Category: Guest posts

Guest Post | Forestry England & Fox Hunting #2 – the Chair’s Endorsement of Bloodsport Lobbyists

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This second entry is just a brief outline of something that I think should be highlighted. Throughout the last hunting season, Forestry England gave out 34 ‘trail’ hunting licences. It didn’t really seem to matter what hunts did [with the exception of the Kimblewick Hunt], as hunters were at various times convicted and investigated with no apparent impact on how Forestry England considered licence applications. Part way through the season, the Forestry Commission appointed a new Chair, Sir William Worsley. The Commissioner’s Register of Interests were later published and amongst other things, the new Chairman is a member of the Countryside Alliance, the pro-bloodsports lobby group.

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Guest Post | Forestry England & Fox Hunting #1: The Portman Hunt

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Think fox hunting, which was banned by the Hunting Act 2004, is a ‘thing of the past’? Think again. Hunts have been breaking the law since the Act was passed – helped by sympathetic landowners who issue licences despite a wealth of material proving the terms of those licences are being routinely broken. Jack Riggall, an independent hunt monitor and anti-hunting campaigner, is writing a series of posts on fox hunts and Forestry England, the government department responsible for managing and promoting the nation’s forests. Jack has written other guest posts and recorded a number of podcasts with us.

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Guest Post | Gamebird Shooting in Sheffield & South Yorkshire

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“The sight and sound of a pheasant is almost ubiquitous in the fields around Sheffield and South Yorkshire. Any day out in the countryside will eventually involve the familiar coarse squawk as they dash out from the scrub. But why are they here and why do people care? There is growing unease about the presence of pheasants – and their associates, red-legged partridges – in the UK countryside. The prevalence of these birds is the end result of a deeply damaging and divisive shooting industry. Each year, more and more opponents are speaking out about the animal welfare issues and environmental impacts of this industry.” Guest Post by Adam Davies

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Guest post | Sabbing the Un-glorious 12th

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We’ve spent much of this week discussing the start of yet another six months of shooting grouse in the uplands. In one article we posted several images from Twitter uploaded by sabs groups, who appeared to have had a very successful day interrupting the killings. The Hunt Saboteurs Association (HSA) have now posted a full series of images alongside an overview of their support for the various local groups who (in some cases) made long journies up to the moorlands. But what’s it like to sab a shoot? To walk up to armed men to stop them shooting the wild birds they’ve paid to kill? One of the sabs in the Peaks has written a guest post that answers just that…

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Guest Post | Love of upland moors soured by driven grouse shoots

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“My love of upland moors soured when I moved to a part of the country where they seem to be used for driven grouse shoots. I used to pop up on moors looking for black grouse, stonechat, pipits, cuckoo, great grey shrike, raptors and corvids etc, and mammals like fox, weasel, stoat, hare etc. It became apparent very quickly that something was wrong, very wrong. The contrast between what I was used to and what I was now seeing was unbelievable.” Guest post by an anonymous contributor

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Guest Post | All Wild Birds are Protected – except when they can be killed in Unlimited Numbers

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“But the Secretary of State disagreed – to give yet another example of the government blindly supporting shooting interests. Grouse moor managers never tire of telling us how great wader numbers are on their land. But you don’t have to look far to realise the mass destruction of predators on grouse moors is exactly what leads to huge numbers of grouse to shoot on the 12th August.” Guest post by Bob Berzins

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