Grouse shooting is outdated and cruel – here’s why it must end now

Swathes of the UK’s green and pleasant land will now turn into bloody killing fields, because on 12 August – outrageously known as the “Glorious Twelfth” – the grouse shooting season begins. If dogs and cats were being shot to death, we’d call it abuse, not “sport”, and lock up the perpetrators. Yet birds feel pain and fear just as much as other animals do – and hunters get away with killing more than 5,000 of them a day during the season. This massacre must end.

Human “beaters” drive gentle grouse from their nests straight into the line of fire and, sadly, half will endure lingering, painful deaths because many shooters – who pay up to £23,000 to satisfy their bloodlust – have no experience or training. They can simply pick up a gun, prowl the countryside and start blasting birds from the sky. It’s monstrous.

Grouse are complex animals with thoughts, feelings and a will to live. Left in peace, they are devoted parents who share responsibility for feeding their chicks. They engage in an elaborate courtship dance that has been mimicked in folk dances in North America and the Alps. To hunters, however, they are not sentient beings – they are targets.

No “sport” in the UK has such a devastating impact, in terms of the number of animals killed, as “game-bird’ shooting. In fact, the body count for grouse shooting is far higher than the 500,000 or so that are slaughtered in the UK during a season. To artificially boost grouse numbers, landowners have been accused of killing the birds’ natural predators, including hen harriers, golden eagles and other birds of prey – some of which are protected species. The situation is so serious that, according to reports, the greatest threat to hen harriers, which are being driven to extinction, is “illegal killing associated with management of moorlands for driven grouse shooting”.

And it’s not only birds that are at risk. Mountain hares are a target, too, because they carry a tick-borne virus that can kill grouse chicks. Domestic animals have been caught in the medieval snares placed by gamekeepers, which are set to maim and kill foxes, stoats and other wildlife that feed on grouse eggs. Terms such as “game management” are employed by the industry in a repugnant attempt to justify the killing of other animals to increase grouse populations.

The effects of this cruel bloodsport are felt far beyond the fields and moors that allow people to satisfy their gun-toting pleasure: it also contributes to the climate catastrophe. Grouse like feeding on new heather shoots, so landowners burn vast areas of heather to speed up plant growth and increase grouse populations. But this exposes the carbon-rich peat, degrading the enormous natural carbon sink and releasing tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Delicate ecosystems are wrecked and the planet heats up, all to encourage grouse to breed so they can be killed. It’s stupid and senseless.

To keep up to speed with all the latest opinions and comment, sign up to our free weekly Voices Dispatches newsletter by clicking here

Even the ammunition used is toxic. Hunts can discharge hundreds of shells a day and almost all of these are lead, which can contaminate water courses, plants and soil. Animals that mistake the pellets for seed and eat them succumb to lead poisoning.

But times are changing. In a major shift, Yorkshire Water – which owns many acres of moorland – announced that it would not renew shooting leases on two of its moors, with eight more up for review. A spokesman said the decision was “to ensure that activities on our land are providing the best outcomes for society and the environment”. It’s a start – but more must be done.

Allowing people to prowl around with guns, killing and maiming sentient beings, should, without a doubt, be illegal. Until the law is changed, it’s up to all landowners to say no to such cruelty – or they, too, will have blood on their hands.

Elisa Allen is vice president of UK programmes and operations at Peta