West Coast salmon farms have hit back at a charity’s ‘wake-up call’ report claiming to highlight the ‘best and worst’ for animal welfare in Scotland last year.
The industry is facing intense scrutiny in 2018, as MSPs on the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee conduct an inquiry into the environmental impact of Atlantic salmon farming in Scotland. It concluded in March: ‘The committee is deeply concerned that the development and growth of the sector is taking place without a full understanding of the environmental impacts.’
Now animal welfare charity OneKind has released a report which it says ‘collates publicly available data on mortalities, escapes, biomass exceedance, seal shooting and sea lice burdens for the 184 active salmon farms operating in Scotland in 2017 and allocates “negative welfare” scores for each category.