Grey squirrel shot with bow: Scottish court fines man £185

A man who shot a grey squirrel with a bow in his own back garden has been fined £185 at Airdrie Sheriff Court, in a case that turns not on the quarry but on the tool. The 36-year-old support worker, from Coatbridge, admitted an offence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 at a hearing on 20 August.

What happened in the garden?

The court heard that on Christmas Day last year the man was in his kitchen with a child when he looked out and saw a grey squirrel sitting on top of a refuse bin in the rear garden.

Fiscal depute Karon Rollo told the court: “He sought out a large bow and arrows he had in his property, took aim at the squirrel and shot it. The squirrel was struck on the head. It managed to run away, I’m not sure how, but ended up pinned against a wall.”

A neighbour who saw what had happened contacted the Scottish SPCA. Its officers attended, and as they tried to dislodge the projectile it came free and the animal ran off. The court was told the squirrel survived and still visits the garden. The man was charged by police in January.

The sentence and the forfeiture

Sheriff James Spy fined him £175, with a £10 victim surcharge, payable at £50 a month, and ordered the bow and arrows forfeited. The man had no previous convictions.

His solicitor, Lindsay Gaughan, said a number of squirrels frequent gardens in the area and that her client “genuinely thought it was acceptable to do what he did”.

Why was it an offence when grey squirrels are not protected?

This is the part that matters to anyone who controls pest species, and it is widely misunderstood. Grey squirrels are an invasive non-native species. They carry no protection as quarry, no licence is needed to kill them, and a shooter who takes one cleanly in his own garden commits no offence at all.

What Parliament has banned is the method. Section 11 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, as it applies in Scotland, makes it an offence to use a bow or crossbow for the purpose of killing or taking any animal. The word “animal” replaced “wild animal” for Scotland alone in 2004, so the prohibition catches protected and unprotected species equally. In England and Wales the same paragraph still reads “wild animal”, which would cover a grey squirrel just the same.

What is lawful for grey squirrel control

Accurate shooting with an air rifle of suitable power, or with a rimfire where the ground allows it, remains the standard lawful method, as does cage trapping followed by humane dispatch. Traps set for grey squirrels must be checked at least once a day.

Release is not an option: it is an offence to keep, possess or transport a grey squirrel, and there is no licence available for taking one into care and putting it back. Cruelty in the course of control is separately caught by the Wild Mammals (Protection) Act 1996.

What happens next

The fine closes the case, and there is nothing in it that changes the law. Its value to the shooting community is as a marker. Same quarry, same garden, same afternoon: an air rifle would have made it lawful pest control, and a bow made it a crime, because a bow cannot be relied on to kill an animal quickly.

Anyone controlling greys should keep to a method that kills cleanly and be able to say why it was the right one. Neither the Scottish SPCA nor Police Scotland has issued a statement on the case.