Today is the start of the grouse shooting season when shotgun
wielding ‘hunters’ who probably can’t tell the difference a Common Buzzard and
a Golden Eagle, (unsurprising really as they’re not likely see either species
on a grouse moor) aim to shoot as many Red Grouse as they can for pleasure.
You may ask what this has to do with Northants Bird Club, after all the nearest moor is almost a hundred miles away. Well, for a start,
we regularly run trips to the parts of the UK to appreciate the birds and
habitat we’re not graced with here.
Secondly, it’s the county’s own Mark Avery who’s behind the
campaign to ban driven grouse shooting.
I’ve been out delivering leaflets in Northampton and seen a
small increase in votes over the last few days but we’re still under 100 votes
in each of the constituencies I’ve delivered to. The petition currently has
around 87,000 signatures, at
100,000 signatures this petition will be considered for debate
in Parliament.
An excerpt from Chris Packham’s press release:
Foxes, stoats, weasels and crows are
legally shot or killed in traps or snares. Birds of prey are illegally shot,
poisoned, trapped or trampled in their nests. This is big business. A day’s
shooting can cost a fortune and a single shooter can blast hundreds of grouse
from the sky. But ask the people downstream about
grouse moors being drained – their houses were full of water off the hills last
winter.
Yesterday the BBC reported on the 8th tagged Golden Eagle to go missing in a notorious area of Scotland: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-37033067
Please sign and help to ban this out-dated and wildlife-destroying practice once and for all.
