So, that’s the end of the Red Grouse shooting season for another year. One year, not so far away, it will end for good. Last week the Moorland Association and BASC published their ‘misinfographic’ on grouse shooting – the one about which I have contacted the ASA. This week, the League Against Cruel Sports produced their…
Category: BAN DRIVEN GROUSE SHOOTING
Just someone’s anecdote
You remember that the NFU President was quoted by Farmers Weekly as saying that there are ‘10 times more ground-nesting birds in the Gloucestershire area since the cull started‘? Well, I ‘phoned up the NFU Press Office and what sounded like a nice young man told me that this was based on anecdotal evidence. No,…
Inglorious 12
This infographic has been sent to MPs by the Moorland Association and BASC recently. It allows me to make a few points. 1. They say: ‘Managing heather helps preserve and protect UK’s biggest carbon store‘. Not so according to The Times (1 October) reporting a recent study by Leeds University : ‘The owners of…
If nothing happens, something will happen
It seems like the grouse shooters are in a corner and they are not sure what to do next. So they are falling back on the tactic that has served them well up until now – do nothing, give no ground, wait and see. Grouse shooting is in a corner – a corner of its…
You should read this in Birdwatch
I have a great affection for Birdwatch magazine. First, they pay me to sound off about whatever is on my mind at the time and that is just completely lovely of them! Second, they put a Hen Harrier on the cover of the August issue with the headline ‘Stop killing our harriers’ and have been…
We’re all on the same side really?
Amanda Anderson has handled her own PR company and the public relations of the Moorland Association for several years – now she is the Director of the Moorland Association. But she seems to have rather lost her temper in drafting this letter to the Durham Times. Maybe her boss, Moorland Association Chair Robert Benson lost…
Nearly six months
On Thursday morning our e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting will be only six months old and yet it has gathered over 19,500 signatures. Thank you to all who have signed. I think it is perfectly possible that we will pass the 20,000 barrier by Christmas Day, maybe much earlier, and every added signature sends…
GWCT at half-cock, shooting from the hip and mistaking its target
We all make mistakes but it would normally be expected that, when made, a more gracious acknowledgement of them might follow than that of the GWCT here. It is completely untrue to suggest that an earlier draft of the letter went as follows: Dear Sir William Langley’s comment piece on the RSPB had us rolling…
Join the online rally for nature
On 9 December, the day before the close of the grouse shooting season, some of us are going to gather together at a rally to ask politicians to do more for nature. One of the things that I will be asking my MP is ‘What will the Labour Party do, if it forms part of…
I’ll be at the North West Birdwatching Festival on Saturday
I’ve never been to the North West Birdwatching Festival before and I’m looking forward to it. I’m giving a talk in the middle of the day which will start with Passenger Pigeons and end with Hen Harriers. But I am also looking forward to seeing a few birds – there will be birds won’t there?…