ShootingShooting does not face an outright ban – yet. However, we should never forget that shooting faces regular threats whether through restrictions on the guns we use, the ammunition we fire, the birds we rear, the land we use or our very presence in the countryside we love. It was only a year ago when 10 per cent of MPs declared their support for a total ban on game shooting. The potential knee-jerk response to the shootings in Cumbria, the move to ban lead ammunition and to place restrictions on game rearing all demand an intelligent, robust response. Alongside our political lobbying, winning public support is essential. Our public opinion research drives our campaign focus and ensures that we know which buttons to press. We know it makes a difference because we discovered that a significant proportion of the public supports shooting only because game is eaten. Our hugely successful Game-to-Eat campaign has increased game sales by more than 60 per cent is a direct outcome of our research and hard work. Other Alliance projects, include getting more young people involved in shooting and National Shooting Week, which has introduced thousands of newcomers to the sport, all help to create new attitudes towards shooting. |
 New CA Executive Chairman in Shooting TimesWednesday, 22 February 2012 Supporters will be interested to hear that Shooting Times magazine features an interview with new CA Executive Chairman Sir Barney White-Spunner in the current issue, out today. A PDF of the interview will appear next week, but meantime, quotes of note include: "In terms of all-round pleasure, fowling and snipe come first, then I'd opt for a high pheasant day in Wiltshire........" and ".....I've got to the state in life where I don't really enjoy the sport so much unless I've got my two fox-red labradors with me." See pages 19-21 of Shooting Times for more. Read more... Friday 27th April - Forthcoming Game Shooting SeminarWednesday, 22 February 2012 Friday 27th April - Game Shooting Seminar - The Spread Eagle, Sawley, Lancashire. The Countryside Alliance is delighted to announce that it is holding a Game Shooting seminar on Friday 27th April. This will be an excellent opportunity for you to hear first-hand about our work in this area with talks from key note speakers including David Taylor the Countryside Alliance's Shoot Campaign Manager on our future plans to promote and protect sporting shooting, the Countryside Alliance firearms consultant Graham Downing on the future for firearms licensing and legalisation and the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust on some of their key work programmes. Read more... Taylor's Travels - working whippetsThursday, 9 February 2012 The short-film series "Taylor's Travels" continues this week on CATV. Shooting Campaign Manager David Taylor recently visited Wensleydale in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales to see firsthand how whippets are used to control the rabbit population. Read more...Shooting Campaign update - February 2012Wednesday, 8 February 2012 Welcome to the CA Shooting Campaign's Shoot Update, keeping you up to date with our work in promotion and defence of shooting. Read more... The RSPB and hen harriersThursday, 26 January 2012 In March 2011, the RSPB issued a media release claiming that illegal persecution was killing Britain's hen harrier population. The release, which it also sent with a covering note to all Ministers and MPs, stated that 'every year hen harriers are targeted on grouse moors across the UK and it is clear that this onslaught is having a significant impact on our population. We believe that gamekeepers are killing them illegally - under pressure from their land-owning masters.' However, according to the RSPB's own figures, there has only been one recorded incident of hen harrier persecution in the past seven years; an incident that was dismissed by the Crown Prosecution Service when a thorough police investigation found no bodies, or forensic or ballistic evidence to show that any crime had been committed. It is therefore difficult to understand how the decline in hen harriers over the same period can be attributed to illegal persecution by keepers. Read more... Peregrine falcons and their illegal persecutionThursday, 26 January 2012 In November 2011, the RSPB announced that 'new' research into the impact of grouse moor management on peregrine falcon populations had revealed the true extent of their persecution on England's grouse moors. The findings of the research, which was funded by the RSPB and whose chief author was one of its former employees, was published in Biological Conservation, and promoted in a media release that made some claims which, if true, would have been shocking. A copy of the paper, which was summarised as research that "finds birds of prey do less well on managed grouse moors than in other areas," was also sent by the Northern Raptor Forum to the National Wildlife Crime Unit, which in turn circulated it to all Police Wildlife Officers and Partnership for Action Against Wildlife Crime members. Read more... The RSPB’s Birdcrime report 2010Thursday, 26 January 2012 The RSPB’s Birdcrime Report for 2010 was published in November 2011, and alleged to provide a summary of the offences against wildlife legislation that were reported to the RSPB last year. However, since 2009, the Report has not included a total reported figure for all categories of wild bird crime, it being heavily focused on Birds of Prey, a species the RSPB has confirmed it will continue to champion. Read more... Taking a stand for shooters' rightsThursday, 19 January 2012 Countryside Alliance Chief Executive Alice Barnard writes: This has been an exceptional week for our shooting campaign as we promoted and defended shooting sports on the Today programme and across the regional media via a new report. The issue concerned was our strong riposte to the efforts of Thomas Docherty MP to establish a minimum age at which young people can obtain a Shotgun Certificate. Read more... CA report shows no need for a minimum age for shotgun certificate holdersWednesday, 18 January 2012 New FOI figures from the Countryside Alliance – the leading voice of rural Britain – show that young people with shotgun certificates pose absolutely no risk to the wider public. The Alliance believes these statistics prove conclusively that young people take the responsibility of handling shotguns very seriously and efforts to stop them entering the sport of shooting must be condemned. Read more... John HumphreysWednesday, 8 February 2012 The Countryside Alliance is sad to report the death of John Humphreys. A lifelong countryman and CA member, John was a staunch supporter of the Alliance's Shooting Campaign. Read more... |
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