Scottish fish farmers 'conducting secret seal slaughter'
Campaigners claim as many as 5000 killed a year in Scotland. 
By Auslan Cramb The Seal Protection Action Group said as many as 5,000 of the mammals were shot every year. However, the industry claims the figure is nearer 500, and insists that seals have to be controlled to protect commercial stocks. It is currently legal to shoot seals outside their breeding season when they are threatening fish farms. Common seal numbers have dropped in recent years and campaigners believe that the unofficial cull is one of the factors behind the decline. Andy Ottaway, of the seal protection group, said: "The seal shooting takes place in very remote locations in sea lochs around Scotland and there are no witnesses, and under the law the industry doesn’t even need to release the figures of the numbers they have killed. "We believe there is a mass slaughter of seals in Scotland, up to 5,000 each year." …
