Shooting consultation’s experts come under fire
ANIMAL rights groups have criticised Wales’ biggest quango for hiring an academic who herself goes shooting to evaluate a consultation on whether the killing of birds for sport should be permitted on its land.
Dr Sam Hillyard of Durham University was one of two academics who won the contract from Natural Resources Wales.
The other, Professor Garry Marvin of the University of Roehampton, specialises in the interaction between humans and animals.
NRW is conducting the review following increasing opposition to its policy of allowing pheasant shooting on publicly owned land.
Last month Animal Aid handed in a petition with more than 12,700 signatures to the National Assembly calling for a ban on shooting on land managed by NRW.
A YouGov poll at the same time found that 74% of people in Wales thought that shooting birds should be made illegal.
Fiona Pereira, campaign manager at Animal Aid, said: “We were deeply concerned to learn the identity of the academics assigned to review the evidence presented to NRW’s shooting consultation. The job should have been awarded to independent scientists who were specialists in the appropriate areas.”
Bethan Collins, senior public affairs officer for the League Against Cruel Sports, said: “NRW commissioned this external assurance review because, in their own words, ‘Due to the level of stakeholder interest in this area, and the contentious nature of using firearms, we believe that additional independent assessment and evaluation of this evidence was required to ensure that the conclusions we have drawn, which form our recommendations and consultation proposals, are balanced, fair and unbiased.’
“We feel that in using Dr Sam Hillyard and Prof Garry Marvin to do this work, NRW have not met their own aim. Dr Hillyard is a sociologist whose research interests focus on the sociology of country sports and rural life. In documents that are freely available online, she says that she goes shooting herself.
“Prof Marvin is a social anthropologist whose research focuses on human-animal interactions and includes topics such as cock-fighting, bullfighting, fox-hunting and trophy hunting.
“In their report, Dr Hillyard and Prof Marvin argue for evidence submitted by a pro-shooting organisation, the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, to be given more weight by NRW and also comment on what they regard as the ‘disproportionately cited’ evidence of one respondent, Dr Jake Bicknell, who they note ‘works for the RSPB’ (the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds).
“We question why NRW felt that it was appropriate to contract Dr Hillyard and Prof Marvin to carry out this particular piece of work.”
Ceri Davies, NRW’s director of evidence, policy and permitting, said: “Our review has been extremely broad, as the new Environment Act requires NRW to plan and manage its work with sustainable management of natural resources as a foundation for all its decisions. The review looked at how we manage our own land as well as the small amount of land that we lease out to third parties.
“All the evidence submitted during our ‘call for evidence’ stage of the review was given full and detailed consideration.
“The University of Durham and University of Roehampton provided an independent assurance role on the process undertaken in the evidence assessment stage and consideration of any gaps that there may have been in the evidence that NRW considered.
“We did not ask the assessors to make any comments on the contents of the review itself. The contract was awarded consistent with NRW’s procurement policy and procedure”
Speaking on behalf of himself and Dr Hillyard, Prof Marvin said: “It’s true that Dr Hillyard shoots and that my academic expertise relates to the interaction between humans and animals. It’s understandable that the animal rights organisations will make political points about our involvement and I don’t blame them for that.
“However, in my work I have never expressed support for any kind of hunting. NRW commissioned us to review the responses to the consultation and we did so professionally.”