Advocates for Animals Step Up Calls For Ban On Snares

By Shaun Milne

ANIMAL welfare supporters are stepping up their call for a ban on snares by launching a new campaign at the Scottish Parliament later this week.

Edinburgh based Advocates for Animals will unveil an 8ft sign reading ‘Welcome To Scotland, A Snare Free Country’ outside Holyrood at 10am on Thursday.

The snares being targeted include wire nooses used by some estates and farmers to catch what they commonly regard as pests such as rabbits and foxes.

VisitScotland ignored own disciplinary policy

Richard Saville-Smith

By Cara Sulieman

VisitScotland ignored their own internal disciplinary policy when sacking the head of PR for the Year of Homecoming, a tribunal heard today (Weds).

The head of HR for the public body, Fiona Reith, said that they found themselves “stuck between a rock and a hard place” when dealing with Richard Saville-Smith.

The 48-year-old had been off work due to a bi-polar episode brought on by work related stress, and Ms Reith said that she was trying to deal with both that and historic disciplinary issues at the same time.

The employment tribunal in Edinburgh heard that Mr Saville-Smith had failed to turn up to work in August 2008 because he was suffering a bi-polar episode brought on by stress at work.

But there had also been previous issues with the PR guru’s performance, and Ms Reith decided to deal with both of the problems at the same time.