Hansard

The next petition, PE2021, which was lodged by David Peter Buckland and Graham Charlesworth, calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to clarify the definition of protected animals that is contained in the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006 and associated guidance, to ensure that the feral sheep on St Kilda are covered by that legislation and to enable interventions to reduce the risk of winter starvation and the consequential suffering of the sheep. I apologise—I have quite a long introduction. The petitioners have told us that confusion over whether the sheep on St Kilda are considered to be livestock or wild animals is contributing to the unnecessary suffering and deaths of large numbers of the sheep population on the archipelago. The SPICe briefing provides a helpful history of the sheep population on St Kilda. Research suggests that feral sheep have been present on the island of Soay since the bronze age. The briefing notes that, in 1931, the archipelago was sold to the Marquess of Bute, who subsequently bequeathed it to the National Trust for Scotland in 1957. The petitioners suggest that that means that the trust has ownership of the sheep and, therefore, responsibility for managing them. In response to the petition, the Scottish Government stated its position that the St Kilda sheep should be regarded in the same way as unowned and unmanaged populations of wild deer and other wild animals. The response also sets out the Government’s view on how the definition of protected animals in the 2006 act applies to the St Kilda sheep. It notes that the definition applies only if and when sheep are gathered up for a particular procedure and that they are otherwise considered to be living in a wild state. Guidance on the 2006 act allows for animals that live in the wild but whose behaviour, life cycle or physiology is altered by being under human control to be classed as protected animals. However, the Scottish Government’s view is that the sheep on St Kilda are an exception to that general guidance on the basis that they have adapted to live on St Kilda over many generations, so they are not dependent on humans in the same way that more recently escaped or released domesticated animals would be. In response to the Scottish Government’s submission, the petitioners questioned whether the sheep are really “free to move anywhere” on such small islands, particularly as the population increases. The petitioners also highlighted the research of the historian Professor Andrew Fleming, which shows that inhabitants of St Kilda combined fowling with sheep management, which suggests that the sheep were domesticated 10,000 years ago and have been feral only for less than 100 years, when the last inhabitants of St Kilda left. We have also received a submission from Alasdair Allan MSP, which details the action that he has taken on the issue and further highlights the petitioners’ concerns that the interpretation of St Kilda sheep as non-native animals means that researchers might have committed numerous offences during the St Kilda Soay sheep project’s triannual capture and release of the sheep population. Dr Allan has suggested that the policy on St Kilda sheep does not reflect best practice for the management of other animals in Scotland, and he reflected that, if the Scottish Government’s position is accepted, there might be a moral and a legal duty to manage the sheep population on St Kilda to avoid mass starvation events. Members will note in our papers that requests to make submissions in relation to the petition have been received from the National Trust for Scotland, researchers from the St Kilda Soay sheep research project and OneKind, the animal welfare charity. There is a lot to unpack in all of that. I apologise for the fairly detailed exposition, but that is what was required. Do members have any comments or suggestions? In the first instance, given that they have asked to contribute, we might wish to seek views from the organisations that I mentioned.