It is shooting season in Scotland. The countryside around us is filled with the sound of gunfire.The shooting season for game birds averages between 1st September and the 31st of January dependent on specific type of bird.
The birdlife included in the shooting season dates range from Geese to Coot, including pheasant and partridge.
The roads and fields are full of pheasants and partridge, woodland houses pheasants looking for safety and the air sounds of geese honking as they move in flight formation.
Economy and Tradition
We are told that shooting birds is good for the economy and brings a lot of money into the area. Shooting advocates at the Scottish countryside alliance advise that £240 million per year is bought into Scotland by shooting events during each season. This is not surprising considering the cost of a shooting session advertised by many event providers which advertise on the internet, found at the touch of a button.
Shooting game appears to be an activity for the wealthy.The Daily Mail reports that the Royal family of the United Kingdom shoot despite public opposition of the sport.
Many that participate advise that it is "traditional" to shoot game.
Perhaps it is time to question the tradition in favour of compassion.
Animal Welfare
Animal Aid is a welfare group that are opposed to shooting. The organisation advises us that at least 50 million pheasants and partridges are reared then released in the UK every year.
These birds have often been reared in hatcheries or rearing sheds.
Breeding birds are often kept in battery egg style cages for the entirety of their productive life which is approximately 2 years. These two years consist of laying eggs in the stressfull and distressing conditions that we know as battery farming for hens for human consumption.
Eggs are collected and incubated in ovens until hatching. The baby birds are then kept in heated sheds with finally some access to a small run when the keeper considers them strong enough.
The young pheasants are transferred to captive pens whilst being fattened up, on soya pellets, prior to release. Following the fattening process the birds are then released and encouraged onto shooting land to serve as live targets.
Due to being raised in captivity the birds struggle with coping in the wild. Some birds have not even been able to stretch their wings before release and cannot fly. Many are lost to starvation and exposure. Predators and moving vehicles also claim the weak young birds.
Animal Aid state that "The ‘game’ bird industry is where factory farming meets a live shooting gallery".
The League against Cruel Sports are concerned that bird of prey poisoning is on the increase in Scotland to protect the investment of pheasant population.
The League estimates that 12,300 animals of species such as foxes, badgers and stoats are slaughtered any one day on sporting estates under the label of predator control.
The Activity
A shoot is a day event. A group of people, known as beaters, encourage the birds into the air and the shooters then have their moving targets. Dogs are used to collect injured and dead birds. Children as young as seven or eight are taken along to shoots and often take part in beating. Shooting websites have pictures of young children holding up dead animals like trophies.
Why shoot
A questionable factor with shooting game is the human desire to participate. Why pleasure is found from killing something as vulnerable as a small bird. In the West where there is little food shortage, particularly for people wealthy enough to shoot at events.
Why does a human derive pleasure from killing something as inoffensive as a pheasant? A simple bird raised in a shed that is trying to survive in the wild. Where is the sporting chance for the fattened and feebled pheasant when challenged by a line of people with sticks followed by a line of people with shotguns?
Shooting game is the wilful harm of another and considerably weaker living creature as a form of leisure activity. What part of our nature is triggered by participation, pure selfish enjoyment or a deeper need that a certain type of human being has to fill?
“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated” Mahatma Gandhi.
Sally Gutteridge - Sally is a writer and holistic therapist that lives in Scotland with her boyfriend and four rescue dogs
