Yesterday’s Observer was rather more up to date in its reporting of grouse moor issues than the Torygraph, pointing out that our e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting is where it’s all at!
Kevin McKenna, under a headline ‘The Glorious 12th? Conservationists turn their fire on Scotland’s grouse moors‘ writes, ‘This year, though, there will be an edge to the frivolities. For the hunting and shooting community are beginning to experience something of what it must be like to stare down the barrel of a gun. A campaign to ban outright driven grouse shooting has been gathering momentum these past few years and its champions are finally beginning to smell blood.’
I’m not so sure about ‘smelling blood’ – we’re not that kind of people – but getting up our hopes? Yes, we are getting more hopeful, but not yet confident, of a debate on grouse shooting in the Westminster parliament.
McKenna goes on ‘Earlier this year an e-petition, backed by a powerful lobby of conservationists, animal welfare groups and television naturalists, was launched asking the UK government to ban driven grouse shooting. Thus far it has gained almost 75,000 signatures.‘ but even the Guardian/Observer cannot keep up to date with the progress of our e-petition which has now passed 77,000 signatures. You can sign it here and help deliver that debate in parliament over the sustainable future of our uplands.
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77123. How about a new target of 110,000. 10% of the RSPB membership.
Get another friend to sign folks.
Leave the poor Royal alone, they’ve made it plain where they stand in terms of Mark’s petition.
They’ll still no doubt seek to claim influence if not victory because that’s what the usual suspects do?
Are there enough HH cards to hand out to everyone visiting the Birdfair (19-21 Aug.), that ought to seal it? I’d maybe guess half will have already signed but that still leaves enough?
You’re not keeping up to date either Mark its 77337 and counting :0) I think a tipping
point has been reached.
The usual straw man arguments from the grouse shooing lobby – “the campaign is a manufactured one fueled by the politics of class prejudice” and the RSPB “…is supposed to be concerned with the welfare of all species of birds, but recently it seems to be championing the concerns about raptors above all others. Why aren’t they concerned about falling numbers of wading birds like curlews, lapwings and golden plovers…”.
The well-heeled and well-connected engage in a variety of expensive pursuits but I am unaware of any petitions to ban the Henley Regatta or the Glyndebourne Opera festival. Anger at grouse shooting is nothing to do with class politics but is fueled by a mountain of evidence that it is environmentally damaging and that its practitioners don’t give two hoots for the law where it conflicts with their own selfish interests.
The notion that the RSPB cares more about raptors than any other birds is simply nonsense as can be readily seen by anyone looking at the range of conservation activity undertaken by the society. It would be an astonishing dereliction of duty if the RSPB did not fight vigorously on behalf of birds of prey which are clearly targeted with persecution in a way that other bird groups are not, as Tim Baynes must surely know (indeed discussions on this blog clearly indicate that many people think the RSPB does not go nearly far enough in fighting for raptors).