Guga hunt II

According to the BBC...

A sports lets agency has reported "particularly strong" demand for grouse shooting in Scotland, as the 2011 season begins.

 Anyone like to guess why the SSPCA and SNH aren't demanding an end to Grouse shooting?

Dept of typos...

Heb News might want to check the title of this letter from a concerned citizen, unless there is actually a bigger and weirder story here.....

Keep dogs on a lead in pubic spaces     9/6/10

It can happen to the best of us, but typos like this are just such a joy.  I've kept a screen dump for posterity.

Bells and balls

Somewhat amusingly, the RSPB are requesting that cats have bells put on their collars to alert the corncrakes (right) and stop them being killed by the domesticated moggies of the Western Isles.

I like wild birds as much as the next man, and roast pigeon is one of my favourite dishes, but the developing attempt by the RSPB to effectively designate the whole of the UK as a nature reserve goes beyond the rational and into the dominating and obsessive.

Although there is obviously a need to protect our wildlife, when offered the chance to enforce a permanent ban without cost on commercial shooting on the hunting estates in Lewis, the RSPB declined to get take up such an opportunity and refused to get into a debate about the subject.

Why on earth could that be? What double standards could be being applied here?

I think we should ask their Patron (below), seen caring for the wildlife on one of her estates.

Dogged determination

We were all shocked at the press release from our MP that the Police sniffer dog was to be removed, leaving our islands as the new main drugs route into, well everywhere else.

But before the Colombians sent the drugs mules onto the direct flights from Cartagena to Callanish International Airport; before Sandwick opens its first Headshop, and; before the pensioners start mainlining smack whilst cutting the peats; then someone should have spoken to the Police who could have given the real answers. Had they been asked.

The facts are: the dog handler is being redeployed to Inverness. The dog may go with him. If it does, then another dog will fill the gap. The service is guaranteed for at least another two years.

There will be tears and red faces in the opium dens of Barra tonight.

Livestock by car

The BBC seem to find some humour in the transportation of a cow by car in Beruit. Just how patronising can they be about the real world beyond Islington.

In Electric Crofter's humble opinion, there are parts of these islands where the passenger seat of the car is more often occupied by a dog or a sheep than by 'the wife'.

Indeed, who can forget the ban by CalMac on the transportation of sheep in cars:

For the crofters of the Hebridean Islands it was the perfect way to fleece a few pounds from Caledonian MacBrayne (CalMac). It had been a difficult year, 1998, after all. Sheep prices had plummeted and profits were down. They needed something to take their minds off their agricultural woes. A holiday was the perfect answer. But what with the £17.30p per person fare to the mainland, and £61 for a car on top of that, a holiday was beyond the budget of the cash-starved crofters.

Then CalMac stepped in with a scheme designed to help the struggling crofters. Since the start of the summer CalMac has allowed island crofters to take sheep to markets on the mainland for just £2.35p per head - the vehicle and the driver go free. So it didn't take long for some islanders to work out that the cheapest way to take a holiday was to take an ovine friend with them. "There has been some abuse," said a spokesman for CalMac. "Certain drivers have been taking one or two sheep in their cars so that they can benefit from what is a very generous discount scheme."

The crofters have been taking sheep to Oban on the mainland. When they get there the sheep are left with friends. Then the crofters return with the sheep in the car and say that the price was too low and they did not sell. They've actually just had a holiday and so has the sheep!

"This was a short-term arrangement for a limited number of islands for a limited period," the CalMac spokesman said. "We are looking at alternatives for next year!"

Mind you, the difference between a scraggy ram and the mother-in-law is smaller than my LFA cheque.

Any subsidy?

I beleive that the Farming Minister is planning to offer BIG subsidies for the Western Isles panda industry.

Just look how easy it is for them to pop one out and my own wife took at least a couple of hours of good shearing time to produce our son.



Not much eating on them and I understand that you can't put one out to stud easily especially as you can't sex them but just think of the petting zoo for tourists.