Yesterday evening’s blog did not overflow with complimentary remarks about gamekeepers – it could have done, but it didn’t.
An occupation which evokes such strong and negative responses has an image problem – and that is true however fair or unfair are the comments.
We don’t hear that much from gamekeepers in the debates over the future of driven grouse shooting. We don’t hear much from gamekeepers at all, in fact.
I could be very sympathetic to the view that the poor gamekeeper is at the mercy of his (for it usually is a he) uncaring, unsympathetic, harsh landowner master if there were much evidence to support it but there is not. We hear little from gamekeepers saying that they have a tough time. We hear nothing from gamekeepers whispering that they are under enormous pressure, some (not all) of them, to break the law and they would much rather not. We hear nothing from gamekeepers to suggest that they would appreciate the arrival of vicarious liability in England so that more of the burden fell on their bosses. We hear very little. Some of this is understandable, there must be a risk of sticking your head above the parapet, but some of it is not.
I have rarely seen any evidence that gamekeepers or their organisations have any view even a little bit different from the Moorland Association and the Countryside Alliance. This seems to me to be strange as the interests of gamekeepers’ and their bosses’ cannot be exactly the same.
I would welcome a Guest Blog about the future of driven grouse shooting from the National Gamekeepers Organisation from the point of view of gamekeepers.
But here are some quotes about recent events from gamekeepers:
Gamekeeper found guilty of poisoning birds of prey
Thursday 2nd Oct 2014
Allen Lambert, a 65 year old Norfolk gamekeeper, was found guilty at Norwich Magistrates’ Court on 1 October 2014 of two charges that relate to the killing of eleven birds of prey (a sparrowhawk and 10 buzzards) and possessing pesticides and other items capable of being used to prepare poisoned baits. Lambert had pleaded guilty to five other charges at an earlier hearing including pesticide offences and the possession of nine dead buzzards.
A spokesman for the National Gamekeepers’ Organisation said: “The NGO stands for gamekeeping within the law and we condemn these actions utterly. The selfish, stupid actions of one man – who was not and never has been a member of the NGO – must not be used to tarnish the good name of gamekeeping, which does so much for the countryside and its wildlife. The gamekeeping profession genuinely deplores those very, very few among their number who break the law. They are the pariahs of the modern keepering world, losing the right to call themselves gamekeepers in the eyes of their peers.”
Allen Lambert has never been a member of the National Gamekeepers’ Organisation.
Focus On Hen Harriers Can Start Species Recovery
Wednesday 6th Aug 2014
The British Association for Shooting and Conservation, CLA, Countryside Alliance, Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust, The National Gamekeepers’ Organisation, and the Moorland Association all want to see more hen harriers nesting in England and are calling for Defra to publish a plan for their recovery across England.
Three events have been planned by bird enthusiasts in Derbyshire, Northumberland and Lancashire to raise awareness of the current low breeding success of the birds of prey in England.
Last year there were just two breeding attempts, both on or adjacent to moorland managed for red grouse, but no chicks fledged.
There have been three known successful nests this year fledging 11 chicks, again all on moorland managed for grouse shooting interests, but the organisations say that there need to be more.
Amanda Anderson, Director of the Moorland Association, speaking for the group of organisations said: “All of the organisations welcome the spotlight on harriers and condemn wildlife crime. We need to build on this year’s successful breeding to springboard a wider recovery. There is a Defra-led Joint Recovery Plan we wish to see published. If implemented it would see the growth of a sustainable population of hen harriers without jeopardising driven grouse shooting, along with the environmental, social and economic benefits it delivers.”
Three parts of the recovery plan tackle any wildlife crime against the birds and three parts deal with the sustainable growth of the harrier population. One key element, nest management, is taken from tested conservation techniques in France. This would see hen harrier chicks in nests 10km from another nest reared in an aviary and released six weeks later in suitable habitat. This will help ensure harriers nest without impacting on ground nesting birds on which they prey, especially red grouse.
SGA RESPONSE TO LEEDS UNIVERSITY MUIRBURN REPORT
In response to a new report by Leeds University stating that burning of grouse moors leads to environmental changes, the SGA has given the following response:
Scottish Gamekeepers Association Chairman Alex Hogg said: “It is important to monitor the affects of all management practice on land.
Those clamouring for curbs on grouse shooting, for example, should assess the carbon released through widespread afforestation and pine regeneration programmes on peat soil in the Scottish uplands, which have the same drying and degrading affect as described in the Leeds study, including the release of stored pollutants.
“Controlled heather burning, following the strict Muirburn Code, only takes place within very short, regulated, seasons. Following best practice, it only takes place when the fire will not burn into peat edges.
“Aside from providing benefits acknowledged by SNH and organisations such as RSPB when it comes to conservation for black grouse, for example, controlled muirburn helps alleviate more damaging environmental problems on peatland.
“Rotational strip burning acts as a fire-break against the spread of wildfires which scorch peat over large areas, releasing carbon into the atmosphere at a far more damaging rate than any controlled muirburn would. We saw this at Mar Lodge when a campfire caused the loss of 10 hectares of important blaeberry amongst Pinewoods.
“Regenerating heather, which has lost its nutritional value, through cyclical muirburn provides vital food and shelter for birds such as waders, some of which are now only stable on grouse moors, so it is important to see the study within context.”
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I think you’re probably right about the risk to a gamekeeper from ‘putting their head above the parapet’. But having spoken to a large number of gameys, I suspect that another reason is that being a gamekeeper isn’t really a profession, it’s not even just a way of life. It seems that it’s a huge part of a person’s identity, and the connection with the land, going back sometimes several generations of a family is a very strong one.
If someone criticised part of my identity, which also happened to be my father’s and maybe my grandfather’s, I wouldn’t be very willing to listen to science or pressure groups (especially those whom in my opinion and the opinion of my peers, knew little about our way of life).
I think that’s a factor that is often overlooked when wholesale demonisation (not by yourself I hasten to add), of gamekeepers by some.
e.g.
Conservationist/Animal rights type person (I can’t think of a real example to use):
‘What you are, what your father was and what your grandfather was is morally wrong, evil! here’s the evidence to pro……!’
Gamekeeper:
‘F*#k you!’
The isolation of driven grouse shooting is a good way to look at particularly harmful practices, though I still won’t be signing the petition due to the ‘West Lothian question’.
Donald – thank you for your comment.
I think you are right, but of course, if part of your identity has been breaking the law knowingly, as it surely must be for many gamekeepers, then that is quite different too.
You shouldn’t worry about the West Lothian question on this one – English Driven grouse moors are killing your Scottish hen harriers on migration too (no doubt). Birds know no boundaries and don’t realsie it’s a devolved issue. Anyway, some of your taxes are going into supporting English grouse moors.
Yes, I’m not trying to condone those actions, but trying to see it from their perspective. Perhaps as the protection for raptors has been around for significantly less time than driven grouse shooting has, it is seen as an ass that gets in the way of ‘legitimate’ ‘sport’.
Though don’t get me started on ‘old’ traditions made by the top 1% telling the lackeys how they should run their affairs and use the land.
Replying on just one..oft repeated and mistaken point…legal protection for raptors has been around since the 1880 Wild Birds Protection Acts and ensuing County Protection Orders up to the first catch all Protection of Birds Act in 1954 [60 years ago this year]. As driven grouse shooting and the associated slaughter of raptors has been going since a similar length of time..give or take 20 years..we can see the contempt for the Law which has been shown by grouse moor managers for a very long time indeed.
It’s a good point Dave, but for a large proportion of that time the real ‘law’ was doing what the landowner wanted. The law on bird protection would have been little more than words on paper. To say that there was contempt for the law from the start is probably wrong as those laws would mean very little to a gamekeeper in a rural area. It’s part of the reason that vicarious liability is such a good idea.
I agree with Donald, sadly the demonising of gamekeepers has probably pushed most of them not to engage in debates with ‘antis’. This is obviously a shame. Most keepers I have met are actively working for the good of the countryside and obey the law (I think). Surely the buzzard, sparrowhawk and kite population is testament to this? I have little experience in the uplands as I live in Dorset. Many conservationists are ‘antis’ but many fieldsportsmen are active conservationists. There is the conundrum, those that have a moral objection will always be against gamekeepers as their profession (?) goes against their beliefs (which I understand but do not agree with).
Many of the readers of this blog will demonise gamekeepers and shooting whatever happens, some of your readers will support rogue gamekeepers what ever they do. I am incredibly interested in the views of those who fall in neither of those camps. Your narrative Mark occupies more of my thoughts than it should!
Mark,
Have you ever considered that the ‘amusing’ invective spewing forth last night might just be linked to the anti-gamekeeper message that you and others have been drip feeding to your blog followers and others for the last year and more? You constantly stoke the pot and it resulted in the unwholesome feeding frenzy we saw last night in all its brutal ugliness, egged on by you. For example:
“Gamekeepers – DON’T YOU JUST LOVE ‘EM? They are a profession – DID YOU KNOW? What would be the right collective noun for a group of gamekeepers? This started as a discussion on Twitter last week – SO HERE ARE SOME IDEAS TO GET YOUR IMAGINATIVE JUICES RUNNING:
a ‘slaughter’ of gamekeepers
a ‘dropped the ball’ of ‘keepers
a ‘denial’ of gamekeepers
a ‘profession of raptor haters’
YOU MAY BE ABLE TO DO MUCH BETTER” (my emphasis).
Reference ‘raptor haters’, for the record, I was shown my 1st Peregrine’s eyrie by a ‘gamie’ on upper Deeside who guarded it jealously from egg collectors and other disturbance – this was in the days when there were only around 60 pairs left in the country and the central highlands was one of their remaining strongholds! He also showed me my 1st Eagle’s eyrie, also guarded jealously, my 1st Capercaillie, Black Grouse, Ring Ousel, Ptarmigan and Dotterel. He knew and cared more about the birds and beasts on his beat than any casual visiting naturalist or loud-mouthed internet troll.
Put yourself in the shoes of a gamekeeper’s wife or children. Would you like to read that sort of ‘jocular’ Comment about your husband or ‘Daddy’ on-line? Would you like your neighbours or school chums to read that sort of vitriol about your loved one?
As Donald rightly points out, gamekeepers are a proud yet largely silent fraternity who often have a familial connection with their profession and their patch running back over generations. They have a right not to be abused en-masse, and you have a responsibility not to encourage the kind of unedifying mob behaviour we witnessed last night.
Keith – if you actually read the comments on yesterday evening’s blog they aren’t nearly as bad as you suggest.
Nor do they add up to mob behaviour since they are comments from all over the country from individuals – interesting that you could not summon up the wit or imagination to add your own collective noun for keepers since that was the question asked. What would your choice of word be, by the way?
You will see that this evening’s blog offers gamekeepers a Guest Blog but maybe they will be as forthcoming as Songbird Survival have been in putting their views forward? I hope they take up the offer.
Mark,
You don’t need to be co-located nowadays to form a mob in cyber-space or social media.
What would your collective noun for gamekeepers be Mark? Or are you content simply to throw the grenade and then stand back and let the mob do your dirty work.
I don’t speak for gamekeepers but it seems to me that they put their views forward perfectly adequately on their own websites, publications, media releases and around and about at country shows and fairs, as does SongBird Survival.
Anyway enough of your ‘chaffing’, do you think that gamekeepers (and by extension their families) have the right not to be abused en-masse and that you have the responsibility not to encourage the unedifying behaviour that we witnessed last night?
Keith- you didn’t answer the question did you? do you ever answer a question – don’t answer that?
My suggestion was in the original list – ‘a dropped the ball of ‘keepers’ Get it? Incitement to what exactly?
The list of suggested collective nouns was not nearly as shocking as you seem to suggest. Given that a large part of the gamekeepers’ job is killing ‘vermin’ it’s hardly surprising that some of the suggestions related to that, is it? And given that most of those convicted of wildlife crimes against birds of prey have been gamekeepers than some reference to court proceedings is hardly unexpected either.
You should have thrown in your own witty, erudite and amusing suggestions. You still can.
I’ll check in the morning. Good night.
Mark,
Think I’ll pass on your invitation to join the ‘fun.’
In the meantime:
Would you like to read those sort of ‘jocular’ Comments about your husband/wife or ‘Daddy/Mummy’ on-line?
Would you like your neighbours or school chums to read that sort of vitriol about your loved one?
Do you think that gamekeepers (and by extension their families) have the right not to be abused en-masse?
Do you think you have the responsibility not to encourage the unedifying behaviour that we witnessed on Monday night?
Keith – you have made your view clear – it was clear before you kept repeating it. If you had put a very positive suggestion on this blog then it would have been published. The distinct lack of positive comments is interesting in itself – and says something. You did not post a positive comment and are complaining about the lack of positive comments. That makes a lot of sense.
Professions which get themselves lots of bad publicity through the illegal behaviour of some of their members, eg MPs over expenses and bankers over bonuses, usually realise that they should reform themselves or be reformed by the public.
Keith,
Although your defense of the UK game keeping fraternity is very noble, you are clearly missing the point – a large number of people in the UK find the acts practiced by many in the industry to be abhorrent and illegal. Every year we read more appalling stories of illegal killing by guess whom – gamekeepers. Although we get some warm words by some in the industry you never feel there is a concerted effort by organisations that support the UK shooting scene to actually do something about it from within.
Take the abhorrent behavior of some individuals carrying out murder and atrocities in the name of Islam – do we see the Muslim Council of Britain sitting back, justifying the actions of these individuals on the grounds of their religion? No we don’t, we see the organisation strongly condemning such activity, assisting the authorities in identifying perpetrators and severing the link between them and the religion they are supposed to reflect. Although we have some minority crackpots in the UK who are anti-Muslin, because of those representing the religion in the UK trying to maintain its image as moderate, we don’t have the general public assuming all Muslims are murderers.
Frankly, the shooting industry could learn a lot from this, and in the eyes of the general public it has the mother of all image problems, especially driven grouse shooting. Instead of jumping to defend practices that are clearly out of date, failing to root out the evil from within and being in a general state of denial, the industry perpetuate the feeling that all gamekeepers are a bad bunch. The answer is simple, get some balls, upset a few folks in the industry, read and implement the latest research and move aside those suspected of doing dodgy stuff.
As for trolling, you only have to read some of the crap on shooting blogs to hear some anti-conservationist rhetoric. I have lost count of how many times I’ve been called a ‘townie’ (I live in a rural village), ‘tree hugger’ or ‘sandal wearer’ by proper countrymen. Just look at the vile and personal abuse RSPB staff giving evidence against Glen Brown of Peak District raptor killing fame had to endure from the shooting industry. I was also privy to a beaters conversation on an estate last weekend and it quickly turned to hen harriers and rumors of RSPB planting evidence, making up evidence, faulty sat tags and a whole host of abuse. What do they say about people in glass houses?
I’m not anti-shooting as a number of friends and family enjoy it, I would hate to see it banned but I’m sick to death of the crap and damage some of its members do on a routine basis. Help clean up its act or you may push me into the ‘anti’ camp and send it as a pursuit into the long grass forever.
Dave M,
I don’t think I am missing the point. Certainly not the point of Monday’s blog which appears to have been designed to whip up hate against gamekeepers. I have never liked bullies, cyber or otherwise, and have spent a fair amount of my previous working life having to deal with them in one guise or another.
There is nothing more disquieting than to witness a malleable bunch of people trying to outdo each other in their invective by ganging up on some other group of people, be it Christians, Jews, Muslims, blacks, gays, white middle-class men, would-be schoolgirls in Afghanistan, conservationists, gamekeepers or whoever. Trolling is despicable wherever and whenever it occurs.
Incitement to hate is an ugly, contemptible trait and can be very corrupting and corrosive to the inciter in the long run. And when the inciter’s otherwise ‘reasonable’ mask slips, it can be very revealing.
Its insidious effect can be wider-reaching as well, see Emily’s post below. How sad to read of Emily’s disillusionment. What wise words from a young woman, still immersed in her studies, in calling for sensible discussion. She is clearly the sort of person we need working in conservation, not being repelled from it.
I hold no particular brief for gamekeepers, but know through personal dealings with several over a long period that many are warm, big-hearted, loyal, staunch pillars of the community for whom nothing is too much trouble. Many are superb field naturalists and if they tend to favour an understated & undemonstrative demeanour, so what. Why should they be picked upon and bullied en-masse?
Meanwhile, I hold no truck with wildlife crime and condemn it unreservedly, as I have done on this blog and elsewhere in the past. I have taken a personal stand, and direct action, against wildlife crime over the years, for example against songbird persecution & trapping in Scotland, in Malta and in Cyprus. Like John Miles below, I have been prepared to go to court, in my case to support prosecution of wildlife criminals. In the event, it was not necessary as the defence changed the plea to guilty just before it came in front of the Sheriff. My video and eye-witness evidence was instrumental in forcing that decision and helping secure the conviction – and all a mere 27 years before BAWC re-discovered the 3 x Rs I might add.
Finally, I am not anti-shooting either and I don’t and have never shot. Nevertheless, I will defend the right of those who do, and of those who work in the industry, not to be abused.
Keith – a staunch of keepers then? You do talk some sanctimonious nonsense.
Mark,
This has not been your finest moment.
A bit of advice, when in a hole stop digging.
Be man enough to apologise to the gamekeeping community and their families for any offence caused and move on.
Well said Keith, disgraceful comments.
“If you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas” springs to mind.
“Would you like to read that sort of ‘jocular’ Comment about your husband or ‘Daddy’ on-line?”
Well, my old man was once a gamekeeper. He was also a drunk, a liar and a wife beater. I’m just pleased I didn’t inherit his violent tendencies (or his questionable career ambitions!)
As for collective nouns, how about….
A charlatan of Songbird Survivalists. 😉
I prefer ‘a Bedford Level’ of Songbird Survivalists…
As some one who has gone out of my way to protect a game keeper from prosecution and gone to court to protect both an egg collector and Bowland raptor workers I can say that keepers will come out and tell of the pressures of their job to brake the law. I have even had one come to me after a talk I gave on the ‘Vulgar plant – Heather’ and said that’s why he quit the job. Then there is that great twitcher and naturalist who operates out of Northumberland who became the first keeper to get Buzzards to breed in the county. A brilliant lad who had other keepers complaining about his Goshawks. Why did he get away with it? – Because is boss could rely on him still producing the goods on a shoot day. Remember Geltsdale used to be a driven Red Grouse shoot until they got greedy!!
It is immature ‘debates’ like this that dissuade me from continuing a career in conservation.
As someone who is in my third year of university I have already came across a disappointing number issues yet to be solved. I feel so disillusioned right now.
Native species being killed relentlessly? Chris Ferris was talking about this over thirty years ago.
Pesticides and children losing their connection to nature? Check out Rachel Carson.
This blog certainly is a step in the wrong direction in my opinion. While there are people in the gaming industry that commit illegal acts, there are many doing good too. Can’t we just have a sensible discussion?
Mark’s been asking for a positive collective noun for gamekeepers so I offer…
A defence of gamekeepers
And I’m personally glad to see some on here. Yesterday’s vitriol made me wonder who I’ve joined up with in signing this petition. Why don’t we just keep it clean, constructive and focused on the issue. Gamekeepers are paid (probably very little) to produce a “crop” of birds to shoot: a lot of us are told to do things at work we might not like but when we start to consider the risk to our livelihood and our family from insurrection many of us will do it anyway albeit begrudgingly.
I found last yesterday’s “gamekeeper” blog depressing. I volunteer with the RSPB Skydancer project, and this involves trying to change the views of those in the shooting industry so that they are prepared to try things like diversionary feeding. Before we can achieve that, we have to get them to talk to us, and that means convincing them that we are prepared to listen to them. But the job is made harder by birdwatchers who think that all gamekeepers are bad. So yesterday’s hate fest on gamekeepers depressed me. Any of the better gamekeepers who chanced on that blog could certainly be forgiven for thinking that responding to Mark’s invite to do a blog would result in them being subjected to abuse. Mark has achieved a lot with this campaign so far, but yesterday represented several steps backward for me.