Dr Therese Coffey is the junior minister at Defra. Now that Gavin Gamble’s e-petition in favour of banning driven grouse shooting has passed 10,000 signatures Dr Coffey will need to sign off a government response.
In order that she does not make Defra look even more foolish than they do already I am providing a reading list for the minister to inform her response.
Please sign this e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting and put Dr Coffey on the spot.
It was under a Conservative government that the Protection of Birds Act came into being in 1954 – a private member’s bill introduced by a Conservative MP, Lady Tweedsmuir, member of parliament for Aberdeen South.
Unfortunately the part of this act that protects birds of prey from persecution is routinely and systematically flouted over 60 years after the law was passed. The writing was on the wall as how the grouse shooting interests would regard the law when writing of the Hen Harrier in his 1958 book, Richard Waddington, a grouse moor owner from Scotland, described the Hen Harrier as ‘a nasty bird of evil habits. It quarters the moor a few feet above the ground and pounces on grouse or chicks it catches unawares. It must be got rid of at all cost. Whenever I see a hen harrier I regret that pole traps have been made illegal.’ Such sentiments are rarely as honestly or forthrightly voiced these days, but there are many who practise grouse shooting who would nod in agreement when they read those words, and too many who still act in accordance with them.
Last year, an armed man was filmed setting poletraps on a grouse moor in the Yorkshire Dales National Park and was let off with a police caution.
Also last year, the spokesperson for the Moorland Association, Amanda Anderson, was quoted as saying ‘If we let the hen harrier in, we will soon have nothing else’ and that shows that the approach of the grouse shooting industry to the Hen Harrier and the law has not changed very much in six decades.
How long is government going to let wildlife crime run rampant in our upland? We will soon know when Dr Coffey responds to Gavin Gamble’s e-petition.
Please sign this e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting and put Dr Coffey on the spot – the more signatures, the harder it is for Defra to do nothing.
The government response should:
- be published within 2 weeks of Gavin Gamble’s e-petition reaching 10,000 signatures
- announce that vicarious liability for wildlife crimes will be introduced in England because of the unacceptably high levels of wildlife crime
- announce that Defra will ask the RSPB to come forward with proposals for licensing of shooting estates within a month and that Defra will respond to them by Christmas
- acknowledge the level of concern about driven grouse shooting which led to 123,077 signatures being gained last year for an absolute ban on this hobby (I’m not expecting Dr Coffey to say anything nicer than that about a ban)
- confirm that Defra is looking at removal of farming subsidies from grouse moors in its post-Brexit agricultural strategy
- confirm that the evidence for wider environmental damage of heather burning has increased recently and that this is an issue that government will address and that this will require widespread changes to grouse moor management (burning and draining)
- mention where the government is with dealing with the RSPB complaint to the EU over unsustainable moorland management due to grouse shooting practices
- acknowledge that the plight of the Hen Harrier has not improved in two breeding seasons since the Defra Hen Harrier plan was launched and that the grouse shooting industry has not cleaned up its act and is on a last warning
- announce that the details of the 15-year Natural England Hen Harrier study will be published by Christmas 2017 in a government report with further recommendations for Hen Harrier conservation
- acknowledge that wildlife crime applies to many other protected species other than the Hen Harrier
- announce that the National Capital Committee has been asked to compile a report on ecosystem services and grouse moor management
- announce a review of the economic costs and benefits of intensive grouse moor management will be carried out by independent academics and published by Christmas 2018.
The government response should not:
- say that funding of the NWCU is a sufficient response to combatting bird of prey persecution in the uplands (because nobody who knows has ever suggested such a thing)
- say or suggest that grouse shooting provides a nett economic benefit to the nation (because there are no such figures)
- suggest that the current Hen Harrier Action Plan is remotely fit for purpose
- praise gamekeepers
- conflate benefits of all shooting (economic or environmental) with benefits of grouse shooting (because it makes the government department and/or its ministers look either stupid or biased)