A Perthshire clergyman is recovering from wounds after being attacked by a sea eagle that also killed one of his showbirds.
The horrific incident believed to be the first involving a human happened on Friday at a bird pen beside the home of the Very Rev Hunter Farquharson in Abernethy, when the bird of prey killed a prize-winning Toulouse goose and then attacked him.
The young bird, which grows to have a nine-foot wing span, jumped on the back of Mr Farquharson, leaving cuts to his head and hands and a four-inch wound which required stitches at Perth Royal Infirmary.
The goose had its face ripped and throat cut.
The RSPB Scotland runs a joint project with Scottish Natural Heritage called the East of Scotland Sea Eagles, and has released 16 of the young birds into the wild. The birds have been blamed for attacking sheep but it is believed this is the first time a human has been hurt.
Mr Farquharson, who is provost of Perth Cathedral (St Ninian’s Cathedral), told The Courier about the “nightmare experience”. He had found one of his show birds dead, phoned the RSPB Scotland and then returned to the poultry pen when he heard a “great commotion”.
“The sea eagle had returned and entered the goose shed and was attacking my champion gander,” he said. “I went to the side of the shed to open the door to see if I could chase the sea eagle away but it exited through the hatch, jumped on my back and attacked me, tearing my shirt and inflicting a four-inch wound just below my shoulder, which required medical attention. I also had a cut to my head and hands.”
He added: “Luckily for me the eagle battered itself against the opposite shed and fell to the ground and I was able to pin it down with some wire fencing.
“I have been successfully breeding and showing Toulouse geese for a number of years as a hobby and was horrified to find one of my beautiful geese with its face ripped to shreds, its throat opened and blood everywhere.
“The remaining geese were badly traumatised and found cowering in the long grass of their third-of-an-acre pen. The 12 bantams I also show had disappeared and it took four people three hours to find them and place them in their sheds.
“The Toulouse gander needed to be rushed to the vet where its wounds were treated and is slowly recovering from its ordeal.”
Mr Farquharson’s pen was also attacked in 2008, when chickens were killed by a sea eagle. He feels the policy to release them in the wild has backfired.
He said: “If this had been a dog who had attacked livestock or a person the dog would have been destroyed. The RSPB have been quick to point out that these eagles are protected and that to harm them may result in a custodial sentence.
“The RSPB and Scottish Natural Heritage without consultation to the Scottish people have taken it upon themselves to alter Scotland’s heritage by reintroducing dangerous raptors extinct in this country from the early 1800s.”
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“We were told that the sea eagles would bring millions of pounds to Scotland’s economy and it would be good to see this evidenced. I find it sad that once again it’s money that is driving the support of this scheme and not concern for our natural wildlife and livestock.”
An RSPB Scotland spokesman described the incident with Mr Farquharson as “regrettable and unfortunate.”
He said: “In our experience sea eagles will only defend themselves and attack humans if they feel cornered and threatened. These are very young and naive birds from this year’s batch of the release programme.”
He added: “We visited Mr Farquharson’s property in 2008 following a previous incident and paid for the installation of heavy nylon netting affixed to fence posts driven into the ground so that the poultry pen and all of the birds were safe from predation.
“When we visited again on Friday it was apparent that these measures were no longer present.”
National Farmers Union of Scotland communications director Bob Carruth said: “News of this weekend’s incident is alarming albeit hopefully a rare one. We appreciate that the sea eagles are here to stay and numbers and range will increase over time. However, as with other conservation and farming issues, it’s not a numbers game but about relative impact.”
Sea eagles, which have been taken to Scotland from Norway over the last five years, are nicknamed ‘flying barn doors’ due to their nine-foot wingspan.
The last remaining native bird was killed on Shetland in 1917. The project to reintroduce the birds began on the island of Rum in the early 1970s.