E-Petition to ban driven grouse shooting
To anyone reading this blog can I ask you to kindly take the time to read the message below from Dr Mark Avery and if you feel, like me, that the criminal element in the grouse shooting fraternity, both the owners of the moors and their gamekeepers need to be brought to justice and stopped from illegally killing not only Hen Harriers but Golden Eagles, Buzzards, Peregrines, even Mountain Hares and anything else they consider will jeopardise the money they make from renting grouse shooting on their moors, then please sign the petition below.
The people wilfully killing birds of prey are criminals that consider themselves above the law and can act with impunity and their disgraceful activities must be stopped.
Just recently another Golden Eagle mysteriously 'disappeared' by a grouse moor in Scotland and now yet another Hen Harrier, this very week, has 'disappeared' next to the only grouse moor in Wales. This is not coincidence.
Otmoor, our Oxfordshire RSPB Reserve has hosted at least two Hen Harriers this winter but I find myself looking at them with increasing anxiety as to their fate in the coming months.I want them to stay forever on Otmoor where they are safe but they will soon migrate north as they require moorland on which to breed and they will then be in great danger from the criminals that await them with their poisons, traps and guns. These are our birds and not to be done away with by those who currently and arrogantly defy popular opinion and consider themselves beyond the law. I urge you to sign the petition referred to in Dr Avery's message below. In the end we will win from sheer pressure but how many Hen Harriers, Golden Eagles and other birds of prey will die before these crimes are stopped is totally and utterly depressing.
Here is the message from Dr Mark Avery who is leading the campaign against driven grouse shooting
'I'm asking a favour.
A guy called Gavin Gamble started an e-petition in favour of banning driven grouse shooting before Christmas and it now has just a couple of weeks left to run. I'm trying to give his petition lots of support. It has already passed 39,000 signatures (which is very good for these things) and is likely to reach 40,000 or more before it closes.
The more support, the more likely it is for politicians, now or in the
future, to tackle wildlife crime against birds of prey and unsustainable
management in the uplands.
Here is a good summary of the issues.
So my request is simply to pass on this email so that the word spreads among birders, and that if you are sent this email then please send it on to others. The closing date for signatures is 2 April so we need to use these last couple of weeks well.
Many thanks for any help you can give (and thank you to those who have already taken action).
Best wishes and please forgive the cheek of this request'
Dr Mark Avery
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Our beautiful male Hen Harrier is protected whilst it remains on the Otmoor RSPB Reserve, Please help the fight to keep it safe in the U.K when it eventually spreads its wings and leaves us.
Photo courtesy of Terry Sherlock.
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