Wildlife Matters ventured to the Upland moors on the so-called ‘Glorious Twelfth What we found was a scene of Blood on the Moors – the ‘Inglorious Twelfth ‘. This experience underscored the reasons why we vehemently oppose the Grouse Shooting.
The season for red grouse shooting starts today. Tens of thousands of red grouse will be shot over the next two months, covering the upland moors of England in rivers of blood.
The shooting estates claim that grouse shooting is a traditional field sport. That isn’t true, just as the Countryside Alliance claimed that fox hunting is a country tradition. The truth is that driven Grouse shooting is a uniquely perversive British pastime.
The shooting estates defend grouse shooting as a traditional field sport, a claim that doesn’t hold up under scrutiny. They practice what is known as ‘driven Grouse shooting ‘, a method where a line of beaters’ drive’ the grouse towards lines of ‘static’ guns. This method, heavily subsidised by taxpayers, has a devastating impact on the environment and other wildlife.
They claim this is ‘sport’, but this is farcical – ‘Guns’ need very little skill to hit a dense cloud of low-flying birds with a repeat loader gun. Another claim is that grouse shooting is traditional, but that isn’t true either.
It has around 150 years of history, only becoming popular in Britain when Queen Victoria and Prince Albert bought the Balmoral Estate and developed repeated firing of guns. The estates claim shooting is good for the economy, which has some truth, but this does not stand up to scrutiny.
What is true is that big money is made by estate owners who can charge up to £10,000 a day for a 6 to 8-gun shooting party to shoot grouse on their taxpayer-subsidised shooting estates.
It would be far more economical to ban the shooting and rewild the estates with subsidies currently going to wealthy landowners. This alternative, along with other innovative conservation methods, could inspire a new era of wildlife preservation.
Another claim is that the shooting estates conserve rare habitats, maintain biodiversity, and protect wildlife.
Let’s explore this: Wild red Grouse live in the heather-clad hills of the British uplands. They are hardy birds that live in the upland hills all year round and eat predominantly heather shoots.
The shooting estates have done nothing beyond increasing the number of wild red Grouse by several hundred per cent. They have achieved this by killing the native wildlife that also calls the upland moors home.
Red Grouse are not reared and released like pheasants and partridges. Still, gamekeepers manage the moors to maximise the number of birds available at the beginning of the shooting season.
The heather is burned on a rotation of around four years to create a patchwork of old heather used by the Grouse for shelter and nesting.
Young heather is the leading food of Grouse. Wet areas (known as peat bogs) are drained, devastatingly impacting climate change, as peat stores carbon very efficiently. Still, when you burn it, it releases that carbon back into the atmosphere. But, the heather doesn’t do well in sodden soils, so they burn the peat, and any natural predators such as Foxes, Stoats, and Corvids are shot, snared, or poisoned.
Campaigners such as Chris Packham, Ruth Tingay, and Mark Avery have raised awareness of the killing of protected species such as Hen Harriers, Golden Eagles, Peregrine Falcons, and Buzzards.
All these birds are protected by law, and much evidence of egg and chick destruction, poisoned carcasses, and trapping. Shooting has been collected, but prosecutions seem rarer than hen harrier eggs on a grouse moor.
The hen harrier, a ground-nesting raptor, is particularly affected, as it lives on open moors and does eat red Grouse. Scientists have calculated that there is enough habitat in the UK for around 2,600 hen harrier pairs, yet there are only about 600. Golden eagles and peregrines are also known from scientific studies to be rare or absent from grouse shooting areas of the country.
The Grouse shooting industry is not the economy-saving cash generator it claims to be. Our moors and wildlife are victims of a ‘bastardisation’ of a monoculture landscape and the relentless need to make money at any cost. And the actual price is based on our climate.
The carbon emissions from burnt peat mean the UK will never reach ‘Net zero’.
In addition, the snaring, poisoning, and shooting of protected birds of prey and native wildlife, as well as the mismanagement of the moorlands, which are the source of around 70% of the UK’s freshwater, are costing homeowners money.
And let us not forget the water companies now have to filter the carbon from the water (something peat bogs do naturally), not forgetting the misery and destruction of the floods that have increased so dramatically in recent years – costing hundreds of millions of pounds, because rainfall that previously landed on the hills and soaked through the peat beds and has done so for millennia can now only “run-off” the surface crashing downhill towards the nearest river, and putting it into a full flood in a flash.
To add here, the straightening of our rivers and drains for the benefit of farmers to use ever larger machinery has also increased the flow speed in the flood rivers, making the impact even more devastating for the towns and villages around the open moorlands.
It is important to acknowledge that the so-called ‘Glorious 12th’ is nothing but a celebration of the mass killing of wild birds, which is carried out by people with guns, supported by dogs and hired helpers known as ‘Beaters’ who drive the birds towards the waiting guns. This cruel and barbaric practice serves no valid purpose and should be condemned.
It is hypocritical to condemn a fox that kills a whole coop of chickens while ignoring the millions of birds that are killed every year for the sake of ‘fun’ by these shooters. It is time to put an end to this senseless violence against innocent animals and promote compassion towards all living creatures.”
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Further Reading
End Driven Grouse Shooting – League Against Cruel Sports
Should We Ban Grouse Shooting in the UK – House of Commons Library