It is pretty obvious to anybody looking at the threads throughout this community that the burning question of grouse moor management and its impact on the variety of wildlife on the moors; the destruction of predators. including the illegal persecution of protected birds of prey; the burning of heather and the concomitant destruction of peat bog; the digging out of drainage channels, yet more damage to peat bogs and downstream flooding of towns, villages and even cities, is being largely ignored.
There are over 1 million members of the RSPB yet only a pathetic 27,000 people have signed the petition calling for an end to driven grouse shooting because the RSPB have chosen not to campaign on this topic. There have been mentions, obviously, and RSPB investigators are brilliant at turning up evidence to help the pitifully few prosecutions that do take place for the killing of protected species but there is a distinct lack of emphasis by the RSPB in getting the root of the illegal persecution stopped. Even the hostile actions of the Countryside Alliance and Botham's rag-tag army of idiots, has not spurred the RSPB to take a more proactive position.
As the RSPB is funded by its members and not the government, why have they not sounded out their membership on the issue? Why have they not more actively promoted the campaign to stop the persecution? I do not understand. I have been a Member for nearly 40 years, a Fellow for more than 20 of those years and am often disappointed at what I see as a lacklustre defensive stance when it comes to tackling the real perpetrators of wildlife crime: the landowners on whose land it takes place. Which is not to say all landowners are criminals: but plenty of them, particularly those who own shooting estates, are.
Simon Tucker
As far as Grouse moor management goes. I can understand the RSPB not taken part in any view of Grouse management, as the RSPB has to be neutral as far as legal hunting is done properly within UK law and the Grouse gamekeepers are abididing strictly within UK law, and the RSPB can't be for or against Grouse shooting or Grouse moors management, because of the RSPB's royal charter.
Regards,
Ian.
The RSPB is a campaigning organisation and it does not have to be neutral, it has to work within the terms of its charter. The persecution of birds of prey is endemic within the entire shooting industry and it has constantly failed to stop its illegal activities. The RSPB has a responsibility to actively campaign for an end to the illegal actions: and that means campaigning against the shooting industry. Illegal poisoning, shooting, trapping and the continuing use of lead shot by wildfowlers are clear examples of an industry showing total disregard for the law. Any rational government would already have acted to enforce change. As we don't have that, the RSPB and other campaigning organisations have to keep up the pressure. We are not talking about the BTO, who are academic and not a campaigning group.
I've signed the petition although it seems unlikely that it's going to reach the requisite number to trigger a Parliamentary debate.
I don't know why the RSPB are being so coy about this. Perhaps they feel that negotiation with the hunting lobby is better than confrontation. I just don't know enough about the politics to form a judgement.
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Tony
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I'm afraid I can't sign the petition as I do support the RSPB's stance and it is because of Gamekeepers that the Heather Moors are in such a good state for all sorts of different wildlife and the UK is internationally accepted important for its Moors as it has far more moorland than any other country on this plannet. And I had that confirmed in a talk by Blaniad Denman from the RSPB and Skydancer to my RSPB to my RSPB Local Group about 2 or 3 years ago.
And check the RSPB's Royal charter and the RSPB are nuitral over hunting on the Grouse Moors.