123,076 signatures. That’s quite a lot. Indeed, this is one of the most successful Parliamentary petitions in memory. The third e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting, which hit the 100,000-signature mark neccesary for a Parliamentary discussion on August 13th, a day after the ‘Inglorious Twelfth’, sailed on to gather another 23,076 before closing on September 21st, and consequentially will be debated in Parliament tommorow.
I will not hide the fact that I proudly signed this e-petition. Why did I sign it? Because, like many others, I felt that the status quo was getting us nowhere. As someone who goes on pheasant shoots regularly during the shooting season, I have a foot in both camps, so this is a contentious subject for me. But in the end, I simply do not want more of this practice. The people who signed this petition did so for all sorts of reasons: raptor persecution (see here and here for the most recent events, and here for the last ten years-including 17 this year), carbon emissions, protection of deforested land as ‘internationally rare habitat’ or the millions in taxpayer’s money grouse moors receive. But my own reason for signing it was the fact that, at the heart of it, the management of our uplands , whether it’s culling mountain hares or giving grouse medicated grit, always goes back to creating artificially high numbers of grouse to shoot. I signed it because I wanted to see upland conservation focus on all species, not just one.
I do not want to put the many responsible, conscientious gamekeepers out of a job. That was not the aim of this petition- it was only aimed at banning one form of grouse shooting, the type which requires over-intensive management of our uplands.
There are many people that feel it would be better to negotiate with irresponsible estates, and I understand that. Nine times out of ten I would agree that we can have conversation with BASC, GWCT, the Moorland Association and the NGO and SGA, who are well-meaning and committed people with a genuine love of the natural world. But these have been going on for decades, and despite full protection, many of our raptors are still being killed. Only three pairs of hen harriers bred this year, and four have been found dead on grouse moors. Not to mention the fact that several notorious raptor ‘black holes’ are still within major shooting organisations- Edradynate Estate, described as “one of the worst sites for wildlife crime”, is a major donor of the SGA. Indeed, Lord Hopetoun, owner the infamous Leadhills Estate (infamous for these reasons), is Chairman of the Scottish Moorland Group.
This petition represents collective frustration, but it also represents collective hope. We all signed this with the strong conviction that we can change the uplands for the better, and we can. Many of us are united not only in opposition to driven grouse shooting,but in support of rewilding the uplands, a holistic approach and an effective use of our least productive land. Much of Europe was much like ours- treeless, diminished and in the hands of the few. But change happened, and it will happen in Britain, not least from our hugely successful campaign. The reforestation of the land and the system of tenanted farms hasn’t stopped Norway from maintaining a viable grouse shooting industry, after all.
It would be foolish for me to say moving away from driven grouse shooting will be plain-sailing. But we can, and will, make it. It wasn’t until 2013, when two pairs of hen harriers both failed to breed in England, that people finally began to take notice of the struggles faced by hen harriers, not to mention goshawks, peregrines, golden eagles and many more besides. Think about that; In the space of 3 years, this issue has grown into demonstrations, captured the mainstream news and is now being discussed in Parliament.
We can all congratulate ourselves a job well done, and look forward to a brighter future. Even if we don’t win this time round, we have brought this subject to the centre stage, meaning we can only grow stronger.
A Naturalist Writes 