© 2024 Hunt Saboteurs Association
In the first of two articles, moorland campaigner and author Bob Berzins looks at the year-round war on wildlife in Britain’s uplands.
Grouse shooting is a bloodsport where wildlife suffers way beyond the birds killed on 12th August. It’s great to hear the new Labour Government pledge a proper ban on fox hunting but the new Defra Secretary of State told a shooting organisation last October that Labour wants a “respectful relationship” with the countryside… “And that includes us supporting shooting that is sustainable and conducted according to the law.”
‘Sustainable’ is a word I see a lot these days and it’s used by organisations and individuals who want to appear as if they care passionately about the environment and wildlife when the opposite is the case.
In these two articles I’ll look at the cruelty of grouse shooting and how welfare laws fail to protect animals. But first of all, what can we do about it?
The aim of the huge Restore Nature march in London on 22nd June was to show the Government how the dire state of nature in our country is simply not acceptable. And to bring together groups with very different approaches and methods – Hunt Sabs, Just Stop Oil and Animal Rebellion marched next to well known NGOs such as National Trust.
Despite the numbers calling for urgent action, there was very little headline news. Zoe Williams commented in the Guardian “Everything, from peaceful protest to direct action, has the same purpose: in the face of a peril or outrage that’s important, do something. Don’t do nothing. The more it annoys people, the more attention they’ll pay”
We face the peril of the climate and biodiversity emergencies and the moral outrage of the way our wildlife is treated – for somebody’s fun. Yet for too many people it’s something that can be ignored, denied and by default accepted. That level of acceptance isn’t easily shifted.
Grouse shooting is an activity for a handful of bloodthirsty individuals, but it has shaped the whole of the Pennine uplands and large areas of Scotland as well. Grouse are wild birds that nest on the ground, but shoots aim to change the uplands into outdoor battery farms by killing anything that might affect a grouse. This is a million miles from a natural, healthy environment and to restore nature in these areas grouse shooting needs to end.
Let’s take a look at campaigning over the last 10 years on Moscar. The estate is owned by the Duke of Rutland, who also runs the Belvoir Hunt. You might be familiar with his Peak District neighbour Philip Naylor-Leyland who owns the Fitzwilliam Hunt as well as Bradfield Moors Grouse shoot.
Ten years ago, Moscar was littered with snares and dead animals thrown into stink pits as bait including this Mountain Hare just losing its winter coat:
One of the many snares on Moscar in 2015:
Mark Avery introduced a parliamentary petition in 2016 to ban driven grouse shooting, which gained 123,000 signatures and was debated in parliament. We heard a lot about the ‘Guardians of the Countryside’ – gamekeepers – and particularly how they increased curlew numbers. The public were invited to submit evidence and I asked how many birds and animals have to die to get one extra curlew?
In 2017 the Hunt Investigation Team produced a brilliant in-depth probe exposing all the dirty secrets of gamekeepers at work – what the Guardians of the Countryside really get up to. There were no prosecutions.
Dead mountain hares caused an outcry in the Peak District but disgusting stink pits such as the one below, less so. This is because some of the people marching next to hunt sabs in London are in favour of “predator control” – killing – so that rarer birds can do better. The most positive thing I can say in answer to this is the whole idea of rewilding grouse moors is to get back to a state where nature finds its own balance. There were curlews and birds of prey long before gamekeepers killed everything that moved everyday of the year.
Greater public awareness and anger at disgusting scenes like these brought a community response. But police didn’t try to gain any understanding of why people wouldn’t accept this in a National Park. Instead, it was business as usual: ignore wildlife crime and dedicate resources to protect the Duke’s interests. And clamp down on anyone who might object by proposing ANPR cameras in all the car parks – in effect mass surveillance of the 12 million annual visitors to the National Park. I was accused of damaging traps, without any evidence and that’s now with the IOPC.
There was a further parliamentary petition from Mark Avery and Wild Justice which had 111,000 signatures in 2021.
The 2017 HIT investigation showed masked gunmen at Moscar Estate. In 2024 this photo from HIT shows a masked gamekeeper carrying a Larsen trap with a live crow. Snaring, trapping and stink pits are still found on this estate.
So, we’ve had public outrage, petitions, lots of evidence of wildlife crime and no prosecutions. Grouse moor owners know they are battling against public opinion, but their sense of entitlement leads them to shrug off set-backs until they can’t be ignored, especially on their biggest day of the year. As one gamekeeper put it: “There is no doubt that the sight of sabs makes the keepers’ hearts sink”.
We are the only organisation that works directly in the field to save wildlife through direct action.