Former MP and MSP candidate in a flap over guga hunt

A dispute has emerged between a former MP and an MSP candidate over the future of the guga hunt. This has thrust the controversial practice into the centre of the election campaign.

Edinburgh Central candidate Robert Pownall is standing while campaigning dressed as a gannet to raise awareness of the issue. He has called for the hunt to be banned, arguing that the killing of young seabirds in a protected area can no longer be justified in modern Scotland.

Talking to the National newspaper, former MP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar, Angus MacNeil, accused Pownall of “cultural imperialism”. He said guga is a “prized delicacy” and part of a longstanding island tradition. MacNeil was in the SNP until 2023 and is now a member of Alba.

The guga hunt – tradition or shame?

The guga hunt is the last remaining seabird hunt in the UK. It involves a group of men from the Isle of Lewis travelling to the remote uninhabited island of Sula Sgeir each year to take juvenile gannets.

The chicks, who are unable to fly, are killed for consumption. Once rooted in subsistence during times of hardship, the practice is now largely maintained as a tradition and for a local delicacy.

Though killing wild birds is normally illegal, the guga hunt continues due to a specific legal carve out in the Wildlife and Countryside Act. It is this exemption Pownall is campaigning to end.

Taking aim at Pownall’s political campaign, MacNeil told the National newspaper:

He just doesn’t understand. Has the man been to Sula Sgeir? There’s big demand for them in Lewis, demand outstrips supply. It is very popular.

Pownall, who runs non-profit organisation Protect the Wild, responded by saying:

I have not visited Sula Sgeir, for good reason. It is a protected site and access is restricted, meaning it would be unlawful to visit without specific permission.

I have no intention of disturbing a protected seabird colony. What is striking, however, is that while it would be illegal for me to visit and monitor these birds without permission, it remains legal for others to kill thousands of their chicks each year for a ‘prized delicacy’.

Pownall also said the practice raises serious welfare concerns. He pointed to the way chicks are taken from their nests and “bludgeoned to death” in front of other birds.

MacNeil was MP for the Western Isles between 2005 and 2024. He said he had accompanied the guga hunters to Sula Sgeir around 15 years ago and that the killing is:

as quick and as humane as any slaughterhouse.

MacNeil added:

It’s historic in that it’s the last bird hunt I think anywhere in the British Isles. The Faroes and Iceland might have a little bit of it, but it’s certainly the last in Scotland of the bird hunts.

Pownall said that the fact this has been going on for so long is “not something to be proud of” and:

The fact that other forms of animal suffering exist does not justify this one.

He added:

It is also a strange line of argument to defend the practice by comparing it to a slaughterhouse. If the strongest defence is that it is as humane as industrial animal killing, that does not resolve the concern, it reinforces it.

Despite claims from supporters that the guga hunt does not harm the gannet population, documents which Protect the Wild obtained through a Freedom of Information request suggest otherwise. They show that Sula Sgeir is underperforming compared to every other comparable Gannet colony in Scotland. In fact, it’s the only Special Protection Area where the population has declined over the long term, while others have seen substantial growth.

Featured image via the Canary