So are you still killing seals (as permitted under the RSPCA's farmed salmon standard)? https://t.co/w43FodMABj @RSPCA_PATeam @RSPCAChris @RSPCA_official @GeorgeMonbiot @ChrisGPackham @BillOddie @PeterEgan6 pic.twitter.com/l6xaAdPWPb
— Don Staniford (@TheGAAIA) May 13, 2021
The latest version of the RSPCA's farmed salmon standards - published in February 2021 - makes for alarming reading (especially if you're unlucky to be a seal living near a salmon farm).
Here's the RSPCA's seal killing form:
The latest version of the RSPCA's farmed salmon standards - published in February 2021 - makes for alarming reading (especially if you're unlucky to be a seal living near a salmon farm) @rspcaassured @RSPCA_PATeam @RSPCAChris @RSPCA_official @scotseafarms https://t.co/64dNCuCC3Z pic.twitter.com/XESYFQYR3k
— Don Staniford (@TheGAAIA) May 13, 2021
How do you protect your RSPCA Assured salmon since it is now illegal to kills seals? Does your Loch Spelve salmon farm have anti-predator nets? How many seals have you shot & killed since 31 January 2021 when it became illegal to kill seals?https://t.co/64dNCuCC3Z pic.twitter.com/x4incJbHyS
— Don Staniford (@TheGAAIA) May 17, 2021
John Robins of Animal Concern raised the issue of seals being killed at RSPCA Assured salmon farms earlier today (13 May 2021) in a letter to the CEO of the RSPCA Chris Sherwood:
From: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Sent: 13 May 2021 03:05
To: RSPCA CEO ([email protected]) <[email protected]>; RSPCA Assured ([email protected]) <[email protected]>
Subject: RSPCA Welfare Standards for Farmed Atlantic Salmon February 2021
FTAO Chris Sherwood CEO of RSPCA, Clive Brazier, CEO of RSPCA Freedom Foods (trading as RSPCA Assured) and the RSPCA and Freedom Food Directors and Trustees.
Dear Mr Sherwood and Mr Brazier,
I have had no response to the e-mail (copied below) which I sent to you both on 25th March this year. I can only assume that is because you simply cannot defend your position regarding RSPCA endorsement of the cruel, unsustainable, environmentally damaging and wildlife persecuting industry contained within the filthy floating factory fish pharms which are a blight on Scottish coastal waters.
Did you, as I requested, copy my e-mail to your Directors and Trustees? If you did surely some of them could see through your blind support for intensive salmon farming?
Once again I ask you to copy this e-mail to your Directors and Trustees in the hope that someone within the RSPCA can see sense and get the RSPCA out of the stinking fishy mess you have got yourself into.
I’ve just had a quick flick through your updated Welfare Standards for Farmed Atlantic Salmon which you published in February 2021 and in which you acknowledge that salmon farmers can no longer legally kill seals after 1st March 2021. This of course is because the Scottish Government were forced by the US Government to ban the deliberate killing of seals by all salmon farmers in Scotland. The US Government having achieved this at a stroke while the RSPCA and others have been debating the issue with the salmon faming industry for the best part of two decades.
I was therefore somewhat surprised to read the following on page 14 of your current Welfare Standards for Farmed Atlantic Salmon:
“The shooting of seals is against the principles of the RSPCA welfare standards. However, at the present time, it is acknowledged that as a last resort only, i.e. when all available non-lethal deterrents have been effectively deployed and the welfare of the fish is being compromised (i.e. they are being attacked), it may be necessary to use a lethal measure to safeguard the welfare of the fish.”
“The shooting of seals is not permitted, other than in exceptional circumstances (see i box below) and when all required non-lethal deterrents have been effectively deployed (see relevant Standards below), i.e. as a last resort”.
“An ‘exceptional circumstance’ is defined as an unexpected/unforeseen event, such as the unavoidable failure of nets, ADDs/ASDs (Acoustic Deterrent Devices/Acoustic Startle Devices), systems or other equipment used to protect the fish from seals due to extreme weather or human error, and where a seal is found to be in the act of attacking the salmon.”
Can you tell me what I missed in either the Scottish Government announcement that no further licences to shoot seals would be issued to salmon farmers or the US Government announcement that fish imports would be banned from countries which allowed persecution of marine mammals by fishery and aquaculture interests? Unless I have missed something it appears that you are not only continuing to endorse the shooting of seals by RSPCA Assured salmon farmers, you are actual telling those farmers they can break the law protecting seals.
I have only had a quick look through your new Standards but I cannot see anything about farmers keeping seals at a distance from the salmon cages. As I explained in my e-mail of 25th March (copied below, see pars 6 & 7) unless you ensure your approved farms do this you are endorsing a product which does not even meet the legal welfare standards for all animal farming as set out in the Animal Health & Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006.
Any chance of a reply this time?
Regards,
John F. Robins,
Animal Concern
My E-mail of 25th March 2021
RSPCA,
Wilberforce Way,
Southwater,
Horsham,
West Sussex, RH13 9RS
FTAO Chris Sherwood CEO of RSPCA, Clive Brazier, CEO of RSPCA Freedom Foods (trading as RSPCA Assured) and the RSPCA and Freedom Food Directors and Trustees.
Dear Sirs,
I write concerning RSPCA Assured salmon farmed in Scotland. I would be grateful if you would forward this e-mail to your Trustees, Board of Directors and any executives working in relevant areas.
For over fifteen years, in my position with Animal Concern and my previous post with Save Our Seals Fund, I tried, very much unsuccessfully, to persuade RSPCA Freedom Foods to insist that RSPCA approved salmon farms be forbidden to shoot seals and instead forced to deploy proper predator exclusion nets to keep seals and other predators well away from the salmon in the net cages.
I also described the seals discussion forum the RSPCA and others entered into with the salmon farming industry as a useless talking shop used by the industry to prevent you taking decisive action to stop them killing seals. I think I was proved right when, after over a decade of you talking with the industry, it instead took action by the US Government to finally stop salmon farmers in Scotland shooting seals. I’m proud to say that when the US Government announced their ban on the import of fish from countries which allow commercial fishery interests to persecute marine mammals they referred to a letter I sent them requesting such a ban.
While this US initiative, campaigned for by ourselves and several other organisations, was successful, the RSPCA seemed content to receive reports from their endorsed fish farms on the numbers of seals shot. Only today I received copies of a few scraps of information obtained under FOI by my colleague at Scottish Salmon Watch. These showed that in the space of only 5 days in May 2020 one of your endorsed salmon farmers, Scottish Sea Farms, killed 3 seals. Perhaps you could tell me how many seals in total were killed at RSPCA endorsed salmon farms in 2020?
Forgive me for appearing to blow my own trumpet but I am only trying to make it clear that, after forty plus years campaigning on this issue, I do know a little about what I am talking about. I hope you will take seriously what I am about to ask you.
I was instrumental in having fish welfare recognised in the Animal Health & Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006. Under that Act fish farmers, like their terrestrial colleagues, have a legal duty to protect their stock from the attention of predators. This does not mean simply stopping predators from physically attacking the fish. It requires farmers to prevent predators from getting close enough to be seen or smelled by the fish thus causing them fear and stress. Shooting seals cannot achieve this and neither can the use of double cage nets which still allow seals to get very close to the fish. What is required are external, properly tensioned and maintained predator exclusion nets to keep seals well away from the caged salmon.
I must admit that I was wrong about the effect predator proximity has on farmed salmon. A recently published report (linked below) shows that I vastly underestimated the adverse effect this has on the welfare of the salmon. After reading that report I do not see how the RSPCA can, on fish welfare grounds, endorse any marine salmon farm which does not deploy predator exclusion nets as described above. Either insist your endorsed farms use such nets or, better still, move to closed cycle production in land based tanks. This will become even more necessary as the harmful effects of many sonic predator scaring devices cause them to be withdrawn or their use made illegal by the Scottish Government in an attempt to belatedly meet the requirements of the USA Marine Mammal Protection Act.
Finally I would appreciate it if you would tell me what you have done to address the horrific problems of salmon welfare at time of slaughter as shown by the video evidence obtained by Animal Equality UK (see the video linked below)? Since that video was published I have seen a statement by another industry whistle blower who claims the cruelty and extreme suffering shown on the Animal Equality UK video is not unique and may be commonplace in other salmon slaughtering facilities.
Salmon farming is a cruel, unsustainable and environmentally damaging industry. It is estimated that between 10 and 20 million salmon die from injury or disease on salmon farms in Scotland each year. Huge numbers of salmon also escape into the wild every year causing more suffering and environmental damage.
In the last couple of months evidence has come to light of incidents where gannets have become entangled and killed in the top nets of salmon farms. Yet another example of suffering caused by salmon farming.
If you cannot find salmon farmers genuinely worthy of endorsement by the RSPCA I ask you to stop allowing your once good name being used to pedal products cruelly produced in these filthy floating factory farms.
If, despite the vast array of evidence of cruelty to fish, wildlife exploitation and environmental damage, the RSPCA does decide to continue endorsing salmon farms can I ask you to at least close the doors on any more farms joining your scheme. Instead of calling a long overdue moratorium on the expansion of salmon farming the Scottish Government is making the huge error of encouraging the industry to rapidly increase output, aiming to double production within 10 years. Salmon farming is already totally unsustainable and the huge volume of salmon in the current system is beyond the handling capacity of the industry thus the massive numbers of mortalities and the inability to slaughter fish humanely.
Massive volumes of wild fish are caught all around the world to be processed into food pellets for farmed fish. This is causing depletion of wild fish stocks, damaging wildlife food chains and causing shortages for human populations reliant on subsistence fishing.
Do not let the RSPCA name be used to expand the market and thereby increase even further the animal suffering and environmental damage inherent in industrial scale salmon production.
Yours faithfully,
John F. Robins,
Animal Concern
Predator related stress: https://www.fishfarmermagazine.com/news/genuswave-gives-salmon-a-fighting-chance-against-sea-lice/
Animal Equality UK salmon slaughter video: https://youtu.be/gFH-ws2g5lA
The Ferret reported last month (26 April 2021):
A £10,000 reward has been offered for information on the illegal shooting of seals after it emerged Police Scotland and the National Wildlife Crime Unit were passed intelligence reports about a number of killings.https://t.co/opzT3BtGvC
— The Ferret (@FerretScot) April 26, 2021
Following the article, a whistleblower contacted Scottish Salmon Watch passing on information about a long-standing Mowi manager shooting a seal with a shotgun!
Email just in from an industry whistleblower: "A long-standing Mowi manager once shot a seal on Lewis with a shotgun & laughed as the poor creature writhed around screaming as it died slowly & painfully with a shotgun wound to the side of the head" @ScotlandMowi @rspcaassured pic.twitter.com/1gsKU8l1eP
— Don Staniford (@TheGAAIA) April 26, 2021
In March 2021, Scottish Salmon Watch published shocking photos of seals killed by salmon farms.
Photo Exclusive: Seals 'Executed' by Scottish Salmon https://t.co/88Kn1lZwpx@SSPOsays @salmon_scottish @scotseafarms @strandings @marinescotland @NOAA @RuralPolicySRUC @SRUC @rspcaassured @SSPCA_Mike @SSPCA_Kirsteen @RSPCAChris @Try_Lochlander @coopuk @marksandspencer @Tesco pic.twitter.com/XDimhpTbXi
— Don Staniford (@TheGAAIA) March 8, 2021
Last year, Scottish Salmon Watch wrote to the RSPCA asking them to stop certifying farmed salmon as 'welfare-friendly'.
As RSPCA 'VIPs' you have the power to stop suffering on salmon farms in Scotland - please tell the RSPCA executive to end certification of Scottish salmon! @rspcaassured https://t.co/oFC20taxzO @ChrisGPackham @brianblessed @BillOddie @DrBrianMay @PeterEgan6 @CarolineLucas #RSPCA pic.twitter.com/nYwOM5yTF6
— Don Staniford (@TheGAAIA) February 5, 2020
The Sunday Times revealed in February 2020 that the RSPCA rake in over £500,000 from certifying farmed salmon.
Surely the RSPCA should send inspectors into salmon farms to stop suffering & cruelty rather than receive ££££££s via certification? @rspcaassured @RSPCA_Amy @RSPCA_official @RachRSPCA @RSPCA_LabAnimal @RSPCAChris @WainwrightChris @CarolineLDNvet https://t.co/oFC20taxzO #RSPCA pic.twitter.com/FN69jUfGwy
— Don Staniford (@TheGAAIA) February 5, 2020
The Sunday Times reported earlier in February 2020:
Today's Sunday Times: "Scientist hits out at RSPCA for backing Scottish salmon farms" https://t.co/ZuzAis8gEr @SundayTimesScot @rspcaassured @LynneUSneddon @HamishMacdonell @Animallawyersuk @AnimalLawUK @RSPCA_official @SSPCA_Mike @scotgov @ProfCMDwyer @ciwf @HSIUKorg @AnimalAid pic.twitter.com/PN0IWL4pBt
— Don Staniford (@TheGAAIA) February 2, 2020
Back in 2015, the issue of seals being killed by RSPCA Assured salmon farms was raised via a series of protests.
"Given RSPCA Assured's 'shoot-to-kill' policy on salmon farms, the RSPCA should be renamed the Royal Seal Culling Association!"
We delivered a letter to Her Majesty the Queen - as royal patron of the RSPCA - to Buckingham Palace in December 2015.
"As Royal patron of the RSPCA (who certify over 70% of Scottish farmed salmon via the RSPCA Assured scheme which sanctions the killing of seals), you have the blood of dozens if not hundreds of seals on your hands," stated the letter.
Later in December 2015, I protested outside the RSPCA's head office in Horsham with Roc Sandford.
In 2018, George Monbiot lambasted the RSPCA in an article in the Guardian.
If the RSPCA was being paid by seals surely you would protect them? The fact is that salmon farmers pay the RSPCA almost £1 million for certification https://t.co/NUMZFaPYed Shame on the RSPCA - rest assured that buying RSPCA Assured salmon means putting seals in the firing line pic.twitter.com/XMHH77wHpR
— Don Staniford (@TheGAAIA) September 12, 2018
In March 2021, George Monbiot attacked the RSPCA once again.
"The worst of all is the RSPCA" says George Monbiot @rspcaassured @RSPCA_PATeam @RSPCAChris @RSPCA_Frontline @RSPCA_LabAnimal @rspca https://t.co/OJT8Atz7VP
— Don Staniford (@TheGAAIA) March 31, 2021
From the shocking photographic and video evidence of welfare abuse on @rspcaassured salmon farms it does not appear that the RSPCA's time was well spent does it?! https://t.co/jh8KXhe9mM @RSPCAChris @ChrisGPackham @onekindtweet @ciwf @Animallawyersuk @philip_ciwf @salmon_scottish pic.twitter.com/Ak7Q6b99pB
— Don Staniford (@TheGAAIA) April 5, 2021
Fair to say RSPCA tried to more tightly regulate animal welfare standards in salmon farming through its RSPCA Assured programme & this significantly reduced seal shooting but I agree it should have opposed all killing from start. We now hope to see end of seal shooting for good
— dominic dyer (@domdyer70) March 31, 2021
If the RSPCA failed then why are they still coining in over £500K per year from certifying Scottish farmed salmon? Surely the RSPCA should ditch the welfare nightmare of salmon farming accredition whilst they still have some kind of reputation left? https://t.co/43qBXvAjZC
— Don Staniford (@TheGAAIA) April 5, 2021
If you're looking for the RSPCA 's position on killing seals by salmon farms it's recently been deleted.
Scottish Salmon Watch have now alerted the US Government to the issue:
Date: Fri, May 14, 2021 at 6:21 AM
Subject: Seal killing continues in Scotland - sanctioned by the RSPCA
To: Nina Young - NOAA Federal <[email protected]>
If seals are responsible for all the welfare abuse inside salmon farms then surely you should take precautionary measures to avoid attacks (e.g. installing anti-predators nets, closed containment, relocation away from seal areas)? https://t.co/2yoIybNirp
— Don Staniford (@TheGAAIA) May 14, 2021
You're seriously suggesting all the damage in your farms is due to seal predation (which could be avoided if you installed anti-predator nets)? It looks like bacterial disease & welfare abuse to me - just like in salmon farms across Scotland https://t.co/wxeU0VUFXv
— Don Staniford (@TheGAAIA) May 14, 2021
The RSPCA are now hiring for a new 'Senior Scientific Officer' in charge of salmon farming policy and strategy.
"Exciting" job opportunity developing @rspcaassured policy in relation to welfare of farmed salmon - must have strong stomach, love seeing dead seals & diseased fish and ideally employed by the salmon farming industry! Deadline for applications is 1 June https://t.co/fCdsMOfBXC pic.twitter.com/rqZgoAcoAl
— Don Staniford (@TheGAAIA) May 14, 2021
Read more via:
- The Ferret: "£10,000 reward for information on illegal seal killing after police asked to investigate deaths"
- £10,000 Reward Offered - Illegal Killing of Seals by Scottish Salmon Farms in the Cross Hairs!
- FOI Disclosure: Seal Licence Breaches by Salmon Farms (reply by Scottish Government on 1 April 2021)
- Photo Exclusive: Seals 'Executed' by Scottish Salmon
- FOI disclosure from Scottish Marine Animal Strandings Scheme
- Police Scotland refuse to name 112 marksmen licenced to kill seals!
- Sunday Times: "Sharp rise in seal shootings blew hole in permit scheme - Officials were warned that salmon farmers ‘had no willingness or intention’ to collect detailed data"
- Parliamentary Report: "ADD Use in the Aquaculture Sector"
- Scientific Study into Impact of Low Frequency ADDs Silenced!
- Calling All Whistleblowers - Please pass on photos of dead seals killed at salmon farms!
- Daily Mirror: "'Nearly 80 seals were legally shot in Scotland in 2020 – highest number in seven years'"
- Scottish Salmon's #1 Seal Killer - Norway's 'Scottish' Sea Farms Named & Shamed!
- Official Data: 1,000+ seals killed by salmon farms since 2011!
- The Ferret: "Salmon companies rapped for breaking rules on shooting seals"
- Caught in the Cross-Hairs: Illegal Killing of Seals by Scottish Salmon Farms!
- FOI opens sealed documents on killing by salmon farms
- Pulling the Plug on ADD on salmon farms - is turning down the volume enough to comply with the law?
- Greedy Salmon Farmers Demand £13 Million Compensation for Seal Attacks!
- £5,000 reward offered for information on illegal shooting of seals
- Victory Sealed After 50-Year Campaign - But the Battle to Save Marine Mammals from Salmon Farms Continues!
- The Guardian: "Scottish salmon farmers to be banned from shooting seals"
- Photo Gallery: Seals Against Salmon Farms!
- Caught Between the Devil & the Deep Blue Sea
- The Ferret: "Seal scarers used by fish farms branded 'sonic torture'"
- GenusWave 'Targeted Acoustic Startle Technology' - in compliance with the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act??
- Seal shooting at salmon farms doubles before ban
- Ban on seal shooting must be watertight
- Greens want ban on seal scarers
- Fergus Ewing - Minister for the Promotion of Norwegian Salmon Farming
- Seals in the Cross-Hairs of the Scottish Parliament
- Scottish Salmon's Slaughter of Seals Has Not Stopped!
- Sunday Herald: "Revealed: Scottish Government bid to exempt salmon farming from US seal-killing ban"
- RSPCA in firing line over Marine Harvest's seal-killing spree in Scotland - 118 seals killed by Marine Harvest's RSPCA Assured farms since 2011
- Marine Harvest: Scotland's #1 Seal Killer
- All At Sea: Seal-Killing Salmon Farms
- Scottish Salmon Blinded by Seal Killing
- The Two Billion Dollar Salmon Ban
- Closing the Net On 'Seal-Friendly' Scottish Salmon - last orders on the RSPCA's abuse of 'last resort' killing of seals?
- Seal shooting by fish farms to be banned to save exports to US
- Cecil the Seal Killers Named & Shamed in Scotland - Call for Boycott of "Seal Unfriendly" Scottish Salmon
- Media Splash for Seal-Killing Salmon Farms!
- VICTORY: Disclosure of Seal-Killing Salmon Farm Data Ordered by 21 August
- Scottish Salmon's Secret Seal Killers! - FOI refusal prompts call for boycott of farmed salmon
- Lethal Scottish Farmed Salmon: Serial Seal Killers Named & Shamed!
- Scottish Salmon's Seal Killers Named & Shamed!
Could someone tell @RSPCA_official to stop “sealing” the fate of marine mammals around salmon farms?
— Salmon Scotland (@SalmonScotland) April 5, 2021
Their fake labelling scheme is a scam.
Shooting seals is now illegal. But subjecting them to >200dB noise is illegal too and that still goes on.
Feedlots have no place here. pic.twitter.com/3OJxTEsQBA
Do you seriously think @rspcaassured promotes high standards of animal welfare? Photographic evidence from your farms supports the view that salmon farming is a welfare nightmare @onekindtweet @SalmonFeedlots @SSPOsays @HamishMacdonell @FergusEwingMSP @marinescotland pic.twitter.com/IcW56da6lh
— Don Staniford (@TheGAAIA) February 9, 2020