The carcasses of 7 greylag geese have been found dumped on the foreshore at the Loch of Ayre, St Marys, Holm.
The birds had been shot and their bodies butchered to remove breast meat.
Shooting geese is legal but dumping carcasses on a public beach isn’t.
Please get in contact if you know anything about this incident of if you have come across dumps of dead geese elsewhere in Orkney.
Images taken by E.M. Ross
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What a waste! Indigenous peoples would have never wasted resources… for a variety of reasons. What is wrong with our ‘modern’ society that we act like this?
Hopefully the culprits will be found and fined, definitely someone who acts like this should not have a gun licence and never obtain one again.
I don’t intend to go into the rights and wrongs of hunting – I said my piece about that in the ‘comments’ to this article…..
https://theorkneynews.scot/2017/12/31/wi-a-skreck-an-a-scud-across-the-sky/
Re. this particular incident – we are supposed to be living in civilized times – bits of people and other animals, are no longer left hanging about to rot, and disturb those unused to such sights.
Picture it – someone says to their child – “Let’s go for a walk by the loch” – Child is excited and expectant, hoping to maybe see some birds. Then they get there, and……bloody carcasses litter the foreshore.
One accidental dead bird or animal can’t be helped. This was done on purpose.
Someone knows who did this. If you do, please – speak up. Name and Shame.
It just won’t do – it’s not civilized behaviour.
While it is not acceptable to dump carcasses in public places, I know from experience that children are not horrified by seeing dead or dismembered animals. In fact the opposite is true and unless they have had a very sheltered upbringing, they are fascinated by bodies and skeletons and will prod and poke to see how things work.
Admittedly, children can be a bit ghoulish. Some wouldn’t mind this sight, some would.
It would simply be best if it didn’t happen.
And – if I’d come across this, I would have felt a mixture of anger, distress, and despair at the behaviour of people, which would not have been good for my state of mind, either.
I honestly think plenty of other folk, young or old, would react in a similar way.
Just my view.
There is a difference between ‘sheltered upbringing’ and being faced with the consequences of actions of individuals which do not have any respect for the environment and its resources. There is also a difference between inquisitive and/or scientific interest… doctors and vets are being trained on carcasses and many of us will remember that we have investigated ‘meat’ when we were little ourselves… before mum put everything in the pot… including the bits which were wasted in this particular case.
The people who are responsible for this, do neither have any respect for their environment, nature’s resources or how other members of the public may feel.
Given the extreme measures placed upon all of us in relation to bird flu (whether we like them or not), what these people have done, may even constitute an offence.
I was not disagreeing with the opinion that they should not have been dumped there, just with the implication that most children would be distressed by the sight.
1) I didn’t imply “most children” – I presented a possibility, to help to make a point.
2) That isn’t the root of what this is about, anyway. This is about these people, their actions, and the impulses behind those actions, which show a complete disregard for the life around them, whether birds or people.
More of which, tomorrow.
Just heard that a couple of additional dumps of dead geese have been reported recently from Deerness and Warbeth nr Stromness. If you find any obviously discarded geese could you please pass on the details to Environmental Health (OIC) or Nature Scotland (SNH) ,Kirkwall.
I’m wondering – are the Police taking an interest in this? This behaviour must be illegal, for a number of reasons.
I’m also wondering – has this been featured on Radio Orkney? It needs publizing, as much as possible.
I agree! However, the council official whose desk this issue has landed on has informed me that he is liaising with Nature Scotland and that they hope to formulate a joint response which may involve local media. Personally, I don’t want any more bile from local hunters heaped on my doorstep, if it can be avoided.