Jon Dunn, birder and author, says:
‘There’s nothing I’d like more than to see a ban implemented on driven grouse shooting in Britain. Let’s not mince our words – it’s a blood-sport, where people kill wild animals for fun.
But setting the immorality of that aside for a moment, it’s a rural industry with blood on its hands in more ways than one. To create unnaturally high populations of Red Grouse for people to line up and shoot, grouse moors are intensively managed.
Managed is a euphemism, though – land management on grouse moors all too often takes the form of the illegal shooting, trapping and poisoning of birds of prey, of which Hen Harriers are but one species that are regularly targeted. Grouse moors also do their best to exterminate otherwise blameless Mountain Hares, Hooded Crows, Ravens… the list goes on.
The grouse shooting industry will try to spin this with greenwash. They’ll tell you that their moors also have high breeding densities of upland waders like Curlews and Golden Plovers, thanks to their benevolent ‘management’.
Here’s a funny thing though. I live in an upland area surrounded by moors, on which are found Red Grouse as well as some of the best populations of those upland waders anywhere in Britain. And also many Hooded Crows, Ravens, and plenty of skuas too. None of the latter predators are ‘managed’, and we have a pretty good balance going on here. The only thing that’s missing is an artificially high population of Red Grouse, a driven grouse shooting industry calling the shots, and their apologists exaggerating the industry’s importance to the rural economy.
It’s time for a change, and it’s time to wash our hands of this outdated blood-sport that’s going on, out of sight and out of mind, in some of the most beautiful and remote corners of the British Isles. Maybe then, and only then, will the blood be washed from the hands of the land-managers in question who regularly flout the law and illegally kill our Hen Harriers.‘
To join Jon Dunn, please sign Gavin Gamble’s e-petition which calls for a ban on driven grouse shooting.
[registration_form]