Parliament Workbench

Petition · PE01663 · Session 5

Driven grouse shooting study

Closed Submitted 3 May 2017 Environment & Energy
Signatures
0
1,258 online signatures with a country
Comments
99
Considered
2 meetings
in the Official Report

What it asks

Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to sponsor a comprehensive and independent study into the full economic impacts of driven grouse shooting.

What the petitioner did first

I have contacted my local MSP, Angus MacDonald.

Where it was considered

Official Report
  1. 21 Sep 2017
    Public Petitions Committee
    New Petitions
    1 mention
  2. 22 Mar 2018
    Public Petitions Committee
    Continued Petitions
    1 mention

Signatures by country

1,258 online signatures
  1. Scotland461 36.6%
  2. England368 29.3%
  3. United Kingdom361 28.7%
  4. Wales22 1.7%
  5. United States15 1.2%
  6. Germany3 0.2%
  7. Ireland3 0.2%
  8. France3 0.2%
  9. Australia3 0.2%
  10. Italy3 0.2%
  11. 11 other countries16 1.3%

Comments

99 comments, oldest first
99 comments · showing 1–50
  1. Jonathan Theobald 6 Jun 2017
    I suspect the harm caused by driven grouse shooting
    - the destruction of legally protected wildlife, increased flooding, CO2 emissions and so on
    - is substantially greater than any economic benefits to local communities.

    This study would offer an excellent opportunity to establish the facts.
  2. Susan Gassaway 6 Jun 2017
    I hate the "moon scape" that grouse moors produce. Barren of 90% of wild life. I hate the way so many RADIO COLLARD raptors are killed or "disappeared".
  3. Bob Morris 6 Jun 2017
    This is an important subject that should have been fully assessed a long time ago. If the driven grouse industry have nothing to hide them I'm sure they will embrace it. We shall see.
  4. Pauline greenhalgh 7 Jun 2017
    Driven grouse shooting needs to stop altogether. The landowners cannot be trusted to take care of their areas properly they do not respect the land, the wildlife, nor the surrounding areas. They have emptied and ruined huge tracts of Scotland
    - this cannot continue. They are ruining the country pandering to the few and ignoring the rest of the population who wish to live or visit there. Doing this is bad enough but doing it so a few can kill a wild creature is about as backward as it gets. We should be ashamed that this activity is happening. And it not only affects us in this country but other parts of the world too
    - loss of habitat and diversity robs everyone world over. If the landowners were protecting the real residents of the land
    - the native species and not burning heather then it wouldn't worry me if they shot birds bred for that purpose which are then eaten.
  5. steven mountain 7 Jun 2017
    please ban driven grouse shooting
  6. Matthew Stone 7 Jun 2017
    I have no opposition to shooting per se, or to the individuals who shoot. However i vehemently object to the inappropriate, illegal and damaging management practices that clearly impact and define the limited distribution of raptor species across the UK's mountains and moorland habitat. Further facts are required to breakthrough and dispel myths that potentially will redefine the industry and its management practices. I believe shooting can exist alongside raptors, but not as an intensive and competitive industry driven on delivering bigger bags. Changing the economic model here is key in a way that ceases to encourage intensive and persectory management practices. Key to this change are the facts, including financial, so lets be informed and get workable solutions and avoid widening debates where denial vs call for outright ban are not getting closer to a resolution.
  7. Alex. S. Milne 7 Jun 2017
    An independent review is certainly needed. Our country is being prevented from developing ecotorism due to the antics of those stuck in the 19th Century. Enough is enough.
  8. Robert Moss 7 Jun 2017
    Grouse shooting may well have the potential to be an economically and ecologically sustainable land use. Heather moorland is certainly preferable to alien conifer plantations or rushy, overgrazed sheep ranchland. But the current objective of management is too often short-term, aiming for maximum grouse bags with little thought for the ecological and long-term economic consequences. Indeed, grouse management today seems to include well-documented and blatant criminal activity involving the illegal killing of predators including raptors and pine martens. The attitude seems to be that the relevant law is an ass and should not apply to the class of people who indulge in this sport. An authoritative review of potential land uses in the uplands is well overdue. It could well benefit us all, including a reformed grouse shooting industry.
  9. Caroline Hamilton McAdam 7 Jun 2017
    Native wildlife, including mountain hares, golden eagles, hen harriers, wildcats, pine martens and red kites, is either openly killed or disappears in areas where driven grouse shooting predominates, all in the interests of a very few whose aim is to kill grouse. These birds are fed on medicated grit which gets into the water supply and the land is artificially controlled in the interests of the guns. Driven grouse shooting is an anachronism and has no place in modern Scotland.
  10. Nicola Callis 7 Jun 2017
    We can no longer allow grouse shooting to continue without knowing the impact it it doing, not only on our environment but also to all other wildlife on driven grouse moors.
  11. Terry Pickford 7 Jun 2017
    About Time. At last the truth may now be exposed, opening the myths of driven grouse shooting for all to see.
  12. Nigel Raby 7 Jun 2017
    Its about time this shambles was tidied up!
  13. Adrian Taylor 7 Jun 2017
    DGS is not economically and morally viable. Please end this Victorian pastime now.
  14. Douglas Malpus 7 Jun 2017
    We have long needed a study of the economic harm or benefits of grouse shooting in the UK. The owners and shooters say that there are great benefits, I don't believe them.
  15. Thomas David Dick 7 Jun 2017
    Given the clearly spelled out facts on the detrimental effects of the management of driven grouse shoots on many species of predatory birds and animals
    - government and NGO reports over the last several decades and continuing reports of illegally killed raptors on these moors
    - there would have to be an overwhelming case for benefits to the social and economic welfare of this country. So lets see that independently investigated. Including other possible regimes for these areas.
  16. John Harrison 7 Jun 2017
    It would make Scotland an even better place to visit if raptors were not persecuted.
  17. Alex. S. Milne 7 Jun 2017
    Driven grouse shooting is underpinned by the criminal behaviour of its employees and employers, and has ravaged large areas of Scotland. The figures of benefit provided by the industry are clearly illusory. I'm sure that there are many other land uses which could provide greater employment and benefit to the economy, given the ending of criminality.
  18. Peter Shearer 7 Jun 2017
    It is certainly time we had some verified information to base decisions on.There are serious questions about the economic benefits of driven grouse moors,as well as the suspected cases of wildlife crime.
  19. Jim Knight 7 Jun 2017
    I am not against all field sports but managed grouse shooting is an intensive and destructive land use that occupies far too much of our uplands. This represents a severe waste of natural resources. I support the study
  20. Paul Edwards 7 Jun 2017
    Time for this national scandal to end.
  21. Andy Paton 7 Jun 2017
    Good luck. Driven Grouse Shoots have a proven record of wildlife persecution but little prosecution, it is time for this to change and the agenda of the industry to find a new direction.
  22. Dave Ball 7 Jun 2017
    Good luck with this, things need to change
  23. Ian Christian 7 Jun 2017
    Our natural world is a far more important resource than the money brought in by the barbarity of the blood sport known as grouse shooting
  24. David Britton 8 Jun 2017
    I visit Shetland (where no Grouse shooting) and the Scottish Highlands every year. Also Orkney every few years. About 100 pairs of Hen Harriers on Orkney but very few in the highlands. No voles on Shetland so they have no breeding Hen Harriers for a good reason.
  25. Tom Moon 8 Jun 2017
    I would like this to include an assessment of the environmental impacts as well as the economic assessment.
  26. Martin Dodd 8 Jun 2017
    Something has to done to stop this, so I am happy to help with signing the petition
  27. Oliver Clanford 8 Jun 2017
    It's about time the environmental impact of this intensive form of land use is looked at in detail. For too long, vast swathes of our uplands have been controlled by a very select band of people pursuing a very limited range of activities. I'm sick of having the look of our landscape dictated by the actions of a tiny minority of people.
  28. Betty Lee 9 Jun 2017
    Grouse moors do not comprise good biodiverse habitats.
  29. Crawford Lindsay 9 Jun 2017
    I am curious as to how much actual benefit we get out of grouse shooting as the environmental damage can be quite severe. Also raptors have a strange habit of accidentally ending up dead on some Highland Estates and that is bad for Scotland's image as a green country.
  30. James Grant 10 Jun 2017
    Bare hills in Scotland is not the natural order. There has to be very good reasons to maintain them like this. Shooting is not one of them.
  31. O Barton 10 Jun 2017
    The vast areas of land taken up by this land use could be used far better for our society and for our natural heritage.
  32. William Donachie 10 Jun 2017
    A very long overdue petition! Away with the bald, burning hills! If some people still want to hunt grouse then let them but make them work for their bags rather than enjoy an artificial mass slaughter.
  33. Rose Farmer 10 Jun 2017
    We have visited Scotland in the past specifically to see its fabulous birds, just love Golden Eagles. Won't go again until Scotland has stopped the persecution on Grouse Moors. England is no better and I won't go to parts of that either. Unbelievable this is the 21st not the 19th Century!
  34. Gilbert Summers 12 Jun 2017
    Time that folk spoke up and made efforts to stop this environmental degradation, seen especially in the Eastern Highlands, carried out on behalf of and for the benefit of a small clique of (Tory) landowners.
  35. Anne Thomas 12 Jun 2017
    It is very concerning that the number of red kites on the Black Isle seems to be falling due to persecution. So many small tourism ventures now rely on wildlife such as birds of prey and dolphins. It is time this was recognised rather than always listening to a small number of landowners who are degrading the ecology. The number of traps for small mammals on such land should also be investigated.
  36. Lesley Morris 12 Jun 2017
    In full support of the petitioner in determining what the benefit of grouse hunting is and what negative or even positive effects it has on the environment.
  37. Diane 13 Jun 2017
    In totalagreement with this petition,time for the Scottish Government to make a stance,show the rest of the UK that we care about our wildlife and natural habitats !! Far too much of the Highlands is left barren,rather than green and luscious,and for what ??? Tourists love our country, as do we Scots, they don't want to see land bare,dull,lifeless.The persecution of our BoPand other wildlife needs to stop, leave the land to grow,to flourish,plant trees, make it beautiful again !!!
  38. Al Woodcock 13 Jun 2017
    Interesting to read here that we have 10-15% of the world's blanket bog, when the pro shooting brigade tell us how 70% of the world's moorland is in the UK and that they're protecting it. They don't mention that it's being 'protected' at the expense of blanket bog by cutting and draining it!
  39. Gill 13 Jun 2017
    I hate that grouse shooting still continues at the expense of the wonderful wildlife in Scotland. It is the wildlife that has drawn me to Scotland for holidays for many years and hopefully more to come.
  40. John Martin 13 Jun 2017
    The decline in birds of pray is shocking especially hen harriers this is not just isolated to Scotland. England as well. This needs to be done all over the UK.
  41. Mike cooper 13 Jun 2017
    We need a scientific investigation to conclusively prove or disprove the disadvantages of moorlands being managed solely for grouse shooting
  42. Mark Veater 14 Jun 2017
    The management of uplands solely for grouse shooting is a national environmental scandal which has been ignored and even promoted by successive governments pandering to vested interests. A wholesale change is needed, based on science, and the welfare of all users of the upland environment. The squeezing of this habitat as a result of climate warming makes it even more urgent.
  43. frank hamilton 14 Jun 2017
    statement sets out clearly that facts need to be established and fully verified.
  44. Graham marshall 15 Jun 2017
    Heather burning wipes out loads of small mamals its about time we moved on from these oldie world pastimes cruel use of land they get away with driving new roads into our wilderness in order to facilitate easy acsess for partys of shooters the elite few they use OUR LAND for there murderous activitys
  45. George Murdoch 15 Jun 2017
    Many claims have been made as to the economic necessity of driven grouse shooting being a necessity for the continuing viability, both economic and environmentally, of our uplands. Little has been said as to the inhibiting economic effects of being so heavily dependant on one industry of of the huge cost to biodiversity that intensive management practises that driven grouse shoots now appear to demand. It is only fair that the Scottish public are given the true facts of the matter so they can be included in how the decisions are made regarding our countries future.
  46. Susan Goode 15 Jun 2017
    Hate to think wildlife is being lost, particularly birds of prey for the sake of shooting driven grouse
  47. susan fleming 16 Jun 2017
    ABUSE OF OUR NATIVE HABITATS & WILDLIFE WILL NOT BE TOLERATED!!!
  48. Stan Duncan 18 Jun 2017
    Thorough research please
  49. Ruhi Thallon 19 Jun 2017
    We really need to stop this barbarism called 'sport'. Scottish Gov is letting its people and voters down. It's about time you stood up to the 'landed gentry' it is YOU we vote for to govern us not them. Look after the land and our wildlife properly. Tourists would much prefer to see these native animals thriving than the land scorched and wildlife decimated.
  50. John Butterfield 21 Jun 2017
    The wanton destruction of Scotland's upland ecosystems at the hands of grouse moor managers casts an ugly shadow over Scotland's reputation as a wildlife tourism reputation.