New moves to ban grouse shooting in Scotland

A new campaign to ban landowners from mass shooting grouse on sporting estates is now backed by over 10,000 people, including TV naturalists, conservationists and animal welfare groups.


The move comes in the wake of mounting concern about the illegal poisoning or shooting of birds of prey. Birds are killed in order to protect grouse so that there are more available to be shot for sport.


A petition calling on the UK government to ban driven grouse shooting, which can kill thousands of birds a day, has now gathered over 11,000 signatures, enough to ensure that the government must respond.

One of the first to sign was Chris Packham, presenter of the BBC’s Springwatch, Autumwatch and Winterwatch programmes. “Real conservationists have run out of patience with the illegal persecution of raptors and the continued abuse of our uplands which are drained, burned and denuded of life,” he said.

“We want the law to be upheld and sustainable management implemented, that’s all, and in a reasonable world that wouldn’t be a big ask.”

The petition has also been supported by Bill Oddie, a veteran TV naturalist. “At a time when wildlife is being abused all over the world, killing for fun is surely sacrilege,” he said.

“Grouse are the targets, but animals are snared, birds of prey are poisoned, and moorlands are damaged and degraded. This is nothing more than bringing death to country life.”

The Cairngorms National Park Authority has voiced concern about the increasingly intensive way in which grouse moors are managed.

The petition was started by the wildlife blogger, Mark Avery, who said he was aiming for 100,000 signatures. It describes driven grouse shooting as “economically, ecologically and socially unnecessary”.

“People want to see the end of industrial-scale killing,” he said. “We need sustainable management of the Scottish highlands not intensive management for the 'sport' of grouse shooting.”

Avery’s latest petition is backed by the League Against Cruel Sports and the Scottish animal protection charity, OneKind. They both argue that grouse shooting is cruel, and that its increasing intensification is harming wildlife.
The petition is also being promoted by the influential blog, Raptor Persecution Scotland. “The grouse shooting industry has, for 62 years, shown itself to be either unwilling or incapable of abiding by the legislation,” it said.

Other conservation groups are calling for grouse shooting to be controlled by a licensing regime. “A grouse moor licensing system would help to remove the criminal practices that are associated with much driven grouse shooting,” said Patrick Stirling-Aird, secretary of the Scottish Raptor Study Group.

The Scottish Green Party’s environment spokesman, Mark Ruskell, said: “Unless governments and landowners can resolve all of these problems through regulation and reform the case for banning intensive driven grouse shooting will become compelling.”

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/14386246.New_moves_to_ban_grouse_shooting_in_Scotland/?ref=mr&lp=14


OH's father was a gamekeeper for a big estate near Inveness.   In the end he became so sickened by it he started using a camera instead of a gun.

Good news! All bloodsports should be banned.

Agreed, although with the caveat that I don't have a problem with hunting for food.

sassy wrote:Agreed, although with the caveat that I don't have a problem with hunting for food.

I'm sure they say they do it for food anyway - a big fat lie.

It is a lie, what I meant was, food that you eat yourself.  No way could they eat the number they kill.

What people perhaps don't realise is that grouse shooting devastates the predator population, and in order for some rich twat to get his 1K kill quota of grouse, they burn the landscape and kill natural predators including birds of prey, foxes etc.

They do indeed HT, I really hope they ban it.

of course ...IF the moors are no longer subjected to controlled burning......they will dissapear as heather moors...

so.....who's going to pay for the men and man hours to do that?

sheep farmers dont do it any more. Indeed there are less and less sheep farms on the moors....

Now I dont particularly agree with "driven shooting" and dont indulge in it

but ....

try this if you have the time

visit an RSPB reserve and do a "diversity count"

then do the same on the land operated by a well run shoot....


guess which one had the highest biodiversity (number of species)


most "reserves" are pathetically low in different numbers of species.....

and many are dominated by corvids with few if any song birds....

moreover most of those figures about raptors are simple plain garbage, propaganda by politically influenced and lying bodies.....

Indeed MOST raptors in britain are on the increase...

their decline was NOT due to shooting or shooting interests...but farmers using DDT....yes ,,,its taken this long for the effects to wear off..

BUT buzzards
Kites
merlins
sparrow hawks
even peregrins

are increasing....

more over

without grouse shooting....grouse will die out within 5 years....

without areas of burnt moor land within which to feed, and subjected to unregulated predation their numbers will crash...

but then common sense and a measured approach is NOT the mark of these anti type idiots...

and before Ragga says anything...I wouldnt.,...you would destroy the environment totally for your "artificial" fibers....

Can I ask if you have done anything about your pm as you haven't replied?

HoratioTarr wrote:What people perhaps don't realise is that grouse shooting devastates the predator population, and in order for some rich twat to get his 1K kill quota of grouse, they burn the landscape and kill natural predators including birds of prey, foxes etc.

I just object to it in principle really. People having "fun" killing birds isn't really on IMO.

sassy wrote:Can I ask if you have done anything about your pm as you haven't replied?

thought edds had fixed it...

Lord Foul wrote:

sassy wrote:Can I ask if you have done anything about your pm as you haven't replied?

thought edds had fixed it...

Nope, she has been busy and couldn't work it out.


PS, if you had replied to my pm and said that, I could have let you know hours ago.

HoratioTarr wrote:What people perhaps don't realise is that grouse shooting devastates the predator population, and in order for some rich twat to get his 1K kill quota of grouse, they burn the landscape and kill natural predators including birds of prey, foxes etc.

I've always been of 2 minds with these issues; as a need to feed the family with what we grew & raised and hunted --- our family would have really struggled with proper nutritional meals. 6 siblings plus 2 adults...we could put away the groceries at any meal and there were never any 'left-overs'. So hunting the seasonal deer/goose/duck/prairie chickens/pheasant/quill/as well as fishing for bass/crappie/catfish was a necessary process.


But once it became a 'trophy' driven sporting event and hunting licenses were sold and a 'tagging' process became the law of the land --- we humans tipped the scale for what mother nature kept in balance and it became skewed and one species was over powering another.

 “People want to see the end of industrial-scale killing,” he said. “We need sustainable management of the Scottish highlands not intensive management for the 'sport' of grouse shooting.”
Avery’s latest petition is backed by the League Against Cruel Sports and the Scottish animal protection charity, OneKind. They both argue that grouse shooting is cruel, and that its increasing intensification is harming wildlife.
The petition is also being promoted by the influential blog, Raptor Persecution Scotland. “The grouse shooting industry has, for 62 years, shown itself to be either unwilling or incapable of abiding by the legislation,” it said.  

We had a bounty on coyote ears when I was in high school and the population of our area coyotes nearly were wiped out --- then the deer became grossly over breeding and the 'wasting disease' became invasive and deer to auto accidents grew in higher numbers.  Mess around with mother nature and something gets out of balance rapidly. 

Our government {parks & recreation} declared the 'Red Tailed Hawk' a protected predator bird; now you can drive down any rural highway and see one perched on every other fence post or electrical pole --- they even come into my south facing porch to prey upon my slower moving mourning doves that come in to eat.
And now we have diminished populations of: quill - pheasant - and the wonderful prairie chicken are nearly gone!
The 'Lesser Prairie Chicken' >>>

Twill never happen, big money will keep it alive

I have eaten BLACK GROUSE & BLACK CAPERCAILLIE.

Do they make famous grouse whisky out of grouse birds?
If they do, then they can kill them, if not, leave the little feckers alone.

eddie wrote:Do they make famous grouse whisky out of grouse birds?
If they do, then they can kill them, if not, leave the little feckers alone.

Had to be said sassy! It's a serious issue!

Stormee wrote:Twill never happen, big money will keep it alive

I have eaten BLACK GROUSE & BLACK CAPERCAILLIE.

Never - Say NEVER!
If the animal rights activists could get the English to set-side those god awful fox hunts --- and all of the pomp & circumstances that went along with those events; well, I have hopes for this Grouse to live to see another generation!     

Fox hunting is illegal now, Conservatives want to bring it back and lots of Hunts pretend to go drag hunting but actually go fox hunting.  They are not prosecuted as much as they should be because they have so much influence.

Grouse moors, beautiful purple heather, ban Grouse shooting, no heather just Gorse, weeds ect, and after a few years,NO GROUSE, SAME WITH PHEASANT.No Pheasant shooting they will die out.

nicko wrote:Grouse moors, beautiful purple heather,  ban Grouse shooting,  no heather just Gorse, weeds ect,  and after a few years,NO GROUSE,     SAME WITH PHEASANT.No Pheasant shooting they will die out.

This post and idea got lost in translation {at least within my understanding} could you explain why the lack of hunting Grouse will be the geographical change in environment around there?  I'm not comprehending that regional impact from the lack of human hunting?

A common argument from pro-hunting and pro-shooting people is that their abuse of animals and birds is actually contributing to the conservation of the animals and birds. I guess they encourage the birds to breed and protect them - until it's time to blast them with guns of course.

Think Nicko might be saying, correct me if I'm wrong Nicko, that the estates burn the area every year to kill the gorse so the heather can grow.

I rather like gorse. I hope they're only burning their own gorse.