If Defra were a school it would be judged inadequate, would be served a notice to improve and be put in special measures. But it isn’t, so it jogs on as the government department near the bottom of the political pecking order and with few friends in government or in the real world. Defra sprung…
Category: LEAD AMMUNITION
Countryside Alliance – not so witty, but not so daft
Following the RSPB’s and WWT’s witty open letter to shooting organisations to join them in a call for a ban on the use of toxic lead shotgun ammunition in the UK, the Countryside Alliance have rapidly responded. Their response isn’t quite so joke-laden, and amounts to a leaden ‘No, won’t!’. Quelle surprise! The Countryside Alliance…
WWT and RSPB call out failed shooting organisations, and government, on lead ammunition (at last)
Comments Off on WWT and RSPB call out failed shooting organisations, and government, on lead ammunition (at last)
WWT and RSPB have written an open letter to ‘shooting organisations’ (BASC, BGA, CA, CLA, GWCT, MA, NGO, SACS, SLE – but apparently not SGO) calling for them to join in a call for a statutory end to the use and sale of lead shotgun ammunition. The letter has two fine jokes in it where…
The shooting of Woodcock
Woodcock shooting is a somewhat hidden activity – few birders, I think, realise the scale of shooting with something like 160,000 birds being shot each year. The UK population is around 110,000 birds in spring (based on there being c55,000 males) and so if all Woodcock shot in the UK were UK-bred the population wouldn’t…
The man underneath the hat
Wild Justice has recently started subscribing to The Shooting Times – just to have a look at what they are saying. So, every Thursday an issue arrives at my home. When I saw this week’s cover I thought to myself ‘Yet another shooter getting out of his depth’ but I thought there was something familiar…
Press release – New UK Red List for birds: more than one in four species in serious trouble
New UK Red List for birds: more than one in four species in serious trouble The UK Red List for birds now stands at 70 species, a net increase of three from the last update in 2015. Swift, House Martin, Greenfinch and Bewick’s Swan added to the UK Red List, a growing list of birds…
Ban the use of lead ammunition please Wales
Yesterday morning, this petition to the Welsh Senedd was on 600 signatures, I was the 601st, but today it has increased fivefold. It closes on 4 August, which is Wednesday. All petitions with 10,000 signatures are considered for debate in the Senedd and that would be great although it seems a big ask to get…
An interesting paper
This paper, open access, was published overnight. The Summary does, unusually for a scientific paper, sum it up!
Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and lead in meat
Last week Wild Justice published five blog posts about lead in game meat sold by two leading supermarkets, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose. On Monday: Sainsbury’s game meat – and why we tested its lead levels did just that – it was because Sainsbury’s were misleading and evasive about lead levels in game meat on sale in…
This is worth a welcome
In response to this (click here) the usual suspects, except the National Gamekeepers Organisation, have said this: A strong game market and acceptance of game meat will mean a strong future for shooting. The continued use of lead shot has become a growing blocker for the game market. This was a key driver in the…