 'IT'S
TOO EASY'
Shooters' startling appeal
The following article by Rajeev Syal and Graham Mole in the
Sunday Telegraph (12 October, 2003), reveals how the British Association for
Shooting and Conservation (BASC) has criticised its own supporters, saying that
pheasant shooting has become
too easy.
Pheasant shooting has become too easy, according to Britain's
biggest field sports organisation, which also claims that the sport is damaging
woodland because commercial breeders are flooding the countryside with birds.
The British Association for Shooting and Conservation has issued guidance asking
members not to target more than 500 birds a day because shooters are failing
to give the birds "a sporting chance".
The guidance has been issued as game shoots become increasingly popular among
the younger, affluent urban set. Madonna and her husband Guy Ritchie, the former
footballer Vinnie Jones, and Marco Pierre White, the chef, are among the well
known participants whose involvement has been credited with sparking new interest
in the the sport.
Jeffrey Olstead, an official at the British Association for Shooting and Conservation,
said that the sport was being damaged by an influx of big companies who had
introduced new and unacceptable practices. "There are a handful of commercial
shoots that are pretty unscrupulous and are damaging the sport and the environment
by making it too easy," he said. "Too many birds are being bred by
big shoots and inexperienced people are being encouraged to go after too many
birds - sometimes killing more than they can remember. We are saying that no
single shoot of up to 10 people should bag more than 500 birds a day. If they
are doing so, they are doing the sport a disservice and going against the sport's
ethos," he said.
The association, which has 114,000 members, is also concerned that some shoots
are not giving birds enough time to acclimatise to the wild before being released
for a shoot.
The pheasant season began on October 1 and continues until February. The association
believes that there are more than 20 million pheasants in Britain, double the
total of 20 years ago, and shooting is now a £600 million a year business.
It is still mainly the pastime of the rich, however: a 10-man shoot can cost
up to £20,000. The new large, commercial shoots charge for every bird
brought down whereas in the past, shoots usually charged a flat fee for a day's
shooting.
Holland and Holland, the gunmakers and sporting goods company that also manages
shoots, admitted last week that it would be willing to organise a shoot in which
up to 800 pheasants would be killed in a day. Piers Vaux, the company's field
operations manager, said: "It is possible. We like to be flexible. What
I suggest is that you pay for 500 and we enable you to shoot more, and if it
gets up to 650 we will just invoice for the balance." Asked if there was
a limit to the number of birds which could be shot, he replied: "It's flexible
- it depends how the day goes. Generally 500 isn't a gospel mark." He then
quoted a price of £19,790 for 500 birds for a day's shooting. Mr Vaux
said that he had offered a shoot of more than 500 birds, contrary to the guidelines,
because he did not want to risk losing business.
Brian Kibble, a shoot manager on the Earl of Suffolk's 8,000 acre estate at
Charlton, near Malmesbury, Wiltshire, claimed that some shoots were regularly
releasing up to 10,000 birds so that inexperienced marksmen could bag up to
1,500 a day. "They are just chicken farming - breeding for the shoot by
providing easy targets," he said. "It is nothing to do with the traditional
countryside."
There is also concern that the increasingly large number of pheasants being
bred is a threat to wildlife. Species such as sand lizards and slow worms, and
plants such as violets and yellow archangel could be under threat from the millions
of birds released each year.
John Duncan, the director of shooting at Roxton Bailey Robinson, a company
that organises shooting trips for foreign visitors to Britain, rejected the
criticism, however, and insisted that the new guidance was unnecessary. "To
talk about numbers is a very grey area. I think it's very bizarre for the British
Associaton of Shooting and Conservation to say such a thing. All these foreigners
who are coming in are spending a lot of money and keeping the rural economy
going. That keeps a lot of people in jobs and does wonders for the environment.
Pheasant shooting is a very valuable British business," he said.
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