PROBLEMS with ravens attacking livestock are continuing to mount.
Farmers can only shoot ravens under licence from the Scottish Government and are only allowed to cull a small number at any given time.
The Isle of Mull has been particularly badly hit; a farmer has lost 20 lambs to ravens in only two weeks.
The National Farmers Union of Scotland is pressurising politicians to change the regulations by getting its members to carrying out surveys of the attacks throughout the country.
Robert Millar of High Catterdale said the reports of attacks in Kintyre continue to rise and he urged farmers to collate photographic evidence.
‘We’ve had 12-15 lambs attacked,’ he said ‘We’ve got the same problems as elsewhere.
‘It’s got to the stage where you have to lamb indoors now, otherwise you don’t stand a chance.
‘They have the eyes and tongue out of a lamb as it is being born as soon as the head appears.’
Mr Millar has had licences to shoot ravens last year and this year but the licence system is designed for the odd rogue bird and not the size of flocks which farmers have seen attacking livestock in recent months.
‘But they are very, very hard to shoot,’ he said.
Isle of Arran farmer Jim Climie has had ravens killing lambs and mutilating his calves to the extent that they have had to be put down. He says he sees no difference between dogs attacking livestock and ravens attacking livestock. He said: ‘The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) must be convinced that raptors kill fit, healthy stock, not just the weak and dying.’
The NFU office inCampbeltown is collating information on any attacks in this area.
