Salmon farmer Loch Duart hits back at ‘campaign of harassment’

Loch Duart has hit back at animal rights activists who allegedly catalogued a series of welfare abuses at one of its salmon farms.

Activist groups Scottish Salmon Watch and Abolish Salmon Farming filmed dead and diseased fish, as well as birds, at the salmon producer’s site in Loch A Chairn Bhain, near Kylesku in Sutherland on 20 June.

“We’ve got dead birds, dead fish, zombie salmon, ‘s’ shaped salmon, ‘popeye’ salmon. This is an absolute welfare nightmare,” claimed Scottish Salmon Watch’s Don Staniford, in a video captured at the farm.

Scottish Salmon Watch subsequently made a welfare and disease complaint to the APHA and the Scottish government’s Fish Health Inspectorate.

But Loch Duart asserted the footage was misleading and part of a “campaign of harassment” targeting the company, its employees and customers by “career animal activists”.

The business told The Grocer that the “distressing footage” had been “selectively curated to show only a small number of affected fish” and was “not representative of the healthy population of fish currently on this site”.

“As with any animal population, including humans, a small proportion of individuals will become ill. While unfortunate, this is a biological reality of life,” the business said.

“While we fully respect the right to peaceful protest and legitimate public debate, we are deeply concerned by actions that cross the line into unlawful trespass, create unnecessary biosecurity risks to our fish stocks, and put the safety of those involved at risk,” it continued.

Loch Duart further stated that its employees, as well as those of its customers, were being targeted publicly through “offensive and unfounded accusations” and the publication of their personal social media accounts.

The business added: “We stand firmly behind our small-scale farming practices, with fish welfare and product quality at the heart of everything we do.

“We remain confident in our belief that this approach produces the finest farm-raised salmon available on the market.”

The Scottish government and APHA were approached for comment.