I know I m going to get my head bitten off but here goes anyway

Grouse are protected for shooting - by eliminating wildlife on grouse moors.

Children are usually mortified if they see an animal die and surely they are brought up to love their pets and all other living things. So I wonder how William & Kate justify shooting live defenceless creatures to their children?

It doesn't really matter what any of our thoughts are, though.

The royals will do as they please, exactly as they always have.

parkersheen

Children are usually mortified if they see an animal die and surely they are brought up to love their pets and all other living things. So I wonder how William & Kate justify shooting live defenceless creatures to their children?

Rural children aren't mortified.

Have you watched Our Yorkshire Farm?

The children who grow up on farms are well aware of what happens to animals

Town children tend to believe that chicken miraculously appears in a nugget.

When I lived on a smallholding in the Canaries, 5 year olds were wringing chicken's neck for our evening meal

I own up to feeling slightly horrified.

Desensitising children to animal cruelty is easily done. Doesn’t mean it’s good,

I’m not sure the children in Our Yorkshire Farm actually slit the animals throats but it wouldn’t surprise me.

I’m not going to bite anyone’s head off but George will be shooting grouse by the time he’s 10. Also if someone is prepared to eat meat they should see that something has to die for them to do so. If you’re a vegetarian or a vegan that’s different. All Royals shoot. As long as they eat it. It should never be done for fun.

Townies cannot just turn up and shoot.
The restrictions are so tight!
Even years of pheasant shooting will not qualify you to shoot on a grouse moor.
If the shoot captain is unsure you will always shoot under supervision only.
The presence of hen harriers, black grouse and more are one of the reasons for this.
The game keepers are working hard to protect hen harriers because even though they will kill grouse they will also kill their many predators.
The BASC is all about conservation.
I will stress again grouse cannot be bred, gamekeepers will do all they can to encourage them and to provide the right habitat through heather burning etc. They are never captive unlike Pheasant.

Please take a minute to read the link.
www.gwct.org.uk/policy/briefings/driven-grouse-shooting/conservation-on-grouse-moors/

Thanks for the link to the article, Missfoodlove

perhaps read this link as well

www.independent.co.uk/environment/grouse-shooting-chris-packham-protected-species-shot-gamekeepers-scotland-a9028361.html

I have spent time on a grouse moor and know how dedicated the landowner and gamekeeper are to preservation.
They will rest the moor for a season at huge cost to preserve the wildlife.
The harriers are tagged and monitored, it’s a joy to see them.
Unless you have experienced a shoot and understand all the tradition and history it’s perhaps hard to compute that everyone involved is a nature lover.
The walkers would not have an accessible mor if it were not managed.
As I said in an earlier post a moor was allowed to go back to nature as an experiment to see if wildlife thrived.
It didn’t.
Moor management is vital.

www.gamekeeperstrust.org.uk/media/uploads/cat-264/action-countryside-wales-crisis.pdf

Please read.

Just to say to Grannybags, I think it was, that grouse are not bred specially for shooting, they are naturally wild birds. I think you're thinking of pheasant which are specially bred for the sport.
Each to their own of course but unless you're a vegetarian please leave the shooting fraternity alone. Game has a better life than most farmed meat and it certainly has a better death than any animal that meets its end in an abattoir, especially one which performs any kind of ritual slaughter which is currently used for approximately 90% of poultry, 60+% of lamb and 30+% of beef slaughtered in the UK.
Game is also much leaner and better for you than farmed meat.

Any hunting is just wrong, but culling is different I think. I can’t imagine wanting to take a child to watch birds or animals shot or wanting to shoot them - and not always cleanly. ? ps Don’t get me started on Me Me Me-again and Harry ??

Except it wasn't Meghan and Harry this time.
Harry gave up this kind of "sport" when he met her, as far as I know.

Was she the huntress?
Hit the target.
(Dives for cover. I did like her)

vegansrock

Desensitising children to animal cruelty is easily done. Doesn’t mean it’s good,

It was life for the family I lived with

Grinding poverty. No electricity. Running water was a tap outside. No proper toilets. Shower was a hose pipe slung over a wall.

There was really nothing good or bad about it

They needed to survive

Some days there was no food to eat at all

It was a different world.

To any cat owners on here: cats kill an estimated 27 million birds in the UK every spring and summer.

Ps well-fed cats, not killing birds for food.

This thread is about William and Kate not Meghan and Harry.

I'm sure that George is as informed as any seven year old can be about a country lifestyle. They have spent months at Anmer Hall during lockdown and the children are often spotted in Sandringham woods with W&K riding their bikes.

How lucky then that riding a bike in the woods is an 'approved' activity by those who really know very little about country living. Countryfile has a lot to answer for

I doubt William and Kate dragged George from his bed and forced him to watch a grouse shoot any more than our DS had a shotgun shoved in his hand and was told to, 'Get out there and shoot pigeons.'

It's not all 'Deliverance Country' out in the Boonies!

It's not that long since families kept a pig and some hens in the garden.

It kept them from starvation.

I am with you on this one Bluebell.

So is the RSPB.

It's not that long since families kept a pig and some hens in the garden

We most certainly did Callistemon. And a couple of geese as guard dogs against foxes too. And then we ate them.