Grouse shooting: Labour calls for review amid habitat concerns

Labour has called for a review of grouse shooting, saying it damages important natural habitats.

The four-month grouse shooting season begins on Monday - the Glorious Twelfth - and sees shooters head to moors in Scotland and northern England.

Labour said there are "viable alternatives", like simulated shooting.

The government said protecting the rare moorland environment and also hen harriers, a critically endangered bird of prey, were priorities.

Grouse moors cover around 550,000 acres of land in England and Scotland - an area bigger than Greater London.

During a shoot, the wild grouse are driven - meaning flushed into the open by a line of beaters - and fly over a line of people who shoot them.

According to the RSPB, the sport is both economically important and popular in the shooting community - but a lack of effective regulation has led to "unacceptable" consequences for the environment.

These consequences include gamekeepers illegally killing birds of prey which are predators of grouse, in order to keep grouse numbers high, as well as burning vegetation.

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Bradford councillors vote to ban grouse shooting on Ilkley Moor

Bradford Council’s Labour Group votes by overwhelming majority to not renew grouse shooting rights for Ilkley Moor, a move that has been strongly welcomed by wildlife campaigners.

Bradford Councillors voted to not renew controversial grouse shooting rights for Ilkley Moor at City Hall tonight. The decision, which was taken by the Bradford Labour Group, is understood to have been supported by an ‘overwhelming majority’ of those councillors who voted.

Bradford Labour is the largest party on the Council and ending grouse shooting is also backed by Bradford Liberal Democrats, Bradford Green Party and the majority of Independent councillors.

Ban Bloodsports on Ilkley Moor (BBIM), which has lobbied Bradford Council to end grouse shooting on the moor since its formation in May 2014, has strongly welcomed the move. The group notes that over half of protected breeding bird species have declined or become locally extinct on Ilkley Moor, government figures collated by the RSPB Northern England office show. It has urged for efforts to now be focused on reversing the wildlife crash, which has negatively impacted on the moor’s population of specialist species, including Merlin, Dunlin and Short Eared Owl, could result in the loss of the site’s conservation designations if declines continue.

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Growing call for grouse shooting ban as season opens

By Claire Marshall

BBC Environment Correspondent

12 August 2016

More than 80,000 people have signed an online petition calling for a ban on grouse shooting as the season starts.

Critics argue that the sport is directly contributing to a rapid fall in the number of hen harriers, an endangered species of raptors.

The birds prey on red grouse chicks as part of their diet.

Animal rights activists argue that gamekeepers who manage the moors where the birds are reared kill hen harriers to preserve their grouse stocks.

It's thought that there are only three breeding pairs of hen harriers left in England.

Rural benefits

Countryside groups and the government say that grouse shooting is a legitimate activity that brings significant benefits to the rural economy.

They also argue that gamekeeper management helps other moorland bird species.

They say that by keeping fox numbers down, other species of birds such as lapwings, curlews and golden plovers are allowed to flourish.

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Grouse-shooting and the future of hen harriers

The Guardian, Friday 16 January 2015 19.12 GMT

It is wonderful to read that finally one of these people has been sent to jail (Gamekeeper jailed in Scotland’s first custodial sentence for killing bird of prey, 13 January). I’m sure gamekeepers will note how quickly this man was deserted by both the estate concerned and his professional association. He has apparently lost his job and his membership of the Scottish Gamekeepers Association.

This crime – beating to death a highly protected and rare bird of prey, after deliberately trapping it – is covered in Scotland by the law of vicarious liability. Presumably this will now be pursued against the gamekeeper’s employers. However, I would like to draw attention to what the SGA said after the earlier hearing: the SGA believed it was wrong for individuals “from one particular profession” to be under surveillance in their place of work without their knowledge.

Read on ...

RSPB picks a fight over grouse shooting

The RSPB has sparked a row with countryside groups over grouse shooting by calling for moors to be licenced amid claims the charity is becoming increasingly politicised. The charity is writing to all major political parties urging them to introduce a robust licensing system “to prevent the wanton destruction of wild birds”. It claims birds of prey such as the Hen harrier are being illegally killed on driven grouse moors – 50 per cent of which are designated as Special Protection Areas for the rare birds they support.

RSPB claims birds of prey such as the Hen harrier are being illegally killed on driven grouse moors – 50 per cent of which are designated as Special Protection Areas (SPA’S) for the rare birds they support 

However, the Countryside Alliance described the RSPB’s calls as “irresponsible”, arguing that grouse moor owners collectively spent more than £52 million each year on the upkeep and conservation of moorland.

Adrian Blackmore, shooting director for the CA, said: “Moor owners put in an enormous amount of their own money each year to manage and conserve those moors.

“If that money was to cease then the implications to conservation and rural economies would be enormous.”

The Moorland Association said the RSPB’s seemed intent on making a stir in public, rather than discussing the issue directly.

Read on ...