You might have seen George Monbiot’s article in the Guardian on 6 October, criticising pheasant shooting. We responded to the Guardian the next working day but wanted to give them time to print the letter before sharing it with you. As it remains unprinted, please find the letter below:
Dear Sir,
The recent opinion piece on game management (Britain’s pheasant shooting has begun. And a year-round massacre makes it possible, 6 Oct) declared it had “disastrous effects on our countryside”, whereas according to a large body of rigorous scientific evidence, the opposite is true. Studies show that cover crops planted for gamebirds, feed put out for them during the winter and legal protection from foxes and crows, whose populations have greatly increased in the past 50 years, all have a hugely beneficial impact on the UK’s threatened wildlife.
For example, the 30-year monitoring project at the GWCT’s Allerton Project demonstration farm showed that when game management is withdrawn, farmland bird numbers fall by 50% and when it is reinstated, they double. In the context of a continuing dramatic decline in national songbird populations, given that shooting is involved in the management of two thirds of the countryside, the impact of ending gamebird management would be catastrophic for nature. For the future of the UK’s wildlife, it is vital that views on this issue are based on the facts.
Yours sincerely,
Dr Roger Draycott
Director of Advisory Services & Education, GWCT