When a man with a fairly posh accent says, on the BBC’s flagship morning news programme, ‘Any bird that gets in the way of that [the cash crop of grouse shooting] is annihilated‘ then it’s time to start thinking of selling your grouse moor before its value plummets.
David Cobham was talking to John Humphreys last week on Today (54mins-58mins approx) and also said ‘You actually see a gamekeeper walk up, raise his gun, shoot a Hen Harrier as it comes off the nest, walk forward, pick up the corpse and walk out of shot‘.
Here’s that video again…
Now maybe there should have been some ‘allegedly’s in there but that’s what he said and you can still hear it.
David also said, ‘I just hope that people make enough fuss to force the government to forget about any other measures, but they must license grouse moors‘ – I’d go a bit further than that, I can’t see anything other than a ban working, but let’s go through the licensing process first if we must. And I assume ‘any other measures’ includes brood meddling too!
Yes, it’s been a really bad few days for the grouse shooters Bad days (1), Bad days (2), Bad days (3), Bad days (4).
Well, for that interview alone, do think about buying David’s book, Bowland Beth, which you will find at the Bird Fair this weekend. Here’s my review of it and you can hear David talking about the book and the issue in the Authors’ Forum at the Bird Fair on Saturday 14:15 – 15:00.
And this week there will be quite a few reviews of books you can buy at the Bird Fair and links to their authors’ appearances if relevant. Watch these spaces.
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