I’ve had a reasonable, in an unreasonable sort of way, amount of abuse over my position that we should ban driven grouse shooting. Most of it is anonymous, most of it on Twitter, and almost all of it from people who have a tiny Twitter following. This reassures me that the people who don’t like me are mostly too scared and ashamed to admit who they are and don’t have many friends.
But here is a translation of some of the things that are printable and said about the campaign to ban driven grouse shooting:
Mark Avery is:
divisive – ‘I don’t agree with him, and I’m going to keep saying so’
an academic – ‘we don’t trust clever people’ [but I’m not an academic]
a townie – ‘if you haven’t killed something in the countryside today then you don’t have a right to comment on what happens there even though you are paying for it through your taxes’
divisive – ‘I’m never going to agree with Mark Avery so he’ll have to agree with me – it’s the only way’
adversarial – ‘he doesn’t look like he will give in before I do’
divisive – ‘he does seem to be able to find a lot of people who agree with him so we had better pretend that he can’t’
an anti – ‘I’m going to ignore the fact that he is campaigning about one sort of shooting, even one type of grouse shooting, and pretend he is against all fieldsports of all types, everywhere and always, because it is much easier for me than to address the issues’
unemployed – ‘freelance’
rich – ‘not rich’
employed by people to carry out this campaign – ‘not employed by anyone – we all need a hobby’
naive – ‘doesn’t agree with me’
vegetarian – ‘someone who has been vegetarian four days a week for several years’
And yet, the e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting keeps growing – please sign here.
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Thanks for your campaign Mark,
I am fed up of complacency in some of our NGO’s. The fact that a few people including yourself are willing to challenge the rich and powerful, those who do not root out their own law breakers, inspires me to get up and stand up again for what I believe in.
Let us hope that the fires being sparked by groups such as AFON will result in a culture of challenge in the coming generation.
Sadly you were bound to get abuse and feel sure you expected that.I think it must have taken real courage to set up the petition and at the risk of seeming anti RSPB it is a real pity that they have not backed your petition with as much gusto as the “Vote For Bob”.
I thought you were rather hidden away in a corner of a page and felt you deserved half a page or so.
I did see somewhere that it seemed to be suggested how good it was that something like 600,000 non RSPB members had voted for Bob.
To my way of thinking that meant 600,000 RSPB members plus a friend for each member .
Just shows what your petition may have achieved already if given publicity by RSPB.
Well Mark, you must be doing something right if things are getting personal. When reasoned argument flies out the window (and is replaced by irrational stereotypes) then the debate is lost. More power to your elbow – keep up the pressure.
John
Do they care a jot about losing the argument as long as they can get away with killing hen harriers? I don’t want to be negative, but there is an awful long way to go before we get more HH.
John – there is a long way to go – but the ground may be covered much more quickly than you think. The journey has more momentum than ever before. In fact, if the campaign to help the Hen Harrier is a train then it used to be almost empty and was often delayed by leaves on the line on a small, slow branch line. Now it has quite a few more passengers and is picking up speed.
What can you do to help turn it into a packed high speed train that reaches the terminus safely, quickly and to the delight of all?
They are challenged & running scared as the spotlight shines in their mirky corners?
Miles King too has had some excellent posts recently. You’re both doing a great job so keep going.
Popular or principled, I know who I’d vote for:)
Mark, you have done it again!
I can’t disagree with most of your interpretation in what you have written above.
However time and time again you devalue your writing by silly comments such as ” This reassures me that the people who don’t like me are mostly too scared and ashamed to admit who they are and don’t have many friends.”.
“And don’t have many friends”……..is playground abuse and something I am disappointed to read.
I have very recently started using Twitter as a way of accessing local bird sightings. I follow less than 20 and are followed by 6, which I imagine are similar in following for local bird reports, and I personally know only one of these followers. So according to you I don’t have many friends.
Makes your comment look a bit childish really.
But on another matter, well done for ramping up the pressure regarding shoot management. I can’t sign your petition as it would be hypocritical as I don’t want to ban driven grouse shooting, but hopefully it may/will help in getting sensible and sustainable management onto our moors.
Oh dear. One feels one must quote the great Edmund Blackadder with regards these comments:
“The eyes are open, the mouth moves, but Mr Brain has long since departed, hasn’t he?”
What is divisive is the effective extinction of HH as an English breeding species – and that over 30 years we’ve gone steadily backwards from a very few HH to virtually none. To complain that objecting to this is divisive is rather like a burglar objecting to his loot being taken off him.
Thanks Mark for what you are doing. I do find it astonishing that some people who profess to be birdwatchers and lovers of nature still go on supporting the killing of sentient beings for kicks because it is “about sustainable management”. These same people astonishingly can see nothing wrong in promoting suffering of our fellow creatures and at the same time tell us how dedicated to nature they are!! How bereft of ambition and simple decency are some people in so called “conservation”!
In the 21st Century there is no excuse for it to be legal to rear creatures to be blasted from the sky for kicks, together with all the horrors and snaring and persecution of our wildlife that goes with it. If we really value our wildlife and want to move society forwards it is time to stand up and be counted.
I know many people who own and work land who are totally against shooting and other cruel sports. Let them be the example.
Chris – thank you for your comment.