’Keep up the good work’, Scottish First Minister tells League
Posted 24th March 2017
Over the last few weeks, League Scotland have been busy attending party conferences across Scotland. It’s been a busy season, and the highlight was welcoming Nicola Sturgeon to our stall at the SNP conference, where she told us to “keep up the good work”; a sign that the League’s professionalism and integrity is well recognised in Scotland.
We also spoke to many, many other Members of Parliament, Members of the Scottish Parliament and council candidates from across the political spectrum, at the Conservative, Scottish Green and Scottish National Party conferences.
The League’s key messages were that Scottish foxhunting legislation should be strengthened, and that the sale, use, possession and manufacture of snares should be made illegal. It was heartening to find that we have good level of support in all the activist bases of the political parties whose conferences we attended.
There was particularly wide support to end the practice of foxhunting, even from party members who weren’t natural supporters of the League. All of our stands included a TV showing footage from our monitors.
We are still finding people who are horrified that mounted fox hunts continue to operate in Scotland, as well as a growing number of people who are aware of the issues and are demanding that the Government should take action.
The next few months are going to be eventful ones in the Scottish Parliament for animal welfare campaigners.
The Government will soon begin to consult on strengthening foxhunting legislation, and has committed to increasing wildlife crime sentences.
The Scottish Parliament must consider a recent Scottish Government report that showed that most of Europe has tighter controls on bird shooting than Scotland does.
Although the recent Government review on snares was disappointing, we’re determined to keep this issue on the agenda. And we have spoken to many people at party conferences who will support us in our goal to have snares banned.
We’ll be back visiting party conferences in September and October, and in the meantime, there’s plenty to be done.