Backlash over BBC star’s call for a ban on grouse shooting
Campaigners attack Packham’s ‘lack of impartiality’
COUNTRYSIDE campaigners have accused BBC presenter Chris Packham of using his celebrity profile to ‘manipulate public opinion’ after he said the grouse shooting industry should be ‘terminated’.
The Springwatch presenter is facing a backlash in Scotland having said he does not care about the jobs grouse shooting supports or the money it injects into the Scottish economy.
He said if it was ‘founded on criminal behaviour’, through raptors being killed to protect grouse, the industry – worth £23.3million to Scotland – should be shut down.
Mr Packham, 55, who has gathered the 100,000 signatures needed to force a Westminster debate on a grouse shooting ban, is being investigated by the BBC Trust for breaching impartiality rules over an article in which he appeared to call shooters and hunters the ‘nasty brigade’.
Last night, the Scottish Countryside Alliance hit back to insist that grouse shooting is a force for good in rural communities.
Director Jamie Stewart said: ‘Mr Packham’s single-minded agenda, “raptors at all costs”, echoes in his statement that he “does not care” about Scottish people’s jobs or the effect on the economy.
‘He seeks to use his celebrity status to manipulate public opinion and whip up internet trolls and the mob mentality by employing deliberate tactics of misinformation, half-truth and innuendo.’
Mr Stewart said independent studies had shown that when grouse shooting and associated management stops, nationally Glorious Twelfth: The grouse shooting season is under way important bird populations fall dramatically. Shooting providers also do important conservation work on grouse moors.
The director added, in response to Mr Packham: ‘He also neglects to mention that on top of the benefits to ecology, grouse shooting provides economic stability to some of Scotland’s most impoverished rural areas, providing jobs, housing, and schools – truly supporting the wider rural economy.’
Scotland’s Rural College puts the total number of jobs dependent on grouse shooting at almost 1,100, with more than 300 grouse moors and properties involved in the sport.
Mr Packham made his latest outspoken remarks before appearing at Edinburgh International Book Festival on Sunday.
He said: ‘If an industry is founded on criminal behaviour, then I don’t care how much money it is worth and how many people might be employed. It has to be terminated.
‘That is the law of the land, there’s nothing controversial about that.’
Yesterday a spokesman for the BBC Trust said the ‘nasty brigade’ article, written by the presenter in last October’s issue of BBC Wildlife magazine, went ahead having been judged not to be ‘vexatious’.
The presenter will learn if the complaint by the Countryside Alliance and the Game and Wildlife Trust is upheld next month. Previously, the BBC has required an on-air apology where editorial guidelines have been breached.
Mr Packham, who was on Orkney yesterday, did not wish to comment further last night.
At the weekend, after the start of the grouse season on ‘the Glorious Twelfth’, he said: ‘If, in order to provide enough grouse on a driven grouse moor you have to cull birds of prey, then shut it down.’
Last year 20 bird of prey crimes were recorded in Scotland, involving buzzards, red kites and peregrine falcons. Poisoning was the most frequently recorded crime, but there were five shootings and three cases of trapping.
Campaigners claim it is happening far more often, in order to protect grouse from natural predators. A petition lodged with the Scottish parliament to license gamebird hunting has more than 4,300 signatures.