Well done BASC I say,for questioning the ethics of ever cheaper poults.
BASC with the unlikely ally of "Animal Aid" is causing a stir within the UK sporting industry by speaking out against the UK use of intensive French game bird egg production system.
The uk game industry needs to reform and put it's house in order; to police itself with a plausible assurance scheme before the antis and govt. produce one for them.
The wildlife of today is not ours to do as we please with, we have it on trust, we must account for it to future generations....likewise our beloved sport.

yes, it"s about time big shoots were held to account. the majority of British game shooters are lone rough shooters, or belong to small syndicates. i love to get an afternoon out in the season, even just alone with my dogs.if i get a shot at all, then that"s a bonus.why should i have to suffer the impending onslaught against game shooting because of greedy cash oriented big bag shoots? the tree huggers won"t differentiate between shoots, and the authorities will rub their hands with glee at the chance to ban another type of shooting or feild sport.
so let them all squeal if the BASC hit a nerve. maybe there should have been more consultation before the BASC spoke out, but they said what needed to be said, and they should"nt stop now!
bring back labour intensive, natural rearing like they did years ago. reduce the bags, source a market(there are too many birds being shot already)for game birds for the table, and lastly, for the people who are buying the big bag days, let them pick up the bill for the changes needed if they want to show off how much money they have!
if i wanted to shoot a pile of birds that i had no use for, i"d go to the dump and shoot crows!
long live shooting!

Brass Thief

Whilst I agree with you regarding big bags and intensive rearing I think that the UK is fighting a losing battle against our european cousins.If the UK shoots can`t offer large bags then people will go abroad (for example Spain/Poland)where bird welfare is minimal and the anti shooting lobbies are less of a force
Fair enough stamp out the cage rearing process but lets play off a level playing field.Our syndicates must be prepared to buy these properly raised birds as opposed to the imports from the continent which will undoubtably be cheaper.A simple solution would be to put a levy on all imported birds from uninspected game rearers but no doubt this wouldn`t be legal to our european "free trade" rulers
Well done BASC for highlighting the issue but bear in mind to the faces that run animal aid it doesn`t matter if you shoot one pheasant or 200 they still want it banned and so everything must be done to prevent groups like this being involved in any policy making
On another point I`ve recently built a chiller for my local estate to keep their birds fresh and the ones that they don`t prepare themselves go to a game dealer.The dealers say that theres little market for game and give very little for a brace but this year they`ve been crying out for birds.There must be a market somewhere

Thanks

Tim

Agreed if intensive/commercial shoots in UK did get serverely curtailed then many shots would go abroad to shoot.
The danger is that unless sportsmen can control (through BASC?) these excesses the politicians and antis will draw up the perameters. The wealthy big shots will still go abroad for their sport but the poorer local boys ie the vast majority, may find their sport severely legislated against.
BASC really needs to act in the best interests of a sustained sporting future regardless of short term commercial trends.Fingers crossed the governing council will act and not prevaricate.

The most important thing is to source a market for shot game.
Many EU countries end up importing game meat since it is so popular...and it gets much easier to justfy something if it isn't being thrown away!!
A few well placed media drives, could get health concious people ready to eat pheasant instead of chicken...

Guy.

I agree with all said except for the lack of demand for game.

In my view the work of the game to eat campaign and more effort on the part of shooters to give game to friends and cook game for them is really paying off.

I personally have given about twenty five brace to the neighbours of the shoot this season. None are shooting people and wouldn't normally have thought to eat it. They all pay the butcher a couple o f quid to dress them out and enthuse about the food.

Obviously this is only pheasants and partridge, as Trans's woodcock are safely in my freezer away from prying eyes!!!

If anything I could have given away more than double the birds if I could have hit them in the first place!!! Now I will be giving away sausages and venison joints. It all helps enlighten people to why we do what we do, which is not a bad thing...

FB