The Petition.

I just took a look in on the progress of the petition to 'Ban Driven Grouse Shooting In England' and was pretty disappointed to find only 4,152 have already signed. 

OK this petition runs for twelve months, but I asked myself....where are all the one million plus RSPB members who I presume are all 'bird lovers' and are surely all aware of the issues surrounding illegal bird persecution which is now completely out of control on our grouse moors. I'm quite sure a fair percentage of these RSPB members are not in the least concerned about most of the activities in and around the shooting industry, and don't actually oppose the 'sport', but surely all of them are not prepared to tolorate the killing any longer in the name of protection of a gamebird and those who shoot them....so how come such a shortfall in signatures.   

Grouse shooters would have you believe such utter nonsense that the uplands would be concreted over if the money from grouse shooting went away. In England, almost every grouse moor is designated for its nature conservation interest, and there are lots of things you just cannot do on such land, they include planting conifers all over the moors, putting wind turbines all over, and overgrazing. 

In a nutshell....

Shooting is a ‘sport’ - in this case grouse shooting - that is mostly available to the rich with nothing better to do than to kill wild animals for fun. It’s a minority interest, and for me personally isn't acceptable under any circumstances. Sadly this view is not shared by everyone, and that includes some people who share the same interest - passion even - in birds as me. But these 'Guardians of the Countryside' are intent on getting rid of anything by any means that gets in the way of their interests, and eliminating the Hen Harrier in England has almost been successful for them.

Give a little thought to signing This Petition....but if you are a regular follower of Birds2blog, my bet is that you've already done so. 

I'd sooner be birding!....and have some to do this week hopefully.