It could only happen in Britain. A group of rich men drive out into the mountains in their expensive four-wheel drive cars. They gather behind protective walls armed with two or three shotguns each. Then a group of other men, hired by their wealthy patrons but paid very little, drive Red Grouse towards their rich clients who open fire on the birds as soon as they can.

The shooting lasts a long time and the men in tweed have other hired hands loading their guns for them, so they can keep up a rate of fire that would otherwise be impossible. In a few hours they can shoot hundreds of birds. This is not hunting. The wealthy fun killers have not stalked their prey, this is live target practice.
If you think that slaughter is bad you have to realise that this is only part of the desolation that is caused by what’s known as Driven Grouse shooting. In order to get the number of Red Grouse in anyone place that will keep the shooters happy the moors on which the shooting takes place have to be intensively managed and any predators killed as they will reduce the number of Grouse to be shot.
So, birds of prey, Eagles, Hen Harriers etc are poisoned, shot and trapped

in order to keep the numbers of Grouse artificially high. The Hen Harrier, a beautiful bird of prey a little smaller than an eagle, suffers more than most raptors as a result of this practice. Hen Harriers cover huge distances and are drawn to these grouse moors as a result the high numbers of Grouse which are their prey. In England, Hen Harrier numbers have been reduced to only a handful of breeding pairs. In Scotland we are a little more fortunate in having a few hundred, but they are still a species under threat.

Mark Avery, a naturalist and birdwatcher has campaigned tirelessly against this practice in order to protect the birds he loves. For this he has been subjected to everything from verbal abuse to death threats.

YOU CAN HELP

Mark has been shortlisted for The Great Outdoors Campaigner of the year award. Please help raise the profile of his work by voting for him.

VOTE FOR MARK
Driven grouse shooting takes place nowhere else in the world. At its heart is the British class system. The people who shoot grouse in this way are the most powerful in the land, they own vast stretches of country. They are Lords, Dukes, MPs and Judges, the people who make our laws and own our landscapes. Nowhere else in the world do so few people own such vast acreages of landscape. The people who kill our wildlife are game keepers but they are not to blame. It is their employers whose estates need to be brim-full of grouse to shoot who are responsible.
You don’t own land like you can own a car or a washing machine. You can only have rights over the land. No one made the hills and the lochs of Scotland, they and the creatures that live in, them belong to all of us.
One day driven grouse shooting will be banned. Help make it happen by voting for Mark Avery