Dear Countryfile I’m pretty sure I am the type of person you think you are appealing to – interested in nature and the countryside – but I rarely watch you because you have such a blatant agenda of trying to paint a small subset of those of us who live in the countryside as…
Category: BAN DRIVEN GROUSE SHOOTING
Flood re
I’m not entirely sure I understand how this flood re thing works – it’s either because I’m a bit thick or because these explanations don’t quite do it for me (Association British Insurers, Defra, Aviva). You’ll notice that everyone is stressing the benefits to those living in flood-prone areas – which is nice, but I…
Thank you Scotland!
It’s very obvious that there are a lot of signatures coming our way from Scottish constituencies. This is wonderful! And, entirely appropriate. Although our e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting will eventually receive a response from Defra and not from Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, its aims are not country-specific. If we were to reach…
At last!
Very early this morning, in a surprise announcement, the Countryside Alliance said it would stop defending the indefensible, lay down its arms, and advise its members to switch to walked up shooting. ‘We recognise that driven grouse shooting is damaging the environment in so many ways that defending it is taking up too much of…
This sounds very bad
Hen Harrier “Lad” found dead on Speyside – read the full RSPB account Slight doubt about whether it was shot or not? Estate not named – quite rightly. see also blog by Raptorpersecutionscotland
Ban driven grouse shooting Facebook page
Our Facebook page is still here. Henry likes it.
Humberstone Bank Farm – beyond nature
Yorkshire Water is making an interesting offer – help them improve water quality, water retention and carbon storage on their land while ‘working with the sporting interest’ on an upland farm north of Blubberhouses. Blubberhouses Moor in Yorkshire is mentioned in Inglorious (page 59) as the site where a stroppy rich man, Lord Walsingham, shot…
Four interesting cases – #1
At the BAWC conference I read out some accounts of illegal persecution that had not resulted in court cases, let alone convictions. They illustrate what is apparently happening, and also how difficult it is to get a conviction because of the circumstances of these crimes. This is the first of four such accounts I’ll publish…
Mountain of mountain hares
A few lads out and about on the Lecht road a couple of weeks ago. I wonder what they were up to? Take a closer look… The back of that vehicle is full of a mountain of Mountain Hares. So the voluntary restraint seems to be working as well as we might have expected then?…
Torch the parks
As I drove north up the A1 through Yorkshire, plumes of smoke were rising from our National Parks: the North York Moors on the right and the Yorkshire Dales on the left. They were being torched in order to provide the right conditions for unnaturally high densities of Red Grouse. Passing through parts of Yorkshire,…