Why oh why is Scotland the only country in the UK to still have the ban on tail docking of working dogs?
Just back in from ferreting a plantation of young larch and scots pine trees. I am soaked to the skin and frozen. My daughter is visiting us with her boyfriend and I thought it would be a good chance for him to see some different animal tracks in the snow.
I am not a happy chappy. I was cutting old rabbit fences away this morning and my ear is bleeding profusely. I detest that high tensile wire; when you cut it with the wire cutters it goes off like a coiled spring. It felt like I had been shot in the ear.
For more than 15 years the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) has adopted a fatally flawed policy of trying to naturally regenerate vast areas of hill land without fencing out the traditional herds of red deer which live on Mar Lodge estate in Deeside.
And now, after spending at least £750,000 of public money and killing 12,000 deer, the Trust has finally admitted to the SGA that it has been unsuccessful.