Petition to protect wild goats kicked out by Scottish Parliament without serious consideration.

At its meeting on 11th February, the Scottish Parliament public petitions committee, headed by convenor, Jackson Carlaw, MSP, firmly rejected the petition with 21,901 signatures calling for protected status for the wild goats of Langholm and Newcastleton Hills in the South of Scotland. The committee moved to close the petition without making any recommendations to safeguard this ancient herd.

In his proposal to close the petition with no further action, Maurice Golden MSP, referred to the wild goats as “cute”. The committee accepted his proposal given that, based on a technicality, it was not prepared to advance the concerns of so many people.

Rachael Hamilton MSP had proposed an amendment to the Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill to schedule the wild goats under section 5 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act and grant the goats protected status through that mechanism. That amendment was defeated. This defeat provided the public petitions committee with the easy option to brush the wild goat petition, that had garnered such significant support, under the carpet.

In reaction to the verdict, David Braithwairte, Chairman of The Wild Goat Conservation Trust said “Of course, we were bitterly disappointed that this parliamentary committee did nothing. We were aghast at the apparent trivialisation of the issue by MSP Golden. This left us feeling that the committee had fallen short of properly comprehending the issues, the wildlife legislative framework in Scotland, and the concerns of so many people who were clearly asking for change.”

The Scottish Government and its nature conservation and forestry agencies have insisted all along that wild goats are a non-native species and are therefore debarred from wildlife protection. However, non-native species, such as the Mandarin Duck and Ring-necked Parakeet, are afforded statutory protection under UK wildlife laws.

Vice-chair and Secretary of the Trust, Gail Brown, commented that “Almost 22,000 people had signed this petition and have now been left wondering why the Scottish Parliament had encouraged them to have their say in Scottish politics only to then simply ignore their concerns on a mere technicality.” “Politicians are surely elected to do more than just the easy stuff?” she added.

Given that the ancient and much revered herd of wild goats is now left with no safeguards and is subject to continuing landowner culls, Braithwaite said “In a session where this committee openly congratulated itself for allowing falconers to hunt the protected Mountain Hare, it is shameful that Carlaw`s committee showed such ineptitude on the matter of protecting the endangered wild goats. They should have at the very least, recommended regulation to create a closed season for wild goat shooting. Currently, the law allows landowners to shoot wild goats at any time of year, and this includes when nannies are heavily pregnant or nursing their young.  This is callus, inhumane, lacking in any compassion and is so obviously wrong; the law must change and a real opportunity has been missed.”

Despite this setback, the goat conservation trust is clear about its future role. Stating its priority, Vice-chair Brown said “We have a lot of work to do; one of the most pressing things is to get an accurate count of the total wild goat population that roam the 47 square miles of moorland. This requires expensive thermal drone technology, and we are currently fundraising for the £15,000 price tag. We believe there are a few hundred of these wild goats left and strongly suspect that landowners have been inflating numbers to help justify their culls. Over 200 goats were shot last year and there are more culls planned in 2026.”

The future of the wild goats remains in the balance with the Scottish Government clearly supporting the rewilding of this vast tract of moorland and The Wild Goat Conservation Trust arguing that the goats are of national cultural and biological importance and are helping provide valuable open moorland habitat for endangered species such as the Curlew and Hen Harrier.