Moor Trouble For Grouse Shoots!

Sabs confront the shooting party. © Calder Valley Hunt Sabs

Yesterday, hunt saboteurs shut down yet another grouse shoot in the Yorkshire Dales.

Despite appalling weather conditions, sab spotting teams located a large driven shoot on the Stean Estate, Nidderdale – one of the same shoots that was disrupted on Saturday, the so-called Glorious Twelfth!

Sabs confront the shooting party. © Calder Valley Hunt Sabs
Sabs confront the shooting party. © Calder Valley Hunt Sabs

Sabs then began the long, wet trudge up the moors, with shooters packing up and retreating to their lodge as soon as sabs came into view. After a short discussion around the question of “Grouse shooting – right or wrong?” the shooters took to their vehicles and, under close sab escort, trundled unhappily off the moors.

Escorting the shoot off the moors. © Nottingham Hunt Sabs
Escorting the shoot off the moors. © Nottingham Hunt Sabs

While this determined action saved many birds, sabs were horrified to find the broken bodies of dozens of grouse – shot earlier in the day – thrown into a gamekeeper’s vehicle like so much rubbish.

Morale remained high despite the weather! © West Yorkshire Hunt Sabs
Morale remained high despite the weather! © West Yorkshire Hunt Sabs

A sab commented from the scene,

“We successfully shut down the shoot today, but the damage done by this cruel pastime is evident everywhere. It’s not just the mass shooting of birds, it’s the hideous traps and snares that litter the moor, it’s the burnt and scarred landscape, it’s even the access road built so that lazy, privileged shooters can drive to the shooting butts. Whatever way you look at it, grouse shooting is destroying our uplands – it has got to go!”

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