Let's get facts on the table
Julian Kirk's emotive letter (Citizen, November 4) appears to blame farmers for the decline in pheasants and partridges.
He also attacks game shooting in quite strong terms ie 'what do people get out of this sport'. He then tells us he is a country person whose family has lived there for generations.
Oh dear, where to start.
How about the fact the our endangered songbirds are seven times more likely to be found on land managed for game shooting than land which
isn't (because the landowners ensure there is food, water and cover and that predators' numbers are kept down).
Or how about the 5 billion field sports bring to the rural community each year, not an insignificant figure.
Shall I go on? I don't shoot game but I do carry out crop protection on a dozen farms in North Cambs and the majority of farmers and landworkers I come across are just the people who are trying to look after our wildlife not wipe it off the face of the earth.
There was a case to answer some years ago when the government was paying
farmers to grub up hedges, drain meadows and cut down trees but thank goodness that has changed with the Stewardship Scheme, which pays farmers to put into practice measures to look after and protect our wildlife.
I won't get into the morals of game shooting except to say that if it wasn't for landowners managing the land in part for field sports, we would have a much duller and quieter landscape and unless we all become vegetarians and stop eating meat, we can hardly knock those who do shoot and eat game.
I suspect the two sides of this argument won't meet but let's at least get some facts on the table to start with.
BILL WELLS
North Brink
Wisbech
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Thursday 17 May 2012
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