{"id":879977,"date":"2026-04-08T10:52:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T10:52:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/879977\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T10:52:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T10:52:20","slug":"edinburgh-man-dressed-as-giant-bird-will-run-for-msp-in-unusual-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/879977\/","title":{"rendered":"Edinburgh man dressed as giant bird will run for MSP in ‘unusual’ campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"

Robert Pownall is campaigning to become MSP for Edinburgh Central.\"Robert<\/p>\n

Robert Pownall is running for MSP for Edinburgh Central<\/p>\n

A man dressed in a giant bird costume is officially in the running to become a Member of Scottish Parliament<\/a> for Edinburgh, in one of the most unusual election campaigns Scotland has seen.<\/p>\n

Robert Pownall – founder of wildlife advocacy organisation Protect the Wild – has announced he is standing as a candidate in Edinburgh Central<\/a> and will campaign entirely dressed as a giant Gannet to push for an end to the controversial Guga hunt. He is up against the likes of of SNP’s Angus Robertson.<\/p>\n

The Guga hunt<\/a> is the UK\u2019s last legal seabird hunt. It takes place annually on the remote Hebridean island of Sula Sgeir, where months-old Gannet chicks are killed by a group of ten men who travel from the Isle of Lewis.<\/p>\n

While the practice originated in times of hardship as a source of sustenance, today the birds are killed primarily to maintain tradition, with their flesh considered a delicacy. Northern Gannets are native seabirds, and Scotland is home to almost half of the world\u2019s population.<\/p>\n

\"Mr<\/p>\n

Mr Pownall argues that the killing of wildlife for tradition is unjustifiable<\/p>\n

Mr Pownall argues that the killing of wildlife<\/a> for tradition is unjustifiable. A Scottish Government petition to ban the Guga hunt, backed by Protect the Wild, has surpassed 100,000 signatures and will be debated by the next Parliament.<\/p>\n

The killing of wild birds is normally illegal. However, the Guga hunt continues due to a legal exemption under Section 16 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981) – an exemption Pownall is campaigning to remove as part of his candidacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m standing as an MSP candidate to force the Guga hunt out of the shadows and into the political spotlight,\u201d said Pownall.<\/p>\n

\"Robert<\/p>\n

Robert Pownall is the founder of wildlife advocacy organisation Protect the Wild<\/p>\n

Join <\/strong>Edinburgh Live’s Whatsapp Community here<\/a> <\/strong>and get the latest news sent straight to your messages.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cGannet chicks are being snatched from their nests and bludgeoned to death for nothing more than a tradition. That clearly shouldn\u2019t be happening, especially not in the middle of a biodiversity crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cPolling shows the vast majority of the Scottish people want the Guga hunt to end. It\u2019s high time this outdated exemption was removed from the law, and these magnificent Gannets given the protections they deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Pownall will campaign as a Gannet throughout the election, and \u201cwill not appear out of costume\u201d. He is calling on all political parties to commit to ending the Guga hunt in the next parliamentary term.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Robert Pownall is campaigning to become MSP for Edinburgh Central. Robert Pownall is running for MSP for Edinburgh…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":879978,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[933,748,1102,728,4884,285,712,17038,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-879977","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-animals","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-edinburgh","11":"tag-environment","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-scotland","15":"tag-scottish-parliament","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116368713450568248","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=879977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/879978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=879977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=879977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=879977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}