Horrific Footage Exposes the Senseless Slaughter of Gannet Chicks

Ending the Guga hunt is not radical. Continuing it is.

There are moments when a nation has to look at itself in the mirror and ask: What the hell are we doing?

The footage of the guga hunt is one of those moments. It rips the mask off a tradition that has been protected, sanitised, and excused for far too long. What it reveals is not heritage. Not culture. Not necessity.

It reveals violence. It reveals suffering.
It reveals a cruelty so stark it makes your stomach twist.

And yet NatureScot continue to license it every single year. Naturescot signs off on a licence that condemns hundreds of young gannet chicks to a brutal, senseless death. Every. Single. Year. This so-called “tradition” is a grotesque spectacle of abuse of the most vulnerable gannet chicks and it should shake every person with a conscience to their core.

No decent society should tolerate this…

On a lonely, windswept cliff, fat, healthy gannet chicks, babies who have survived storms, starvation, disease, and the bird flu outbreaks that wiped out tens of thousands of their kind, stand on trembling legs. In front of them: humans. Behind them: a sheer drop into nothingness. They are cornered between the sky and the stones.

Footage shared by Jamie Moyes, the shocking truth of the Guga Hunt.

Some of them hiss, tiny hearts showing a courage that should humble us. They stand up to a predator they cannot possibly win against. Their soft down ruffles in the wind. Their dark eyes stay fixed on the human approaching them. But bravery does not save them.

A pole yanks. A chick’s head is caved in. A life ends on the rocks they were born.

They are killed simply because people still cling to the belief that they deserve to eat these birds. Not because they need to. Not because the community would starve without them. But because of gluttony. Because of greed. Because they want to.
For the disgusting belief that because something has been done for centuries, it should be done forever, even when it inflicts unimaginable suffering, even when it is fucking unnecessary.

NatureScot openly acknowledges that the Guga hunt has zero conservation purpose. It is licensed purely, explicitly, for human consumption. Let that sink in.

And somehow we’re supposed to call this “tradition”?
No. This is barbaric.

Please SIGN THE PETITION set up wildlife photographer Rachel Bigsby Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge 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

Deduced to nothing but slabs of meat…

Once killed, the chicks are stripped of everything that made them living, breathing beings. They are bludgeoned to death on the cliffs where they were born, their feathers ripped from skin. Their wings hacked off. Their bodies burned. Their ribs cracked open. Their remains, what’s left, are piled into heaps of lifeless flesh, then tossed down a chute to a waiting ship.

Footage shared by Jamie Moyes, the shocking truth of the Guga Hunt.

Hours before they were living, breathing, beautiful birds. Hours before, they had parents watching over them. Hours before, they were cared for by parents who had only one chick to give the world this year. Gannets raise a single chick annually. They wait four, five, six, even seven years before they can breed at all. Their investment is enormous, months of flying miles out to sea, diving through storms, braving injuries to feed that one chick.

And in a single afternoon, that chick is taken from them and bludgeoned to death before their eyes. Picture the parent gannets circling helplessly above the cliffs, watching the only chick they have, their entire future, reduced to a mass of flesh covered in salt.

The raw injustice of it. It is fucking diabolical and it must end.

It Is 2025. It is time to End the Guga Hunt.

How can a society in 2025 still sanction this? How do hunters justify this carnage when not a single person needs gannet flesh to survive? Why is empathy not enough to stop this? Why is the suffering of wild animals always the last consideration?

Hundreds of years ago, perhaps the hunt was necessary. Today it is nothing more than a ritualised bloodsport, an echo of hardship that no longer exists, carried forward only because some refuse to let go. Meanwhile wildlife is collapsing. Our seas are emptying. Birds are dying from disease, warming oceans, and human pressure. Species are fighting for survival every day because of us.

And yet, instead of protecting them, they license the killing of healthy chicks and call it tradition.

Footage shared by Jamie Moyes, the shocking truth of the Guga Hunt.

The Guga hunt is not a cultural treasure. It is a moral failing

The guga hunt is a stain on Scotland’s reputation, on our ethics, and on our shared humanity. It is a test of who we are:

Are we people who turn away and let cruelty continue because we’re scared to challenge tradition?

Scotland can be a leader in compassion. Scotland wants to be a leader in conservation. But it cannot claim either while permitting the annual bludgeoning of seabird chicks for no reason other than human indulgence.

Ending the Guga hunt is not radical. Continuing it is.

Let’s make sure no more chicks face that cliff-edge choice between terror and death. Justice for wildlife does not come from looking away. It comes from speaking out. It comes from refusing to accept cruelty wrapped in the language of tradition. It comes from people like you demanding better.

And today, right now, we must demand exactly that. Sign the petition to the Scottish government to end this, and email Naturescot.

This is the moment to draw a line and say: No more senseless slaughter of Gannet chicks. No more licences to kill from NatureScot, and no more excuses.

---

Support Protect the Wild with a small monthly donation

Times our really hard right now for organisations like ours. We rely solely on the generosity of the public and don’t have any major funders behind the scenes. Despite being a relatively small group we are so proud of our output and it is thanks to every single person who chips in a few pounds a month that we can continue our vital work.

We do everything we legally can to fight for British wildlife. From undercover investigations, animations, journalism, report writing, equipment and mental health support for activists, protests, pressure campaigning..

Our monthly goal is to find 100 new supporters who believe in our mission and can afford to give anything from £2/3 a month in the fight for British wildlife.

We’re currently on 83! Help us reach our monthly target! :)