High standards essential to protect shooting - January 18th, 2019

Countryside Alliance Chief Executive Tim Bonner writes:

Some of you may have seen a story in the Times yesterday reporting the burial of hundreds of processed pheasant carcases on a farm in Leicestershire. This is undoubtedly bad practice, and probably in breach of regulations of the disposal of animal by-products, but it is not the evidence of the disposal of shot birds straight from the shoot that is endlessly claimed, but never shown, by anti-shooting activists.

Unfortunately, perhaps inevitably, some of the reporting around this story has attempted to link the inappropriate disposal of carcases to claims that there is no market for game meat when in fact these birds have been processed and are not, therefore, indicative of any sort of surplus. Reporting continues to obsess over issues such as the growth of shooting and 'big bags', despite these issues being entirely irrelevant to an incident of poor animal by-product disposal. We have seen somewhat wild estimations of the number of birds being released on certain shoots and spurious attempts to use the number of birds passing through Food Standards Agency-registered processors as a measure of the number of birds being eaten, when we know that the majority of birds are legitimately processed elsewhere. The fact is the growth of shooting is cause for celebration as more investment flows into conservation and rural communities, and the point that must not be forgotten is that any incident of poor practice that jeopardises those benefits must be stamped out.

Episodes such as this are precisely the reason the Countryside Alliance has been so vocal, for so long, about the need for proper self-regulation in shooting. Incidents of bad practice are rare, but one rogue shoot can harm the reputation of shooting as a whole. The British Game Alliance (BGA) was created to grow the market for game and as the shooting community's own tool for stamping out all forms of bad practice in the supply chain. By setting clear standards and opening up member shoots to independent inspection the BGA is both encouraging high standards, and creating a model of what a well-run shoot should look like. If there are those who refuse to operate to the highest standards, then robust self-assurance will at least allow us to contrast the responsible majority with any irresponsible minority.

The best thing any shoot can do to combat this sort of bad press is, therefore, to make sure they are members of the British Game Alliance. Meanwhile, the Countryside Alliance will continue to promote the value of well-run game shooting.

Tim Bonner
Chief Executive
Follow me at @CA_TimB