…over 14,000 folk have signed the e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting (making it the 11th most successful Defra-related e-petition ever).
This is the summer of the Hen Harrier.
Things are changing.
You are making that change happen.
Thank you.
And at the end of the Inglorious 12th…
Well done Mark. Well done Chris. Your hard work on this must get results. I don’t begrudge the wealthy, and the landowners their money; I do hate their selfish attitudes to ( our) wildlife. It’s not theirs to kill, it belongs to us all.
Mark: suggestions for what individuals can do would be helpful now. There is clearly a strong will to help.
For example, those who subscribe to Bird Watching magazine (and those who don’t0 might just want to ask Matt Merritt the editor (eg at Bird Fair) why his magazine hasn’t covered the story (or urged its readers to attend HHD or sign the petition) at all so far. Strange because BWing did cover The Sanctuary story very well (whereas Bird Watch never mentioned it to the best of my knowledge). What’s going on? Is rivalry between the two forcing them to cover separate stories?).
Then some letters to The Times about Jim Dixon’s piece in Saturday’s paper wouldn’t do any harm would they?
What about a few ‘Well done M&S/HHD’ banners outside some of their stores (and at their AGM) – and, BTW, what would you call the opposite of a ‘protest’? The media might be amazed at people applauding a corporation for doing something good for a change?
Plenty more ideas will hopefully emerge….let brainstorming begin!
Nick
Grouse, hen harriers yes of course, but the use of captive driven birds placed in cages a week prior to shooting day and then driven out of the moorland cages the afternoon before is frankly disgusting also.
So driven, non driven, wild AnD captive show the same disconnect. I live 1/4 mile away from such cages in Scotland and its mostly Londoners who come up, having no connection at all to …. Well anything to do with nature at all really. Its not hunting its selling
I really surprised how many idiots there are out there! Seriously none of you people will have ever set foot on a shoot or even attempted to understand what shooting is about and what it supports. What you all seem to forget is vermin control helps other species not just grouse without any control we can kiss goodbye to all our other small species. I think before any of you try to pass a opinion come a shoot and see what goes on. It’s the exact same thing with regards to the tail docking ban in Scotland a bunch of people with no clue sitting at a desks making laws that benefit nobody or nothing it’s disgusting. Makes me sick that such a massive part of my life is under attack again from people without a clue!!!!
Ryan – thank you for your comment.
I expect you believe that there was a bloke wearing tweed with a couple of traps in the Garden of Eden don’t you? Otherwise how did any of these species make it through to our time since ‘without any control we can kiss goodbye to all our other small species’?
Ryan – I used to shoot for many years and I know exactly what goes on. The vast majority of Europe doesn’t have driven game shooting, but it does have vastly superior numbers of birds. I am getting sick and tired of hearing “If it wasn’t for shooting, we wouldn’t have this, we wouldn’t have that…”. Just because something is historic, and passionately supported by the monarchy, doesn’t make it immune to change.
Ryan – thank you for showing us in so few words why a massive part of your life needs to be challenged & attacked until something changes to the benefitf of the whole upland ecosystem and not just those species that you choose to support your lifestyle. I might also recommend some early reading on food chains, natural history and good-practice management of ecosystems – maybe replacing some of the books on your shelves perhaps?
Ryan,more like the Hen Harriers under attack from people without a clue.
Come come now, gentlemen. Let’s not be too hard on poor Ryan. The summer holidays will soon be over, and he can ask his science teacher what ecology is. Then he’ll no doubt return, to educate us all on what’ll happen to the “vermin”, when they’ve eaten “all our other small species”.;)
Ryan your absolutely bang on but the Luddite anoraks don’t want to akknowledge facts just age old class predujice!
It must be hard to be in an increasingly meaningless group Ryan as the great and good i.e most of us see through the utter rubbish spouted by so called sporting and country people. You and your mate Jack perpetuate the prejudice of town v country etc etc and it is laughable.
Anyway, what a fantastic campaign and I hope it goes from strength to strength. Personally, as a leftish kinda fella I’d like to see the mountains and moors returned to the nation as they were taken from commoners, crofters and settlers in the first place. The facts Jack and Ryan are that in the last couple of hundred years the wealthy evicted whole populations (without a care in the world) to make way for sheep and grouse moors as well as finishing off forests and wood pasture.
Rather than wasting tax-payers money on subsidising unsustainable upland management we should buy up the land once and for all (district valuation price and not a penny more) and by proper stewardship and management allow the land to heal and for the whole nation, not a select few, to enjoy.
As one of the Luddite anoraks I’d be only to happy to help draw up the plan for planned eviction of Lord and Lady faceless back to their Holland Park abode.