Hunters thank NatureScot for letting them kill Gannet Chicks
Hunters "thank" Naturescot for license to kill juvenile gannets for no reason other than "tradition".
It defies belief that in 2025, hunters are thanking NatureScot for allowing them to kill juvenile seabirds; healthy, thriving, innocent young gannets, in the name of “tradition.” Yet that’s exactly what happens on the remote Isle of Sula Sgeir, where juvenile gannets, known as gugas, are dragged from their nests, bludgeoned on the head, plucked, and packed, all with the official approval of NatureScot.
And the hunters doing it aren’t ashamed. They’re grateful. They thank NatureScot for giving them permission to slaughter chicks that are only days away from taking their first flight, as if cruelty were a privilege, and state-sanctioned killing something to celebrate.
It’s not just cruel. It’s sick. It’s a moral failure dressed up as pride. You can read their sick thank you letter below (released to Protect the Wild following our Freedom of Information request)
A barbaric “tradition” with a government seal
Every year, men travel to Sula Sgeir under a licence granted by naturescot that makes the slaughter of young gannets, a protected species, legal. Armed with long poles and a sense of entitlement, the chicks, beautiful charcoal coloured gannets, fat and strong, on the brink of their first flight, are pulled by the poles from the safety of their nests. Them hit on the head until death, ending a life that had only just begun.
These are not weak birds. They are the healthiest, the fittest, the ones who have survived storms, hunger, and disease, the ones who had a future. And yet they are slaughtered in the name of culture, their bodies plucked and salted, their suffering brushed aside as “tradition.”
One chick. One chance. Then gone.
Gannets are extraordinary birds, loyal, intelligent, and deeply devoted parents. They don’t even begin breeding until they are between four and seven years old. It takes them years to mature, to find a lifelong mate, to claim a nest among the cliffs, and finally to raise their single precious chick.
Each pair raises just one chick a year, one single, fragile life they fight to protect against every danger the wild throws at them. They take turns soaring for miles over rough seas to bring food back, nurturing that chick through storms and hunger and peril.
And then, humans arrive.
They take that one, hard-won miracle of survival, and kill them.
Imagine the adult birds returning to their nest to find it empty, their chick gone. All that care, all that labour, all that instinct, stolen for nothing more than human greed and self-indulgence. Or worse, imagine the chicks being killed right in front of their parents, who circle above in panic and confusion, flying helplessly as the cruelest predators of all, humans, rip their young from the nest and end their lives with a thump.
And yet, NatureScot hands out the licence, and hunters say thank you. A thank you for legalising the bloodsport.
A dying planet, and we still take more
Scotland’s seabirds are already fighting for their lives.
They face the collapse of fish stocks, pollution, and climate chaos. Avian flu has swept through colonies, killing thousands. Gannets already endure impossible odds and because they take years to reach breeding age, every healthy chick lost is a devastating blow to the future of the species.
And still, NatureScot signs away their survival. The healthiest young, those who should have been the next generation of breeders, are instead taken and killed in the name of “tradition.”
A licence, they call it. Let’s name it truthfully: a licence to kill, a license for unnecessary cruelty.
Tradition must never outweigh compassion
The guga hunt isn’t culture, it’s cruelty. It’s a relic from a time before we understood that wild animals feel pain, before we knew how fragile our ecosystems really are.
To cling to this as “heritage” is to mistake brutality for identity.
And what makes it even more grotesque is the public gratitude, the smiling photos, the words of thanks to NatureScot for “keeping tradition alive.” There is nothing honourable in thanking an institution for allowing the killing of defenceless wildlife. It is a celebration of suffering, and a stain on Scotland’s conscience.
Enough.
No more licences. No more killing in the name of “heritage.” No more hiding cruelty behind the word “culture.” Do your part, sign our petition - stop the needless slaugther.
NatureScot was created to protect life, not to sign its death warrants.
The gannets of Scotland deserve better than this. Their chicks deserve to live, to take flight, to fill the skies above our coasts.
We should be the generation that ends this shame, not the one that continues it.
Because when hunters thank NatureScot for the right to kill, it isn’t pride.
It’s proof of how far we’ve strayed from compassion, and shows the biggest threat to wildlife, is not nature, but Naturescot.
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Signed and sent! This is sick and barbaric and needs to be stopped permanently now!! These poor gannets have it tough enough right now without sadistic hunters mentally torturing their parents and brutally killing their chicks 🤬🤬🤬!! Please stop this now Scotland, I thought you were better than this (this and the state forced deer 'culling')!! RIP those poor souls 😿💔🤬🤬🤬!
Keep up the good work