There are many reasons for signing the petition to ban driven grouse shooting – click here – and this study provides two more reasons at different levels.
The study looks at Red Grouse carcasses bought on the open market which were intended for human consumption and found that all 78 carcasses contained lead shot and that, as a result, the lead levels in the flesh of the birds (destined to be consumed as meat) were high. The lead levels were much higher (much, much, much higher) than would be legal in meats such as beef, pork, chicken etc. This use of lead shot is despite the shooting industry committing to a voluntary phasing out of the use of lead ammunition by the shooting season in which these Red Grouse were shot. All 78 Red Grouse contained lead shot – that is zero progress on their own voluntary scheme. And these results are despite a huge pile of scientific evidence that eating high levels of lead is bad for your health and particularly bad for infants.
The results will come as no surprise to readers of this blog which has documented studies of lead ammunition use since 2011 and the non-compliance of the shooting industry with the law, yet alone with voluntary initiatives. Indeed, this blog, back in 2016 – click here – carried out a similar study, buying Red Grouse sold in Iceland supermarkets, getting them analysed and showing high lead levels.
But the second reason for signing this petition is that the grouse shooting industry seems to me to have a large number of confirmed liars in its ranks, and this scientific finding simply adds use of lead shot to the failure to deliver a voluntary ban on upland burning and to deliver a meaningful reduction in the illegal killing of birds of prey. You cannot take the word of the grouse shooters as being their bond.
If you look at my book review – click here – of a book which purports to tell the world about grouse shooting then you can see what I think of the truthfulness of the book but you can read the book and judge for yourself. Another blatant example of evading the truth is the much used non-fact that the UK has 75% of the world’s heather moorland – this isn’t remotely true and yet it also found its way into Defra’s response to our petition – it’s almost as though a Labour Defra is as pro-shooting as a Conservative Defra. Tony Benn, Dennis Skinner and even Harold Wilson must be spinning in their graves.
I have respect for some individuals who shoot grouse but not for the industry as a whole and I regard that as a reason why we should rise up and sign this petition to ban this unsustainable hobby – click here.
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