The proper management of pheasant shoots

SIR – As a landowner and shoot manager in the home counties, there are a couple of claims made by Richard Mockett (“Pheasant shooters need to hold their fire”, Letters, February 13) to which I must object.

No countryman could argue with his final point that it is the quality and not the number of birds that matters to a shoot. Equally, no shoot owner that I know would ever contemplate running a shoot if the game produced did not find its way into the food chain. To use live quarry as mere targets would be to undermine any ethical legitimacy to this traditional country pursuit, which does so much to enhance wildlife conservation and bind rural communities together. That’s what clay pigeons are for.

Contrary to Mr Mockett’s assertion, I am under no pressure whatsoever “from paying guns seeking more and more birds”. Also, the accounts of “carcasses … buried in pits” seem to be more rumoured than evidenced. No doubt there are rogue practitioners guilty of the activities described, and it is incumbent upon the majority of the traditional constituency that enjoys shooting to name and shame them. However, such people represent a tiny minority whose activities can only be described as suicidal to a way of life we all hold dear. Duncan Clark

Witham, Essex SIR – At the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust research department, we have been measuring the environmental impact of releasing pheasants and shooting for decades.

Like everything else in life, these things can be done well or badly. Big and small shoots often improve their woodlands and plant bird-friendly game crops, but sometimes they don’t.

While bigger shoots have the potential to be more damaging, they also have more money to plough into good environmental management and the local economy. All guns should ask questions about how a shoot is managed before purchasing a day’s shooting. That will ensure high standards throughout the game sector. Rufus Sage

Head of lowland gamebird research Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust Fordingbridge, Hampshire

SIR – Rearing a young pheasant and releasing it into a strange environment for the purpose of making money out of the pleasure obtained from its eventual death is obscene.

When walking in my local area, I often encounter “guns”, proudly displaying their kills. I always ask: “Were they heavily armed?”

This barbaric practice should be banned. Oliver Tyson

Ashby-de-la-zouch, Leicestershire