Game shooting’s top magazine, The Shooting Times, has published an article on the countryside’s “most wanted pests”, which speaks volumes on the true attitude of the game shooting industry to our protected wildlife.
The Shooting Times, 6th February 2006 reports, The golden eagle, red kite, osprey, heron, peregrine falcon and buzzard stand accused with the hedgehog, otter, badger and the domestic cat of being “voracious predators” that affect the game shooting and fishing industries.
The 114-year-old title describes the animals on its list as “pricey pests” that devour pheasant, partridge, grouse, salmon, trout, hare, pigeon, woodcock, snipe, duck, goose and deer or snatch wild birds’ eggs. The losses hit the profits of estate owners and shooting and fishing syndicates.
Jim Knight, the Rural Affairs Minister, joined animal welfare groups and the Countryside Alliance in criticising the magazine for vilifying wildlife. He was shocked by the article’s emotive language. “The list includes a number of precious species that are protected by law. Readers of this article may agree that some species can be a nuisance — but this does not excuse their destruction.”
Camilla Clark, editor of Shooting Times, said: “The purpose was to assess the economic impact of predators and pests on game birds in the UK. Shooting Times would never advocate the illegal killing of a protected species.”
Raptor Persecution UK 
What we have to be careful of is the tendancy to OVER protect, take for instance the Comorant, it is a protected species now playing havoc with local angling (don’t forget that the EA rely almost entirely on licence fees for their income, they get precious little from DEFRA). Having spent years in the British Army and comming from a family of Gamekeepers I do not advocate killing for the sake of it, but a middle ground has to be found. I seem to remember that some years ago the USA baned all hunting in one of their National Parks, but after a few years had to reinstate hunting licences because of the over population of certain species and subsequently the lack of fodder, and death from starvation. I have noticed that we have a terrible habit of protecting one species while totaly ignoring the “knock on effect” and the effect this has on the immediate surrounding natural habitat. Typical of the “Do Gooder” society that we live in to-day. Please can we really think, before we drop the stone in the water, what the effects will be when the “rings” get to the bank,and not wait untill they get there and say “I should have thought of that”.