Glorious Twelfth

[Arthur Little]

12 August ... marks the start of the 'Grouse Shooting :NEW4: Season' in Scotland.

[stevewool]

Banned fox hunting , i wonder when this too may be banned ,

[Arthur Little]

Oh well ... :anerikke: ... I wonder whether there'll be any more replies to this thread than there were when it was first posted exactly a year ago?

[Michael Parnham]

Oh well ... :anerikke: ... I wonder whether there'll be any more replies to this thread than there were when it was first posted exactly a year ago?

I noticed on the news it stated that Grouse shooting causes flooding, How, does anyone know?:Erm:

[Arthur Little]

I noticed on the news it stated that Grouse shooting causes flooding How, does anyone know? :Erm:

............................................................................... :yeahthat:'s because it's invariably :raining: up here.

Yup, Michael :wink: ... yesterday being ANOTHER year down the line, I decided to resurrect this thread, and have come up with a definitive answer to your question.

[Steve.r]

Grouse like Pheasants are bred in captivity and released to fatten up before shooting season starts, so not like fox hunting.

As for the floods......:crazy:

[Slip]

When is pheasant season... my drive to work I pass several fields, and have on several occasions almost ran a few over as they run across the road.

[Tawi2]

Grouse like Pheasants are bred in captivity and released to fatten up before shooting season starts,

That's 100% not true :wink: Grouse in the UK are most certainly not reared in game farms nor bred in captivity for driven shoots. Do a bit of research on the subject and you will find they are all totally wild birds. That's why grouse shooting costs so much. I have shot a few grouse when I was a kid, :smile: not the posh way as in driven over the butts by a line of beaters, but with a single barrel shotgun when I used to crawl up to them in the heather. We ate them. I was at the CLA Game Fair last week in Hertfordshire. I saw a weekend of grouse shooting advertised at £12000.

Pheasant season starts October 1. Pheasants are reared on game farms. They originated in China. If anyone thinks pheasant shooting is objectionable because they look nice, they should see the driven shoots they do in new Zealand where they pop off peacocks. :icon_lol:

[SimonH]

I presume they know it causes flooding in a similar manner that they know that wolves can change the course of a river. Have a look here:-

https://www.theguardian.com/science/grrlscientist/2014/mar/03/how-wolves-change-rivers


eta. found it, but not nearly as interesting as the wolf story :smile:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/dec/29/deluge-farmers-flood-grouse-moor-drain-land

[Tawi2]

True fact that the British countryside wouldn't look the same in certain areas without land management aimed at game-shooting and the old fox-hunting. It was all part of our heritage and shaped the moors coverts, etc., which were managed for hunting and shooting.

[Arthur Little]

If anyone thinks pheasant shooting is objectionable ...

... then :poke:-> rightly so,
'cos they are bound to know:-
Ending up plucking pheasant
CAN'T be very f...ing pleasant! :NoNo:

Hopefully nobody finds my last line objectionable. :peepwall:

[Steve.r]

That's 100% not true
If their habitats were not managed then they would be in steep decline. Management of their land is basically artificially raising them

[Tawi2]

If their habitats were not managed then they would be in steep decline. Management of their land is basically artificially raising them

You said they were bred in captivity, now you're changing the goal-posts a little. Management of land isn't artificially raising them at all "basically" or otherwise. You originally said they are raised in captivity like pheasants. That's not true either. I have been shooting all my life, I know quite a bit about game management. :icon_lol: Management of land merely helps their survival rate, burning heather, predator control etc, it's not artificially raising them at all. That's a totally different concept. There's management of grizzly-bear hunting in Alaska with quota systems, are they artificially raised? :wink:

Even when you said pheasants are raised to fatten up? Really? They are not, they are raised as poults to give them a head start before release, not to "Fatten up".

[Michael Parnham]

I presume they know it causes flooding in a similar manner that they know that wolves can change the course of a river. Have a look here:-

https://www.theguardian.com/science/grrlscientist/2014/mar/03/how-wolves-change-rivers


eta. found it, but not nearly as interesting as the wolf story :smile:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/dec/29/deluge-farmers-flood-grouse-moor-drain-land

Interesting read, question answered. :xxgrinning--00xx3:

[Steve.r]

I can change goalposts if I like. :icon_lol: