RSPB have pheasant shoots in their sights

[Pond digger]

If everyone concentrated on encouraging and nurturing wild birds, then an awful lot of other wildlife would benefit.

 

[Dry Rot]

"Isn't that technically theft" alot of my water has wandered off my farm last week and flooded my neighbor's fields , I haven't the heart to accuse him of theft

Nobody owns wild game but some own the right to "render it into possession", e.g. kill it. Once it's dead, I believe it belongs to the owner of the land on which it falls. But see below.

On the rearing of game, the Victorians used to say, "Up gets a sovereign (£1), bang goes a penny (0.5p), and down falls half a crown (10.5p)".

From The Field, and I notice they've side stepped the question of who actually owns dead game when it falls on your neighbour's property!

If game is shot and lands dead on a highway, the owner of that highway would have first claim to it. Where game is shot and lands on a public right of way that is adjacent to or crosses the land upon which the gun has authority to be, the gun would have the right to it. If a gun wounds the game which then runs or falls alive on to neighbouring property and he does not have authority to enter, he could potentially commit a poaching offence. If a bird lands dead on the neighbouring property and he enters to retrieve it without permission, a civil offence of trespass could be committed. If the gun were to enter with a firearm then a criminal offence would be committed.
Read more at https://www.thefield.co.uk/country-...ship-of-fallen-game-22650#PjUMWTfgszaBRxDQ.99

I believe it is actually perfectly legal to dispose of wild game by leaving it where it falls, but this does not apply to commercially processed game. So tossing an unwabted brace on the verge is not as straight forward as it appears. So a stalker can leave deer gralloch on the hill but a game dealer cannot dispose of deer offal in a similar way. But it looks like it is a minefield out there and paradise for solicitors! Disposing of game to the public (giving it, selling it, etc) beyond the traditional brace per gun is another area fraught with complications!

 

[bumkin]

"wandered off" to the feeders put out .................... errrrrmm !

if you have a good release pen where the birds feel safe and they have food and at release time they are led to the feeders very few will wander off you will know if its a good release pen by the percentage of birds that fly back to it on a drive

 

[thesilentone]

It's starting to sound like the Hunting debate this. The image the public had/has was red-coated hoorah's careering round on horses killing foxes for fun, it became (and still is) a class war.

Compare this to fell-packs killing an odd fox for the benefit of the local sheep farmers, it's night and day and so is farming/local shooting syndicates v large commercial shoots.

But, we will be counted as one in the eyes of the RSPB, who are now like the RSPCA, totally lost in direction.

Maybe we should all ban swallows and swifts from nesting, nests falling into gutters and spouts, bird sxxt all over vehicles, I wonder how they would feel about that, or would they compensate our conservation work for allowing it ?

Commercial shooting is getting out of hand, but what can we do ?

 

[bumkin]

It's starting to sound like the Hunting debate this. The image the public had/has was red-coated hoorah's careering round on horses killing foxes for fun, it became (and still is) a class war.

Compare this to fell-packs killing an odd fox for the benefit of the local sheep farmers, it's night and day and so is farming/local shooting syndicates v large commercial shoots.

But, we will be counted as one in the eyes of the RSPB, who are now like the RSPCA, totally lost in direction.

Maybe we should all ban swallows and swifts from nesting, nests falling into gutters and spouts, bird sxxt all over vehicles, I wonder how they would feel about that, or would they compensate our conservation work for allowing it ?

Commercial shooting is getting out of hand, but what can we do ?

i hate to say it i think perhaps some sort of regulation i was brought up on rough shooting in my adult life small syndicates perhaps enough birds for every one to have a brace i have been on larger shooting days and after the first drive it was too much for me , i was in the pub once and a couple of chaps were talking about shooting and working their dogs i thought they sound like real sports but no it was bull sh-t i invited them on a woodcock day firstly their dogs were useless after the first drive one chap was complaining that the going was heavy and he nearly got stuck at the end of the day another said he had given up a days driven shooting to shoot f-ck all the other one procedded to tell me i had done it all wrong i was most disappointed in their attitude i thought at the end of the day they had a brace each on a woodcock day that was ok what i realised was that shooting had become prostituted they can go and pay money and bang away all day i must say that the happiest days shooting was when i was a kid with a four ten and going with an old chap and his ferrets my job was to shoot the ones that escaped he used to smoke twist in his pipe the perfume of the smoke memories that was sport, the class war thing i agree the hoora's bring us all into disrepute

 

[kfpben]

These big bags are nothing new. The Edwardians shot 5,000 a day!

 

[Paddington]

A friend ran a small hands on shoot in Herefordshire. Friends were roped in as beaters and were given a brace or two plus lunch which consisted of a pint and a pork pie in the pub. He used to joke that near the end of the month they would live off pheasant out of the freezer. The shoot next door was a commercial one charging £1000 per head, (this was back in the 80's) they had foreign princes and big businessmen shooting there. A chef came up from London to do the lunch. The little shoot gave some income to locals unlike the large shoot which was self contained. My friend used to reckon that in a few years hunting and shooting would be banned, nothing to do with animal cruelty but seen as a sport for toffs.

 

[thesilentone]

Maybe if shooting linked with a charity and started hot food places for the homeless, pheasant is as good as it gets for flavour, texture and nutrients.

 

[D14]

It's starting to sound like the Hunting debate this. The image the public had/has was red-coated hoorah's careering round on horses killing foxes for fun, it became (and still is) a class war.

Compare this to fell-packs killing an odd fox for the benefit of the local sheep farmers, it's night and day and so is farming/local shooting syndicates v large commercial shoots.

But, we will be counted as one in the eyes of the RSPB, who are now like the RSPCA, totally lost in direction.

Maybe we should all ban swallows and swifts from nesting, nests falling into gutters and spouts, bird sxxt all over vehicles, I wonder how they would feel about that, or would they compensate our conservation work for allowing it ?

Commercial shooting is getting out of hand, but what can we do ?

Don’t let them use the land so they are pushed back onto the landed gentry estates. These estates in my view will be targeted for splitting up by governments. Best to stay well clear and stick to the family farm setup.

 

[Exfarmer]

i hate to say it i think perhaps some sort of regulation i was brought up on rough shooting in my adult life small syndicates perhaps enough birds for every one to have a brace i have been on larger shooting days and after the first drive it was too much for me , i was in the pub once and a couple of chaps were talking about shooting and working their dogs i thought they sound like real sports but no it was bull sh-t i invited them on a woodcock day firstly their dogs were useless after the first drive one chap was complaining that the going was heavy and he nearly got stuck at the end of the day another said he had given up a days driven shooting to shoot f-ck all the other one procedded to tell me i had done it all wrong i was most disappointed in their attitude i thought at the end of the day they had a brace each on a woodcock day that was ok what i realised was that shooting had become prostituted they can go and pay money and bang away all day i must say that the happiest days shooting was when i was a kid with a four ten and going with an old chap and his ferrets my job was to shoot the ones that escaped he used to smoke twist in his pipe the perfume of the smoke memories that was sport, the class war thing i agree the hoora's bring us all into disrepute

My take on shooting is just the same., although I would not criticise the guns as I still love beating and seeing the dogs working.
my first proper shoot was enough for me to put my gun away

 

[Bald Rick]

Maybe if shooting linked with a charity and started hot food places for the homeless, pheasant is as good as it gets for flavour, texture and nutrients.

Ian Botham did that a few few years ago iirc pledging to donate 10,000 birds turned in to stews and casseroles off his estate to food banks.
To say it was not well received is to understate

 

[n.w]

On the very best keepered shoots bag returns are 55-60% of the birds put down and many part time keepered shoots have returns of half that. That means an awful lot of birds feeding wildlife or wandering off in to other areas. I wonder what the effect would be on buzzards. owls and other raptors if that significant amount of food items was removed at one fell swoop. Also, how many tonnes of grain go towards feeding released birds, how many farmers 'sell' a tidy few tonne to the shoot in exchange for shooting? How many little brown birds will perish when the food is removed from the woods and field fringes?
If the aim is to cripple the shooting industry what will happen to our cherished native partridge? Who will manage our moors for waders as well as grouse? Farms with shoots have habitat set aside for shooting, why would you maintain that if there was no fiscal return or will farm subsidies pay farmers to keeper the area but not shoot, simply having ground that is taken out of production is not the same as keepering? The attention seeking, band wagon jumping RSPB has too many answers to unasked questions and not enough for the questions being asked of them.

Very well said..?

 

[thesilentone]

On the very best keepered shoots bag returns are 55-60% of the birds put down and many part time keepered shoots have returns of half that. That means an awful lot of birds feeding wildlife or wandering off in to other areas. I wonder what the effect would be on buzzards. owls and other raptors if that significant amount of food items was removed at one fell swoop. Also, how many tonnes of grain go towards feeding released birds, how many farmers 'sell' a tidy few tonne to the shoot in exchange for shooting? How many little brown birds will perish when the food is removed from the woods and field fringes?
If the aim is to cripple the shooting industry what will happen to our cherished native partridge? Who will manage our moors for waders as well as grouse? Farms with shoots have habitat set aside for shooting, why would you maintain that if there was no fiscal return or will farm subsidies pay farmers to keeper the area but not shoot, simply having ground that is taken out of production is not the same as keepering? The attention seeking, band wagon jumping RSPB has too many answers to unasked questions and not enough for the questions being asked of them.

I would say nearer 30 to 35% as an average, the trouble at the RSPB is the lunatics have taken over the asylum, a bit like the RSPCA for a while, which maybe improving.

 

[roscoe erf]

 

[yellow belly]

Set a limit of 2 birds released per acre maximum
that is more than enough for a seasons shooting
makes everyone value the quarry

if you want a bang fest go to a descent clay ground or a simulated game day with mobile traps