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Science/nature/environment

Time to ban gun sports

(79 Posts)
Whitewavemark2 Fri 25-Sep-20 10:53:34

A young golden eagle was fitted with a tracker and release this year.

He disappeared and his tracker was subsequently found wrapped in lead in a grouse moorland stream.

There has been footage of harriers being trapped and killed on television. Burning the moor every year releases tons of carbon into the atmosphere along with destroying habitat and untold species of reptiles, insects birds etc.

This simply cannot continue just for the pleasure of shooting a gun at some hapless bird.

It is disgusting and should be stopped.

Missfoodlove Fri 25-Sep-20 11:13:06

Links to the articles please.

Whitewavemark2 Fri 25-Sep-20 11:22:58

The trapping and killing of harriers was on Channel 4 news.

I’ll try this link which has a photo of the young golden eagle.

RSPB
@Natures_Voice
·
1h
A young eagle arrived in Strathbraan in spring 2016. Within a few days his tag suddenly, inexplicably, stopped. It was suspected that the bird had been killed, and the tag destroyed. Now we know what happened to the tag.

@RSPBbirders

I can’t link the photo

Jane10 Fri 25-Sep-20 11:25:39

Wrapped in lead? No wonder they couldn't find it. Wonder who's the culprit angry

Jane10 Fri 25-Sep-20 11:26:28

Yes. Stop gun 'sports'. Guns only use is killing. Why have them?!

Whitewavemark2 Fri 25-Sep-20 11:33:09

The hen harrier is the most persecuted bird in the U.K. and as a result we are in danger of losing them altogether.

sodapop Fri 25-Sep-20 12:46:38

It's people using the guns who kill Jane10 not that I'm an advocate for blood sports.

Grannybags Fri 25-Sep-20 12:50:37

I agree gun sports should be banned. Why anyone would want to kill any of these beautiful birds is beyond me

vegansrock Fri 25-Sep-20 14:17:35

www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/25/grouse-moors-under-fire-after-golden-eagle-tag-hidden-in-scottish-river?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

phoenix Fri 25-Sep-20 15:24:40

Agree in pricipal, but have concerns about abolition of deer culling.

Deer have no natural predators, and can seriously hinder the development of woodlands, (and we all need trees) by eating young saplings.

Plus venison is a very healthy meat option.

Wheniwasyourage Fri 25-Sep-20 15:31:52

sodapop, that's what the gun enthusiasts in the USA say - it's not guns that kill people, it's people that kill people. That is, on the face of it, true, but a person with a gun can kill an awful lot more people in a give time than a person with a knife can.

Deer culling could be done for food, not for sport, and by people who actually know how to kill the deer cleanly and not just for fun. I agree, phoenix, that it does need to be done for the reasons you give.

SueDonim Fri 25-Sep-20 15:42:33

Shooting is a necessary evil for the likes of culling, as Phoenix says, especially when the alternative is for deer to starve to death in bad winters.

Killing for fun, nope. Where I live pheasant and grouse are raised for shoots. I don’t know if it’s natural or if they’ve been bred that way but the birds are senseless. The grouse sleep in the road at this time of year - the roads bear the evidence in their little squashed bodies. If I come across them I shoo them into the verges but they meander back again but they seem to have no survival instinct. How can you kill a dumb creature like that? sad

Guns only have one purpose and that it is to kill, until other things people come out with, such as knives and cars. The main purpose of both those items is not to kill, it is to be useful.

Missfoodlove Fri 25-Sep-20 17:48:59

Grouse are not bred for shoots.
The moor is managed to encourage the grouse but they are not bred for shoots like pheasant.

SueDonim Fri 25-Sep-20 21:19:23

Even more reason not to shoot them, then.

vegansrock Fri 25-Sep-20 21:35:43

By the “moor is managed to encourage the grouse” - read : any birds of prey are got rid of one way or another, legally or not.

vegansrock Fri 25-Sep-20 21:36:34

Not just birds of prey - many potentially predator wildlife are killed.

phoenix Fri 25-Sep-20 22:04:39

Thank you to those who understood my post regarding deer, I was rather worried about posting it.

SueDonim Fri 25-Sep-20 22:16:45

Vegansrock, hares, too. sad. We have snow hares here but I didn’t see a single one last winter.

MayBee70 Fri 25-Sep-20 22:19:39

phoenix

Thank you to those who understood my post regarding deer, I was rather worried about posting it.

I understand. It’s like the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone. As a keystone species they were important for both the flora and fauna of the area.

phoenix Fri 25-Sep-20 22:49:23

MayBee70 that's exactly it, it's the balance, the chain that is so important.

Whitewavemark2 Sat 26-Sep-20 06:43:08

phoenix

MayBee70 that's exactly it, it's the balance, the chain that is so important.

How about introducing wolves

They would be the apex killer.

But culling is not a sport in any case. We kill the deer unfortunately to keep a balance.

There is no balance in blood sports, just killing for fun. No different to people we see with one foot on a precious elephant that they have just killed for fun. Bastards!!

MiniMoon Sat 26-Sep-20 09:23:06

Since April I have been watching the Woodland Trust live stream from the Osprey nest at Loch Arkaig. It has been wonderful, the parent birds laid 3 eggs, they hatched, fledged and migrated.
The total fish tally was 579.
Its great to see these wonderful birds doing so well after all the years of persecution, being shot by gamekeepers to preserve the fish in the lochs, so that money could be made selling fishing rights by the landowners.
There are surely plenty of grouse, pheasant etc to go round, judging by the amount of pheasants we get in our garden during the winter.
There is absolutely no need to shoot a beautiful raptor it is diabolical.

Applegran Sat 26-Sep-20 10:11:40

I know that cave men had to kill wild animals and birds to survive, but why do modern people kill for pleasure? I hope killing for pleasure whether with guns or hounds will be finally stopped.

NoddingGanGan Sat 26-Sep-20 10:16:23

How do you suppose the tracker became, "wrapped in lead"?
If a shooter or game keeper shot it what makes you think they'd be stupid enough to remove the tracker, wrap it in lead, (how do you even do that?) and leave it to be found?
The lead in cartridges is in the form of tiny pellets. Your post makes no sense and the story smacks of an anti shooting, "plant". And I say this as a disintetrested party.

SillyNanny321 Sat 26-Sep-20 10:30:49

Killing animals & birds for an idiots pleasure is wrong in every way. It is not a sport to kill something that cannot fight back. Only the arrogant & self righteous do so!