Driven grouse shooting – what it is and why it must be banned.

Wild Justice is campaigning for driven grouse shooting to be banned. Our petition to get driven grouse shooting banned is fast approaching 62,000 signatures and if it reaches 100,000 by 22 May then it will be debated in parliament. This post sets out the reasons why people are joining together to call for a ban of this out dated so-called sport. If, after reading it, you agree, then the link to the petition is at the end of this post – thank you!

Driven grouse shooting is a hobby – it is killing wildlife for fun – which takes place in the uplands of Britain (mostly Scotland and northern England, but to a lesser extent in North Wales and Northern Ireland).

The target species is the Red Grouse, a native and wild species found only in Britain and Ireland although until recently the Red Grouse was regarded as a subspecies of the Willow Ptarmigan or Willow Grouse (which is distributed around the globe at similar latitudes in Scandinavia, across Russia, Canada and the USA).

Although the Willow Grouse is hunted at a very low level elsewhere in the world, driven grouse shooting only occurs in the UK. Driven grouse shooting is like driven Pheasant or partridge shooting in that the shooters wait in a line for the birds to be chased over their heads by a line of ‘beaters’ and as the scared birds fly past the shooters blast away at them. This is not hunting, it’s simply waiting for living targets to be chased towards you. The record ‘bag’ for a day’s grouse shooting remains the 2929 Red Grouse shot at Abbeystead in Lancashire on 12 August 1915 and even though that’s a long time ago c500,000 Red Grouse are shot for fun each year in this day and age.

Red Grouse live in the hills of northern England, North Wales, Scotland and a few places in Northern Ireland. The main grouse moors are in northern England and south and east Scotland. National Parks such as the North Yorks Moors, the Yorkshire Dales and the Cairngorms have lots of grouse moors where heather is burned to create conditions for Red Grouse to survive through the summer to be shot at in the autumn, predator control using snares and traps is employed on a massive scale to kill native predatory wildlife such as Stoats and Foxes, medicated grit is provided in trays so that the Red Grouse can fight off some parasites that their high densities on grouse moors encourage, Mountain Hares are culled (mostly in Scotland) because they are regarded as disease carriers which might affect Red Grouse numbers and drainage has been introduced to favour heather vegetation over patches of natural boggy vegetation.

Red Grouse are not captive-reared like Pheasants and Red-legged Partridges.

Those supporting the campaign to ban driven grouse shooting are concerned about one or more of the following issues:

• the scale of (legal) killing of Red Grouse for fun – around 500,000 birds in an average year
• the scale of (legal) killing of Carrion Crows, Foxes, Stoats etc to ‘protect’ Red Grouse for a few weeks so that they can be shot in the shooting season
• the scale of illegal killing of birds of prey such as Golden and White-tailed Eagles, Peregrine Falcons, Hen Harriers and Short-eared Owls as well as mammals such as Badgers and Hedgehogs
• the scale of killing of Mountain Hares
• the use of lead shot as the ammunition of choice which affects the environment and contaminates any Red Grouse which enter the human food chain
• the use of veterinary medicines provided in open trays on grouse moors which may affect other species and end up in grouse meat sold in restaurants
• damage to protected upland habitats through burning and drainage to attempt to engineer a heather monoculture for Red Grouse for shooting
• damage to carbon stores in upland peat soils from burning
• increased flood risk caused by drainage and heather burning
• the industrial landscape created by intensive burning
• the block to a more natural landscape created by intensive grouse shooting
• the dominance of grouse shooting in our upland National Parks which ought to be exemplars of sustainable wildlife-rich management
• smoke pollution from burning on grouse moors affects thousands of people who have no interest in shooting grouse

That’s a long list. We’ll bring you more details on these issues over the next few weeks as we wind up our campaign to ban driven grouse shooting.

Over 60,000 people have signed our government petition calling for a ban so far. Help us reach 100,000 and secure a parliamentary debate:

1. Add your name to our petition – click the button above.
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