Wales: supporting a ban on driven grouse shooting

Voters in Wales are supporting a ban on driven grouse shooting according to the support for two e-petitions on the Westminster parliament website: one which calls for a ban on this fieldsport and the other which seeks to maintain the status quo.

	Signatures for a ban of driven grouse shooting	Signatures supporting grouse shooting
Aberavon	16	1
Aberconwy	64	6
Alyn and Deeside	35	8
Arfon	59	6
Blaenau Gwent	19	3
Brecon and Radnorshire	75	30
Bridgend	33	6
Caerphilly	42	7
Cardiff Central	40	4
Cardiff North	68	2
Cardiff South	53	5
Cardiff West	44	1
Carmarthen East and Dinefwr	68	13
Carmarthen West and South Prembrokeshire	52	6
Ceredigion	120	10
Clwyd South	42	45
Clwyd West	72	15
Cynon Valley	27	0
Delyn	50	17
Dwyfor Meirionydd	58	10
Gower	51	7
Islwyn	28	1
Llanelli	31	3
Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney	20	1
Monmouth	77	53
Montgomeryshire	91	25
Neath	28	2
Newport East	28	5
Newport West	33	2
Ogmore	31	3
Pontypridd	39	2
Preseli Pembrokeshire	77	11
Rhondda	21	2
Swansea East	16	0
Swansea West	31	2
Torfaen	44	4
Vale of Clwyd	47	12
Vale of Glamorgan	68	10
Wrexham	27	2
Ynys Mon	51	11
Total	1876	353

39 out of 40 Welsh constituencies are showing more signatures for the ‘ban’ petition than the ‘support’ petition – the exception is Clwyd South where supporters of intensive grouse shooting have a slim lead.

There is little grouse shooting in Wales, most occurs in the north of England and Scotland. In the UK as a whole, the support for a ban of intensive grouse shooting stands at around 38,000 signatures whereas support for this fieldsport stands at about 15,000 signatures and has not moved for several weeks.

Iolo Williams, Welsh naturalist and TV presenter, said, ”I am not, and never have been, anti-shooting but over the past decade, it has become patently obvious that the levels of bird of prey persecution associated with driven grouse shooting are sending some iconic species to the brink of extinction in many areas. This is totally unacceptable and is why I urge you to sign this petition.‘

Mark Avery, campaigner against intensive grouse shooting said ‘Wales is supporting a ban of this environmentally damaging fieldsport but the ‘ban’ petition closes in just two weeks time and the ‘pro’ petition will still then have several weeks of life left in it.  I’d ask animal lovers and environmentalists in Wales to sign the petition calling for a ban as soon as possible please‘.

[registration_form]