{"id":726145,"date":"2026-08-03T14:37:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T14:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/726145\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T14:37:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T14:37:11","slug":"scottish-islanders-refused-permission-to-stage-annual-guga-hunt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/726145\/","title":{"rendered":"Scottish islanders refused permission to stage annual guga hunt"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Devon Docherty, Scottish campaigns manager at Protect the Wild, said refusing a licence was a &#8220;victory for compassion, for science and for common sense&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">She added: &#8220;Thousands of young seabirds have been spared from a brutal death because NatureScot chose to follow the evidence rather than simply rubber-stamp another licence to kill.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Scottish animal campaigns charity, OneKind, also welcomed the decision.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Chief executive Jason Rose said: &#8220;We are very relieved that the lives thousands of young gannets will be spared this year, and many more birds won&#8217;t bear the emotional toll of disruption to their lives, families and communities.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Scottish Seabird Centre, said it was the &#8220;right decision&#8221; for Scotland&#8217;s seabirds. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Emily Burton, conservation manager, said: &#8220;Gannet populations have suffered significant declines, and many colonies are still recovering from the impacts of avian influenza.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">More than 106,000 people signed a <a href=\"https:\/\/petitions.parliament.scot\/petitions\/PE2202\" class=\"ssrcss-1e0jzsh-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">petition, external<\/a> calling for the Scottish government to prohibit the hunt. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The cultural significance of the hunt is recognised under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, and modern hunts require a licence from NatureScot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Devon Docherty, Scottish campaigns manager at Protect the Wild, said refusing a licence was a &#8220;victory for compassion,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669517,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-726145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=726145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=726145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=726145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=726145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}