ARGUMENTS FOR SHOOTING...
 Welcome to a section that blows away every argument, hypocritical comment, and blatant manure (using the more polite country term) that the shooting lobby come up with. Additions welcome!


...AND THE TRUTH.

Grouse shooting conserves the heather moorlands

The vast tracts of heather moorland we have on this island would actually be much smaller without human intervention. These moorlands were created by accident by overfarming and deforestation by bronze age farmers. Currently moorland is burnt every season which kills pretty much everything off except the heather! The new fresh shoots of heather then provide food for the artificially high grouse population. If left alone the majority of the lower moorlands would eventually revert to woodland. This would not only support the species already found on moorland but help reintroduce a greater variety of threatened flora and fauna. It would also help to slow global warming as woodland absorbs more carbon dioxide and creates more oxygen than barren moorland.
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Shooting conserves the countryside for all to enjoy.

Ramblers and tourists may disagree with this when they come up to the moors at the weekend and find vast areas closed off to everyone apart from a small number of privileged shooters. Probably more money is lost by discouraging tourists than is gained by the shooting industry. On large shooting estates significant loads of grain are distributed around to feed the large bird populations. This also boosts the local population of rats which in turn encourages a high population of adders (which have a taste for rats). This is downright dangerous for walkers. Hopefully this method of feeding may change with the first 'corporate manslaughter' prosecutions for this stupid and irresponsible behaviour.
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Wildlife is conserved for shooting

The only wildlife conserved are the game birds which are shot. All other species which either compete for food or are predators of game birds (including many endangered protected species) are regularly poisoned, gassed, trapped and shot. This is carried out by paid employees of shooting estates referred to as 'gamekeepers'. Some of these gamekeepers are caught committing wildlife crimes and are convicted and fined. The paltry fines will generally be paid by the estate and the routine of killing will continue. Due to the nature of the crimes which are carried out on large estates with little or no public access, these activities go on undetected. For every gamekeeper caught killing protected species a hundred others will carry out the same crime without fear of being caught.
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At least the birds that are shot for sport are eaten

The majority of grouse shot are indeed eaten and exported as far as the posh restaurants in New York. In contrast so many pheasant and partridge are shot each year by the big shooting estates, they are simply buried by their thousands in pits.
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It is the only meat reared in a wild and free environment

Grouse are indeed reared in a wild environment but in such huge concentrations that parasites and disease often hit stocks to bring the population back to a natural level. In contrast the 5 largest breeders of pheasant in this country use factory farming techniques adapted from chicken farming. When released into the wild these pheasants can barely walk let alone fly! It is really a poor man's form of 'canned hunting'.
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Thousands of jobs depend on shooting

Hunting also used this argument and we've hardly seen the widespread devastation to rural society that they threatened would happen if hunting was banned! The majority of jobs linked to shooting are casual part time seasonal work (such as beaters). It is cash-in-hand and no tax or NI contributions are paid and there is also the obvious temptation of benefit fraud. If shooting was banned there would be no reason for gamekeepers and therefore wildlife crime would also be reduced.
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Shooting is good for the rural environment

Lead used in shotgun cartridges has poisoned large areas of the countryside. The adjacent pictures show a typically small shooting estate at Sharpcliffe Rocks in the Staffordshire Moorlands. Thousands of spent cartridges have simply been dumped with no respect for the countryside. The ground is that unusual reddish colour due to the thousands of steel ends to the cartridges simply rusting away - but how much lead is in this lot as well? Walking through this estate you will notice an eerie silence - not a single small bird or mammal can be seen or heard. This implies either shooters taking pot shots at anything that moves or poisoning on a large scale.Sharpcliffe rocks

Sharpcliffe Rocks



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