First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said legislation to protect mountain hares is among options being examined by the government following the release of footage showing the animals being killed in the Cairngorms.
Animal rights activists are calling on the Scottish Government to end the killing while landowners have said that the practice is not only legal, but necessary.
An investigation carried out by campaigners OneKind, League Against Cruel Sports and Lush, produced the footage.
The video, filmed without the knowledge of those involved, shows teams of gamekeepers using all-terrain vehicles to access remote hillsides and shoot hares last month.
The animal rights charities have said the footage shows the agreement for voluntary restraint over culls has “failed” and are calling for a cull ban until a review on the issue concludes.
Landowners can shoot the hares without a licence from August to February and claim culls are necessary to protect game, especially red grouse, from disease.
Ms Sturgeon said: “Large-scale culling of mountain hares could put the conservation status at risk and that is clearly unacceptable.
“I want to be very clear today that the government is exploring all available options to prevent mass culls of mountain hares and one of those options, of course, is legislation and a licensing scheme.
“What we are seeing is not acceptable and that is a very clear message that goes from the government today.”
She said officials would meet with landowners, gamekeepers and environmentalists.
Tim Baynes, director of the Scottish Moorland Group, speaking on behalf of the Corrybrough, Candacraig and Seafield Estates who all feature in the film, said: “This footage has been filmed by animal rights activists, who actively campaign against this type of land management, and have no interest in managing the balance of species and habitat on Scotland’s heather moorland.”
He said there is no risk to mountain hare populations and added: “We agree with the First Minister that any activity which could put the conservation status of mountain hares at threat would be unacceptable.”
OneKind Director Harry Huyton said: “These extraordinary scenes of carnage have no place in the Scottish countryside.”
He added: “I am encouraged that Nicola Sturgeon and the Scottish Government appear to be taking this new evidence very seriously.”
Robbie Marsland, director of the League Against Cruel Sports Scotland, added: “The sickening irony of the mayhem we saw on those mountainsides is that it is done in the hope that it will increase the number of red grouse to be shot for entertainment.”
A spokesman for the Scottish Gamekeepers Association said that culling hares is simlar to deer management.
