s door—but, in any case, the first two reasons alone justify the current upgrade of the bridge’s antiquated tolling infra- structure.