Natural Resources Wales (NRW), the Welsh Government’s statutory conservation agency, is running a public consultation on proposed new regulations for the release of non-native gamebirds (red-legged partridge and pheasants) in to the countryside.
The public consultation closes on Tuesday (20th June 2023) and anyone can contribute their view, you don’t have to live in Wales to participate.
The game shooting industry has reacted with typical hysteria, claiming that licensing regulations would threaten the rural economy and bring an end to gamebird shooting. Let’s just be clear – it won’t. What licensing will do (if it’s properly monitored and sanctions enforced), is begin to regulate the behaviour of the shooting industry that has, for so many years, been allowed to do what it likes, releasing significant numbers of non-native species into the countryside without giving any consideration to the environmental impact of such releases.
The conservation campaign group Wild Justice, who for the last few years has been at the forefront of challenging the unregulated release of millions of gamebirds in to the UK countryside, has provided a useful set of proposed responses to this consultation and is urging everyone to submit a response before the consultation closes on Tuesday.
You can either copy and paste Wild Justice’s proposed responses, or, preferably, use them to craft your own personalised response.
You can find all the information on Wild Justice’s blog here.
Raptor Persecution UK 
I’ve witnessed the whole breeding to release of these birds. I was but a dumb housekeeper who didn’t know. There was feeding stations placed around the estate, so the birds could feed. They didn’t wander far. When the shooting began, they didn’t stand a chance! My most horrific moment was seeing the gamekeepers pit. I never knew that kind of thing ever existed. I was horrified. The whole system is wrong.
In 2023 the release of millions of gamebirds in to the UK countryside to be slaughtered for fun is Indefensible. As is raptor persecution for no other reason but to enable the uncaring, selfish rich and privaliged to have a weekend killing wildlife.
Plus I’ve given up traveling to Stand in a field listening to speaches from well meaning celebraties annually, as no one’s listening. I once suggested to Chris Packham that we must invade the shooting ground’s to stop the carnage, as did the walkers who wanted their rights of access to the countryside that was denied them by the same rich landowners who shoot game for FUN and IT WORKED. Time for ACTION NO MORE Wasting people time suggesting that TALKING or CONSULTATION works. IT HASN’T as the Rich landowners aren’t listening and want to impress their friends by killing living cagebirds released to be destroyed.
Direct action is one option, although we could debate its effectiveness (and in some cases, lawfulness) and not everybody wants to participate. Engaging with political process is another option. If we ignore that opportunity, then more fool us. You don’t have to participate with it if you think it’s a waste of your time, but don’t dismiss others who are willing to contribute.
That is your opinion to which you are entitled but what you think and what other people think differs and what right have you to think your right and they are wrong?
I shoot vermin/rats i use my terriers and collies and pot shoot for the table as a shepherd i do not game shoot bar for myself to eat.
I wonder are you going to re-employ all these people? Thee countryside needs work or perhaps you’d have us all farmers/ keepers/shepherd’s/ livestock workers cleared out ?
Im always amazed what zealots some of you are? We could work together but when you read this tiny groups thoughts you see they don’t work with people.
They impose try meeting us and talking and try listening for a change.
Spare us the sob story. Your tired old jobs argument was used to justify any number of historical obscenities. And how many people were booted off “the countryside” to make way for the sheep industry anyway?
In truth, you’re probably well aware that conservationists have met with, and sought compromise with shooting interests for decades, yet still the crime, unspeakable cruelty and environmental degredation continues. So instead of adopting your pathetic siege mentality, why not take time to learn something about the pertinent issues.
You wouldn’t have a “countryside” without industries like shooting. All the land is owned and the reason it’s been kept as you see it is purely down to the convenience of its owners.
Whitney gets.
Stay hidden on holes like this.
Utter shite.
You dare to call it an industry when it produces nothing but polluted, degraded land, damaged ecosystems, and dead wildlife.
This is an absolute horrific pastime, it should be banned immediately. The poor birds have no chance whatsoever. And what effect has this on indigenous birds? Especially Raptors. Ban it NOW
Bull shit shooters do more for the countryside than any other parties the avrage return of how many birds are shot are around 30% that means 70% are left to be wild and they also are a food source for many predators that survive and depend on the birds released.
I’m not rich but love to shoot .
I’ve payed £20.000 this year alone to conservation efforts to help wildlife thrive how much have you put in you ignorant rats 🐀
Around 60 million non-native “gamebirds” dumped into our countryside every year, which feed many generalist predators such as corvids, which are, in turn, slaughtered in their millions under the pretence of “conservation”, but for no other reason than to maintain a shootable surplus of quarry.
Your hypocrisy is as breathtaking as your grasp of ecology is woeful. And your crass posturing fools no-one.
When you quote numbers shot at 30%, are you not in fact simply referring to birds picked-up (recovered) & counted in the bag at the end of the day (effectively what you are paying for when you book say, a 150 or a 250 bird day) and not the total number of birds shot? I only ask as a lot more than the typical 30% – 40% “return” that goes in the gamebooks are actually shot (i.e. pelleted / wounded) and glide away to find the best place they can to die on their own terms. This is especially true on the modern commercial shoots where the Guns are not up to it but insist on clattering very high birds because it is the “in thing”. Under a new regulatory system in Wales I hope there is research / measurement of what the ratio of numbers of shot / wounded birds /recovered birds actually is. Until research is done on what is typical these days, I would invite readers to watch a few videos on YT produced by the shoots / Guns themselves to see how they feel about the lack of humanity inherent in this style of shooting.
Come to think of it…
What, exactly is a “Bull shit shooter”? Have the tweedies invented a new “country sport”, in which sun-baked cattle turds are flung skyward like clays?
What a load of bollocks .
Direct action can be extremely effective – just look at the anti-road protesters of the early ’90s (Twyford Down, Newbury, Solsbury Hill, M11 link road etc.) or the Hunt Sabs then and now. For further evidence of the effectiveness of direct action look no further than the disgraceful and Draconian Public Order Act 2023 recently pushed through by this vile Tory Government. What is sad – and equally disgraceful – is the fact that Labour has stated that it will not repeal this dreadful legislation if it wins the next election. Taking direct action from now on will be considerably more difficult and I applaud those who continue to do so.
Having said that, participating in the ‘political process’ should not be dismissed but blithely accepting what politicians are prepared to give you is ALWAYS a mistake. Whatever your chosen tactic, campaign for what you want, not what they are prepared to give you.
So I have a foot in both camps, but I what I would proffer is this: what do fox hunters, for example, fear most, a stiff letter to the local MP or a bunch of Hunt Sabs turning up?
I agree, fight on all Fronts that are available. But a meaningful Bill of Amendments in the Commons (to the 2004 sham Act) which will enable commonsense enforcement & close the deliberately left (my opinion) loopholes, is what I personally think they fear above both of the above.
I agree spaghnum, the 2004 Act was deliberately sabotaged (incredibly the Hunting Act, not ‘Iraq’, was Blair’s ‘biggest regret’ when he left office!) and is a textbook example why direct action by the Sabs – nowadays attempting to uphold the law – remains essential, otherwise there would be zero prosecutions for illegal hunting as the police are either complicit or turn a blind eye. The Tory Government is ‘happy’ (and would never strengthen the Act anyway) with the status quo as fox hunting continues – aided by the ‘trail hunting’ lie – to this day, apart from when the Sabs intervene. At least in Scotland most of the loopholes (especially trail hunting) are now closed by the new Hunting Act and with some caveats we have a ‘proper’ ban on hunting wild mammals with dogs.
I could easily envisage a very similar situation occurring in Scotland when we get DGS licensing, as whatever happens enforcement will be absolutely critical and, sadly, I suspect that some form direct action will be needed. The only effective answer to all the ills of DGS remains a total ban IMO, and the campaign MUST continue.
BTW I’ve made my submission to the NRW consultation, for what its worth!
Wild justice who have spent huge amounts of money fighting in court. Imagine if they had spent that doing actual conservation work.
Our local moors have just burnt out again because the keepers aren’t allowed to burn firebreaks in and it’s all long rank heather and ‘rewilding’.
There are no longer any foxes on hunting estates as the are shot with thermal imagers as the hunt no longer protect them. No stags on the quantocks or hares at altcar. None of this matters to you lot does is. You are truly twisted with hate and ignorance.
How many hunt savs will be out on poacher watch tonight?
Forgive them lord, they know not what they do.
Iain, Wild Justice would not have to go to court if landowners and their Government patsies actually looked after our land (or even followed their own laws) instead of laying waste to it for ‘sport’. Your ‘local moors’ (I take it you mean our upland killing fields aka ‘grouse moors’?) are routinely burned by gamekeepers not for ‘fire breaks’ (a quaint rural myth) but to create a grotesquely denuded, artificial environment to maximize the number of wild birds to be shot for fun, with all the hugely damaging environmental impacts that that entails.
You say ‘There are no longer any foxes on hunting estates as the are shot with thermal imagers as the hunt no longer protect them’. Eh? That is some spectacular, woefully twisted logic there. Who is using these ‘thermal imagers’ then? Oh, it must be gamekeepers? If gamekeepers stopped shooting foxes and they would be there wouldn’t they? But, wait a minute, then they do not want foxes about do they? So, er, they shoot or snare them don’t they? As for the ‘… the hunt protecting foxes’ by, er, illegally setting dogs on them to tear them to pieces. That makes perfect sense, in some parallel universe I suppose.
Actually, there are stags on the Quantocks despite the best efforts of people who still like to kill them for fun. It is not conservationists who are out chasing/killing (illegally) or shooting stags on the Quantocks is it?
‘How many savs (sic) will be out on poacher watch tonight? None. They are too busy doing there level best to disrupt the disgraceful badger cull at night.
Iain, the hate and ignorance lies with your pals I’m afraid, not with people who recognise we live on a shared planet and that the UK has some of the most wildlife depleted landscapes on Earth.
Gamekeepers are not conservationists, they merely do their masters’ bidding and perpetuate a circle of destructive killing for the profit of very few people and at a devastating loss to us all.
It does matter to us ‘lot’, a great deal.
Iain, So in your own words your local moors are now rewilding because some questionable practices are not allowed anymore, surely that`s an admission they are not in a natural state at the moment because of what has been done in the past. After comments like yours I do wonder about the truly twisted ignorance claim. Seeing you are religious I will pray for your forgiveness.
Shooting game birds for fun should be banned. It’s an outdated past time and should no longer be acceptable in today’s modern society.
Large European handouts have been given to landowners & the wildlife in the UK has declined, Brexit now means the handouts will be for conservation, brexit backing landowners, who have enjoyed a lifetime of handouts, won’t want to miss out. Due to their pathetic sence of entitlement, they will greedily expect to carry on as normal.
Fox hunting blatantly continues regardless of the dubious law .
These marauding yobs and their entourage of thugs are involved in other wildlife persecution. The release of more game birds onto the moors only fuels the appetite for these lunatics.
Many years ago whilst out horseriding, we came across about 60 injured pheasants that had been dumped in a secluded area. No doubt to feed the foxes and keep the local hunt happy. These are the sort of people you are dealing with.
Also, if they are so concerned at losing gamebirds to raptors, why release young birds on the roadside, where the majority are killed by traffic?
Karma waits for us all…