Extinction Rebellion is planning a protest at Dundee Airport tomorrow on the opening of the grouse-shooting season.
They held a similar protest last year (here) timed to coincide with the arrival of grouse shooters on private jets, all heading for the grouse moors of the Angus Glens.
Extinction Rebellion has written the following ahead of tomorrow’s protest:
The 12th of August is the start of the grouse-shooting season. Dundee airport is used for private and chartered flights –major concerns given aviation’s contribution to the current climate disaster. Both are also disproportionately damaging and need to end.
Grouse-shooting
15% of Scottish land is used for grouse-shooting. Breeding grouse only for them to be shot, notionally for sport (or fun?!) has huge environmental costs. Grouse moor management results in the culling of hares and deer. It also involves the legally sanctioned killing of predators such as foxes, weasels, stoats and crows, as well as the illegal persecution of birds of prey. Hen harriers, red kites, golden eagles and peregrines mysteriously cannot survive in the vicinity of grouse moors, or, strangely, go missing.
Burning peat and heather on grouse moors not only releases carbon into the atmosphere but also destroys the habitat of many birds and other creatures. Draining of moorlands and other land management practices greatly increase risks of flooding in lowland areas.
Private flights
While 80% of the world’s populations has never flown, they are the ones most likely to be affected by the current climate disaster. The United Kingdom is the biggest private jet polluter in Europe. A private plane is 14 times more polluting per passenger than a commercial plane and 50 times more polluting than a train. A single jet releases two tonnes of CO2 in an hour. The world average per person is 4.7 tonnes of CO2 annually.
Meet outside Dundee airport.
11am Saturday 12 August
Bring a sign, placard or something to make a noise with – all welcome
Dundee Airport, Riverside Dr, Dundee DD2 1UH.
ENDS
Raptor Persecution UK 
Well done x
What a load of rubbish grouse are a wild bird they are not bred for shooting ,the grouse moors are managed to help the grouse bred successfully. Only in good breding seasons they are harvested for food and sport. In bad breding seasons they are not shot. Yes some other animals are shot to help the grouse . Mainly ground vermin foxes,stoats,weasels , the same animals that are controlled on RSPB reserves every day.
Yes, we all know that the grouse are ostensibly “wild”. However, we also know that numbers are grossly inflated to levels many times that which would occur in a “natural” state, resulting in a parasite-infested, disease-ridden population, which relies on medicated grit (the environmental effects of which are yet another legacy of DGS).
Furthermore, these unnatural surpluses can only be maintained by the destruction of healthy, fully functioning ecosystems by the legal, and illegal removal of native predators (which you ignorantly refer to as “vermin”, in your dishonest attempt to conflate evidence-based, last resort conservation measures with the mass slaughter undertaken by gamekeepers).
So, under closer scrutiny, it’s understandable that some refer to “managed” moors as grouse farms. But you know all this anyway, don’t you?
https://community.rspb.org.uk/ourwork/b/actionfornature/posts/the-conservationists-dilemma-an-update-on-the-science-policy-and-practice-of-the-impact-of-predators-on-wild-birds-9
Obviously your point of view misses the fact that the moorland on which grouse are managed provides for an abundant mix of both red and Amber listed bird species.
These same species are no longer seen on the rank unmanged moors of which a good percentage are owned by the like of so called wildlife trusts and the rspb .
Itself am organisation which is as the name implies is for the protection of bird.
Which birds I’m not sure as I only ever manage to see corvids in masses and none of the endangered bird associated with heather moorland.
To clarify I’d suggest a look at the G.W.C.T.s what the science says.
Written by scientists from periods of long term study , peer group reviewed by scientist and matter of fact.
And the same old parroting of outright lies. It’s obvious that this lot just can’help themselves.
When was the last year that had a voluntary blanket ban on grouse shooting, as a result of a poor breeding season?
And many other birds and animals are illegally killed, so that people can shoot the grouse for fun.
As far as I am aware, RSPB predator control is a final method, which is the complete opposite to the “kill, kill, kill” attitude displayed by the shooting industry.
Also, the RSPB doesn’t carry out predator control, to maximise other bird populations, just for people to come along and blast them out of the sky for a “good old jolly”, so your comparison is utterly nonsensical in the extreme.
Eh, what? You a shooter? Not wild at all. introduced and bred just for you plonkers to kill for fun.
I’m afraid that’s incorrect, Kelvin. Red Grouse are a native wild (though intensively manipulated) species. I think you may be confusing them with Pheasant, or Red-legged Partridge.
Raptor Persecution are showing their true colours by actively allowing an extremist group to do their dirty work for them.
I have followed their group for a while and have been amazed at how obvious their true agenda is.
No different to the Anti hunting, just stop oil, Animal Rebellion idiots.
Go back to the Mail Online, Suella.
What has ‘Suella’ got to do with it?
In my opinion Keith, the comment is precisely the same reactionary drivel regularly employed by the woman in question.
The fact that extinction rebellion have chosen to protest at Dundee airport hardly supports your comment.
The reason these protest groups exist is because politicians willfully choose to ignore the facts and the warnings coming from professionals and scientists.
Peaceful protests are a necessary feature of a proper functioning democracy and allow those who haven’t elected representatives in government to try and get their voices heard. It helps create healthy debate on important issues.
It has also been shown time and time again that when a disaffected group of people are pushed into a corner with no obvious way out they will react in extreme ways.
Despite all the pledges to decrease reliance on fossil fuels – very little real action has yet been taken.
Despite all the warnings regarding the loss of nature and biodiversity nothing of any real substance has really happened to reverse this.
It would seem all the natural disasters occurring across the world are not enough to convince the fools in parliament of the peril this planet faces and of the need for immediate action.
Instead we have politicians who dither and delay whilst they look after the vested interests of their cronies.
It really does seem like a repeat of Rome burns whilst Nero fiddles.
So if in a democratic society, the politicians refuse to listen and act- what is left? Protest and direct action?
I don’t always support the disruption these protests cause, as it often affects the wrong people, but I can fully understand why it happens.
Just like I can fully understand all the protests the hunt saboteurs will engage in over coming days because the shooting industry and the government have failed to stop the criminals illegally killing birds of prey. Criminal behaviour which should not be happening, and for which there is excuse.
It is perhaps a shame that law abiding people and shooting estates which don’t engage in criminal behaviour will be caught up in these protests, but the shooting industry has brought this on itself and needs to look inward to solve the criminal issues which cause so much anger and people to protest.
You forgot to mention the unexplainable deaths if several species of raptor,its all about the money
“Only in good breding seasons they are harvested for food and sport.”
Not true.
And not fit to be eaten, either.
“In bad breding seasons they are not shot.”
Not true.
“Yes some other animals are shot to help the grouse . Mainly ground vermin foxes,stoats,weasels ”
Again, not true. Small mammals are rarely shot – they are more commonly killed using snares (placed around stink pits), poisoned or trapped (the exception being the Mountain Hare). It is raptors which are the more likely to be shot…
“the same animals that are controlled on RSPB reserves every day.”
Not true.
In one of the Aberdeenshire glens there is plenty of peasant and red-legged partridge shooting, and not a lot of grouse shooting.
In June I spent three days in and around Glen Clova hill walking and birdwatching. There I saw as many Golden Eagles as Red Grouse. In the Glen itself were numerous pheasant and red-legged partridge. On the hilltops were a few GoIden Plover. Close to a Munro summit (a hill higher than 3,000 foot) I found a pair of Ptarmigan. I also saw a few Buzzard and a pair of Peregrine, but no other birds of prey.
I stayed four nights at the Glen Clova Hotel. There an estate worker whom I took to be a game keeper told me that almost all of the Glen Clova estate’s shooting income came from the shooting of pheasant and redlegs, with little from Grouse shooting.
I then spent three nights in Sutherland Flow Country between Lairg and Tongue, where there are no Grouse moors. Birdlife there seemed sparse compared to Glen Clova.
” then spent three nights in Sutherland Flow Country between Lairg and Tongue, where there are no Grouse moors. Birdlife there seemed sparse compared to Glen Clova.”
They are two different habitats. How many Red or Black Throated Divers did you find in Glen Cova? And how many Red Grouse did you find in the Flow Country?
Most of the people I know,some of whom are gun owners concur with your thoughts and actions regarding the destruction of game, all wildlife and our beautiful Highland environment for the pleasure of the few.
Good luck to all who support the movement to ban this hideous crime
Its really quite sad that there are so many, clearly passionate, people about who are so dreadfully misinformed. You can only hope these people would put some of their passion into seeking out reality instead of fitting the narrative to the “cause”.
By the way i completely agree regarding
private jets.
Bravo! We need more action against the demonof killing for fun and all it associated criminal activity.
Doug
Wont make a jot of difference these people are not bothered what anyone else thinks and they do not care about WILDLIFE AS LONG AS THEY CAN LEGALLY KILL IT THEY WILL . Some extinctions can it seems be excused because they were caused by people who knew no better this lot are the same THICK AS TREAC
GOOD LUCK! and more power to the
“stop oil” movement.👍👍👍
Direct action can be effective as with the badger cull but they would be more effective on the moors helping the sabs disrupt the shoot
Oh i forgot how did they get there?
Sons and daughters of investment bankers, hedge fund managers etc etc?
Do as i say not as i do and i see a poster encouraging them to sab true cours as the song goes?
Nothing to do with raptors and everything to do with ignorance of the countryside.
I wonder how you would employ rural people? Maybe you’d like the areas depopulated or farming stopped like in the Netherlands?
Huge areas depopulated and farming stopped due to wealthy new landowners buying vast tracts of land for shooting. What a waste of good farmland and what an utter waste of space these nouveau ‘lairds’ are.
The shooting for fun lot are a minority in the countryside and the true rural dwellers cannot wait to see the back of them.
Good farmland ?! What type of farming would you propose to be introduced on a peat based moor ?
I’m not speaking for the original commenter, as I don’t know what they had in mind. But the comment did bring to my mind cases where a grouse shooting regime (ambitious Owners and/or Agents) take control of an historically “grassy” grouse moor and decide they wish to “improve” the heather coverage by reducing levels of grazing i.e. to turn it into a maximum-output heather monoculture for grouse. To do this the Estates often pressure tenant sheep farmers out, and any historical common grazing rights held are also bought out / obtained by the method of “carrot of money and the threat of stick” i.e. squeezing there tenancy of inbye / ending tenancy of rented houses and farm buildings, etc. I am not in favour of over-grazing, just pointing out that some decent, viable and diverse mixed vegetation peat-based uplands have been significantly purged of good sheep farming businesses just to maximise the heather / grouse side.
Stephen, do you have any knowledge and understanding whatsoever about grouse shooting, moorland management for driven grouse slaughter, raptor persecution, land ownership …..……….. ? Because what you write is rubbish.
Did anyone else hear the Mootland Association on Farming Today this morning talking about the thrill of shooting grouse when challenged about doing this for fun!!!
The hotels up here are starting to fill up there’s range rovers parked outside with the boot lids up letting the dogs breathe, it beggars belief in our struggling world that this goes on and yes men with guns have been landing at Inverness airport over the last couple of days then wisked away in some fancy estate vehicle to some swanky hotel, I found out during the week how much these fellas pay to shoot a brace of grouse now I fully understand why certain individuals are persecuting raptors, if only the rest of UK folk new about this would it stop I doubt it but live in hope.
1. You’ve no idea how they got there.
2. You’ve no idea who they, or their parents are.
3. Everyone with a shred of decency should roundly applaud all those who aim to sabotage the degenerate, crime-dependent activity that is DGS (in fact, you’ve inspired me to make a donation).
4. You’ve no idea what “the countryside” even is. You just hide behind a worn-out meaningless cliche.
5. You’ve no evidence to show that anyone wishes to “depopulate” any areas. That said, the fewer wildlife abusers and ecological vandals there are to damage our natural heritage the better.
Once again, you’re just making stuff up.
Your comment intrigues me as to who your having a go at.
I agree, it can be a bit confusing. But don’t worry, it’s not you.
I reserve my criticism for the bullshit merchants who post their ignorant and dishonest comments here in defence of the indefencible (DGS).
Thanks coop I thought I’d rocked the boat, it was very good of you to reply thankyou.
You’re welcome.
1. No they don’t, but unless they walked to Dundee or are local they burned carbon to get there which is just a little bit hypocritical
2. Again, no they don’t, but in reality who they are is a total irrelevance.
3. Whatever your veiws on the nature of killing for fun the fact is travelling potentially vast distances to protest is in no way friendly to the environment, which is apparently their main concern. Which again is clearly very hypocritical. Also how exactly is standing outside an airport with a sign actually disrupting anything?
4. Nor do you it seems, the “countryside” is a figment of the imagination. 90% of this so called countryside is in fact an industrial landscape created to farm a monoculture. So you are hiding behind a cliche too.
5. This comment just shows your total lack of understanding of the subject along with the original commentor. They are protesting to rewild Scotland it says so on their banners. You don’t seem to realise this would mean depopulation and removal of farming(which is the main cause of the ecological vandalism you speak of) or more likely you do but it didn’t fit your argument so you pretended you do not. Yet more hypocrisy.
The fact you claim to have been triggered to donate by someone commenting actually shows you to be a very immature thinker who clearly doesn’t actually believe it what they are saying, if you did a comment wouldn’t prompt you to donate.
Just for clarity your further comment about reserving criticism for bullshit merchants is why I am calling out your own peddling of cowpats.
For further clarity I in no way support the barbaric act of raising animals to kill for fun, but the reality is in the grand scheme of things this is so far down the list of stuff people should care enough about to protest that I feel the need to point out the flaws in your arguments.
Unless Mr Holmes is privy to information denied to the rest of us…
1. He doesn’t know how they got there. Neither, if truth be told, do you. For all the pair of you know, they may live locally. So no flaw there.
2. Neither does he know their parentage, which I agree is completely irrelevant. So, no flaw ther either.
3. I refer you to point 1. Do you know the distance they travelled? Also, my point addressed the issue of sabotaging the shoots directly, not the airport protest. Yet again, no flaw there.
4. Either intentionally or unwittingly, you’ve missed the point entirely. Unlike yourself, I’ve not attempted to define “the countryside”, therefore, my point is in no way cliched. Flawed? I think not.
5. Rewilding doesn’t necessarily mean the removal of farming, or depopulation. And it may have escaped your notice, but this site is focussed on the illegal persecution of wildlife, and the deleterious effects of intensive game “management”. So whataboutery regarding farming doesn’t really work. Neither does the silly speculation in your muddled attempt at psychology. Your flaws, not mine.
6. Your final sentence is self-contradictory. And I suggest that what you really “feel the need” to do is appear superior.
Xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
And will BBC News report oil the protest at Dundee Airport? I would be surprised if they did.
Again, Chapeau! to the XR and the Climate Camp folk – mostly young and undertaking actions often at short notice and at personal cost. While the world burns at least someone is awake to the real peril and fighting it. They have been consistently non-violent and brave and it is heart-breaking and shameful to see them demonised or ignored by the press in Scotland and intimidated by the full force of the State.
We all know that the ‘countryside’ would be far better served by the break-up of these ridiculous polluting ‘huntin n shootin’ estates. Local small scale ownership would offer great advantages economically, culturally, and environmentally, as it does elsewhere in Europe.