Culled goose meat to go on sale

Orkney MSP Liam McArthur has welcomed the decision by Scottish Natural Heritage to allow wild greylag goose meat to go on sale at licenced outlets in Orkney for the first time, but has warned that it will need to be closely monitored.

He said: “Over recent years, farmers in Orkney have been reporting increasing levels of damage to land and crops caused by growing numbers of greylag geese resident in the islands.  Having made the case to ministers for some time that action needed to be taken to address the problem, I welcomed the establishment last year of an adaptive management scheme.

“Since then I have been supporting calls for changes to be made to the scheme, including looking at ways in which a limited amount of the goose meat could be sold under the scheme. I therefore welcome the move announced by SNH today, but accept that the situation must be tightly controlled and closely monitored over the coming months.”

Mr McArthur added: “I recognise that there will be concerns in some quarters at today’s news, but I hope the safeguards that have been put in place as part of this change to the pilot scheme will offer some reassurance. This cannot be allowed to become a free for all, but at the same time allowing some of the carcasses to be sold makes sense.”