Restrictions and legal challenges for shooting
Coronavirus and legal challenges have made 2020 a difficult year for shooting, reports Philip Bowern
SHOOTING has been significiantly curtailed through the coronavirus pandemic with lockdown preventing driven shoots from going ahead. Although, in Tier Three, driven game shooting is permitted as an organised sport for which a licence is required, the on-off nature of the 2020-21 season has taken its toll.
Many large scale shoots reduced the number of young birds they reared and released earlier in the year, in the expectation of a drastically downsized shooting season. In some cases gamekeepers will have been laid off and much of the social side of game shooting, from overnight hotel stays to catered lunches – all of which add to the economic and employment value of shooting – have had to be scrapped.
The New Year begins, with a month of the pheasant shooting season still to go. Yet three quarters of the country is under Tier Four restrictions which effectively prevent the sport from taking place or those who plan to shoot in Tier Three areas like the Westcountry from travelling. Shooting organisations and those who take part in the activity will be using this down time to assesses what the future holds.
Some believe that the huge growth in demand for driven game shooting in the past decade has not been good for the image of shooting overall. Large bags in which hundreds of game birds are shot repels some, even though the best organised shoots can point to efficient operations which process and sell-on the game meat in a way that smaller less well financed operations sometimes struggle to do.
These larger shoots, including a number in Devon, which has a reputation for well-run challenging shoots attracting guns from all over the world, also make a major contribution to the economy of rural areas, particularly important in late autumn and winter when tourists are thin on the ground.
Nevertheless, they face opposition on a number of fronts. While two challenges from Wild Justice, the not-for-profit organisation fronted by BBC TV wildlife presenter Chris Packham have had little signficant
‘There has never been a more vital time for politicians to understand sustainable shooting’ BASC
impact on shooting, more are expected in the future.
Natural England and the Department for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs have tweaked the general licences under which certain species of birds can be lethally controlled, following a challenge from the group. And rules on the release of game birds into the countryside have also been slightly altered after claims that in numbers they can negatively impact on protected areas of countryside.
Although shooting sports and estate management will be largely unimpeded by these challenges, Natural England – an arm of government – reports in its annual accounts that fighting legal actions has dramatically reduced the money it has to spend on conservation.
Attacks from those inherently opposed to all field sports are nothing new, but shooting organisations are acutely aware of the need to retain what it calls “social licence” – in other words the tacit approval, or at least no active disapproval, from the general population.
There are many examples of the benefits for the wider environment, for the rural economy and for the well-being of people in rural areas of shooting sports. But the major membership organisation for the pasttime, the British Association for Shooting and Conservation, knows that it must maintain the support of the wider population if it is to avoid punitive restrictions or even bans, such as that which was imposed on fox, stag and hare hunting by the 2004 Hunting Act.
To that end BASC is urging all those who engage in shooting sports to ensure the highest standards of behaviour and has launched a campaign under the heading Support Rural Britain to connect MPs with country life and country sports.
The organisation reports: “BASC will be providing a match-making service for parliamentarians to visit shooting businesses including gamekeepers, clubs, syndicates and the trade within their constituencies.
“Through contacts in Parliament, BASC will help coordinate and attend the visits so the local MP can see and hear first-hand the economic, conservation and social benefits of sustainable shooting.
“BASC is committed to cross-party political support and there has never been a more vital time for politicians to understand the importance of sustainable shooting and the rural economy. The Support Rural Britain campaign allows MPs to have that all-important constituency link to shooting. It offers a new opportunity for them to engage with BASC members and learn about the work they are doing in their constituencies.”