Minister declines to meet campaigners over guga hunt as League sends gannet film to every MSP

• The League Against Cruel Sports has written to every MSP to share a short film about northern gannets, the species taken in the guga hunt on Sula Sgeir.

• The animal welfare charity is asking the public to write to Jim Fairlie, Minister for Agriculture, Marine and the Islands, calling for a change in the law, after he declined to meet with the League and OneKind to discuss the hunt.

• While NatureScot refused this year's application to take 2,000 gannet chicks on population grounds, First Minister John Swinney recently said “…the Government has no intention of changing the provisions in the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981” and that this year’s licensing decision “does not prohibit any application for subsequent years.”

• The Scottish Parliament's Petitions Committee last month agreed to keep open a petition, now carrying more than 121,000 signatures, calling for a permanent end to the hunt. The committee will now seek further evidence from a range of stakeholders.

The League Against Cruel Sports has today launched a campaign to end the guga hunt for good, warning that young gannets could be killed on Sula Sgeir again as soon as next year.

As part of the campaign, the League's Chief Executive has written to every MSP asking them to watch a short film in which its Director in Scotland, Robbie Marsland, visits the Bass Rock to learn about the lives of gannets and the multiple pressures they face. Members of the public are also being asked to write to Agriculture Minister Jim Fairlie, calling on the Scottish Government to change the law so that the hunt can no longer be licensed.

Scotland is home to more than half of the world's northern gannets. By coincidence, Robbie Marsland’s visit to the Bass Rock, which features in the film, took place on the same day in August that NatureScot's board refused a licence for this year's hunt on Sula Sgeir.

Robbie Marsland was shown around the colony by Maggie Sheddan of the Scottish Seabird Centre. She explained how gannet pairs build a bond over many years and raise a single chick each season, feeding it until it is larger than its parents before it leaves the colony at around 12 or 13 weeks old. She also explained how badly the colony had been hit by avian flu, with many birds now on their own after losing their partners, and told him the colony's recovery would take "easily 20 years… at least."

In May, the Scottish Seabird Centre published its own report recommending that licensing of the hunt be permanently ended.

Robbie Marsland said: "Sitting on the Bass Rock watching these birds, I came away thinking that the guga hunt isn't only unnecessary in this day and age, it's cruel, and we've moved on in our thinking about what counts as a humane way to kill an animal."

NatureScot refused this year's application, which sought to take 2,000 chicks, on concerns about the gannet population. Last year's licence had allowed 500. At First Minister's Questions on 15 September, John Swinney told Parliament that the Government had no intention of changing the law and that future applications were not ruled out.

The League and OneKind had invited Mr Fairlie to meet them to discuss the hunt. In a reply dated 30 September, his office said that because the First Minister had already made the Government's position on changing the law clear, the Minister had recommended they meet his officials instead. With no meeting with the Minister on offer, the League is now asking the public to make the case to him directly.

The Government's own animal welfare advisers, the Scottish Animal Welfare Commission, have concluded that there is no humane way to kill gannets. The League believes this year's reprieve should be made permanent on welfare grounds, rather than left to depend on population figures from one year to the next.

Robbie Marsland added: "Nobody is asking the people of Ness to forget their history, but the welfare of these birds matters too, and a reprieve that rests on population numbers could be gone by next year."

The League's letter follows the Scottish Parliament's Petitions Committee decision to keep open a petition calling for an end to the hunt. With more than 121,000 signatures, it is one of the largest petitions the Parliament has received.

The League's film can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_j2TT_Ymjw

and the campaign at https://www.league.org.uk/end-the-guga-hunt-for-good/

ENDS

Contact

For media enquiries contact: Lorna Young at lorna@indigowords.co.uk 07872 492283

Notes to editors

The League Against Cruel Sports is the UK's leading animal welfare charity focused on ending cruel sports. Founded in 1924, it campaigns for stronger legislation and enforcement to protect animals from unnecessary suffering.

OneKind is a Scottish animal protection charity working to end cruelty to all animals through evidence-based advocacy, research and public engagement.

The report, Animal Welfare and the Guga Hunt, produced by OneKind working with the League Against Cruel Sports Scotland, was published on 9 June 2026 and is available at www.league.org.uk/guga-report/

Earlier this year, the Scottish Seabird Centre's report, Assessment of the Guga Hunt in the Context of Seabird Conservation in Scotland, published on 28 May 2026, recommended that licensing of the hunt be permanently ended. The report is available at https://www.seabird.org/press-releases/scottish-seabird-centre-report-calls-for-end-to-guga-hunt-amid-seabird-declines

The petition ‘Stop the Guga Hunt’ calls for the Scottish Government to amend Section 16 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 to remove the power to grant licences for taking Gannets on Sula Sgeir. https://petitions.parliament.scot/petitions/PE2202