boston.com news reports that a company is offering $1million for a photo of Nessie, Big Foot or the Abominable Snow Man that leads to its capture. However, the plans could come a cropper as Nessie is officially protected by UK and Scottish Law, specifically The Protection of Animals (Scotland) Act of 1912 and The Veternary Surgeons Act 1966.
Indeed, when the infamous Jan Sundberg came to capture Nessie to extract a DNA sample in 2000 Inspector John Grierson, animals officer with Northern Constabulary warned that action could be taken against anyone harming, or failing to protect any animal.
He has been reported in the local Press & Journal newspaper saying, “If there is a monster and it is netted then it would be protected against any cruel activity”. It could be argued that to place a wild animal in a net when it could become frantic and thresh about could be considered “cruel…” (more info available here).
Well, we’ll see what happens but I hope all this doesn’t land the company in hot water or encourage any nutters to come up here and cause havoc in their quest to grab the million bucks…