Yesterday’s Countryfile programme featured the Peak District (which is lovely – I was there on a couple of days last week) and shooting as a countryside pursuit. Andre Farrar, RSPB spokesperson (c14mins 40 secs into the programme) talking about grouse moor management: ‘…while the illegal persecution of birds of prey is tolerated, when the uplands…
Category: BAN DRIVEN GROUSE SHOOTING
A podcast
On Thursday, I headed down to Wiltshire (before heading up to the Peak District). I met up with Charlie Moores of Birders Against Wildlife Crime and recorded this podcast. Register for Hen Harrier day in the Peak District. Sign the e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting. Visit the Birders Against Wildlife Crime website.
A grouse with M&S
Dear Marc Bolland Last year you came under some pressure because of the stance of M&S on selling Red Grouse meat in your London stores. We are approaching the Inglorious Twelfth again, how time flies!, and I am writing to ask you to be more open and informative to your customers this year. I would…
The Shooting Times – don’t you just love ’em?
I did break the habit of a lifetime and bought The ST yesterday because I had been told it was full of jokes – and it was! As I flicked through it I couldn’t help but notice that there were about ( I stress ‘about’ – my eyes did begin to glaze over) 150 blokes…
Let’s be reasonable.
I don’t know how often readers of this blog go back a few days and read the comments that continue to accrue on earlier posts. And I don’t know whether I would recommend it either – sometimes a late post is the best of the lot, but not always. So, I have little idea how…
Talking to the deaf
Last week the RSPB wrote to the Moorland Association thus; Amanda Anderson Director The Moorland Association 16 Castle Park Lancaster LA1 1YG Dear Ms Anderson The RSPB has always sought to work with the sport shooting community to create grouse moors that are environmentally sustainable and provide a safe home for birds of prey and…
One month down – eleven more to go!
At 08:34 this morning my (our!) e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting completed its first month and had accumulated 5880 signatures. That is really good progress – and there are 11 months to go. Our e-petition is in the top 1.5% of most-signed of all e-petitions, on all subjects, on the government website and still…
Be an ethical consumer – turn your back on grouse!
In a week of grouse-related, Hen Harrier-related, moor manager-related, news – this is the latest, and potentially most important. Following the announcement of the location for the Derbyshire Hen Harrier Day event and the attendance of Chris Packham, and the sacking of Simon Barnes from The Times (which may or may not be related to…
The curious case of Simon Barnes’s departure from The Times
Simon Barnes is a very good writer. I was at an event, organised by the excellent World Land Trust, where I saw Simon last week. Although I have met him a few times before, I don’t know him well, but I plucked up the courage to go and talk to the great man and we…
Banning driven grouse shooting – a message to wishy-washy liberals
Our e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting in England is going really well – yesterday (we are still in Week Four) it passed 4600 and 4700 signatures. One of the reasons why some of you will hesitate to sign it, as I hesitated to launch it, is because you don’t like banning things (or at…