August 12th is the first day of the grouse shooting season and groups of hunt saboteurs from across the country will be converging on the grouse moors of the North of England to prevent the killing of thousands of grouse in the name of ‘sport’.
The activists will be joining members of North West Hunt Saboteurs Association, whose spokesperson Paul Timpson explained ‘Based on recent years we know where the traditional shooting areas are, however, due to our success over the past years many shooters now stay away from the moors on the Twelfth itself.’
Hunt Saboteurs Association spokesperson Nathan Brown added: ‘The HSA has been sabotaging grouse shooting for 25 years. 40 years ago when the HSA started, it focussed on hunting with hounds. When hunting is banned in the next two years we will have more time to focus on the shooting of all gamebirds and the cruelty involved in their production.’
Update:
Upwards of 50 sabs enjoyed great success in stopping grouse being slaughtered over moors in the Sheffield area on Saturday 16th August. Despite the police scrambling a helicopter and mobile units in attempt to serve their masters, the sabs’ mere presence succeeded in stopping shooting for the day.
It would seem there were some ‘Karma Police’ in attendance at the same moor later in the month when it was reported “an estate manager died after being stung by wasps while he was out grouse shooting” Guy Canby, 54, the agent of the 2,000-acre Fitzwilliam Estate at Wentworth, South Yorkshire, died after being stung several times on the knee on the Strines Moor at Bradfield, near Sheffield. He is believed to have stood on a wasps’ nest and suffered an allergic reaction. His wife, Diana, was among the shooting party who took Mr Canby to a nearby pub, where two doctors who were drinking there tried to revive him with heart massage and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. He was taken to hospital but died on the way. How sad.
Notes for anyone interested:
Grouse shooting began on the 12th August and ends in December.
During the shooting season, around half a million grouse will be shot for fun. Many are not killed outright and will die a slow and painful death. Although the birds are not hand-reared, their numbers are kept artificially high by gamekeepers who ruthlessly exterminate possible predators – which means the death of any fox, stoat, weasel, hedgehog, cat, rat etc that happens to stray onto a grouse moor.
Investigations have blamed gamekeepers for the routine illegal destruction of eggs and poisoning of adult birds of prey on the grouse moors. Numerous other wildlife crimes have been attributed to gamekeepers such as destruction of badger setts and illegal snaring. (see Vermin Patrol at www.nwhsa.org.uk for more details). The ‘independent’ studies touted this and every year by the pro-shooting lobby (and repeated verbatim by the press) regularly turn out to be funded or ‘organised’ by such unbiased organisations as the Countryside Alliance, the Moorland Association and the British Association for Shooting and Conservation and involve the same ‘experts’ who can always be relied upon to justify shooting.
The most basic internet search reveals hundreds of reports from the UK media over the last decade, here are a tiny selection of headlines:
The Hunt Saboteurs Association is starting its 40th season of actively and directly saving animals’ lives this month.
Support our vital work by becoming a member.
We are the only organisation that works directly in the field to save wildlife through direct action.
