On Fri, 03 Oct 2003 09:36:30 GMT, (RJ
Webb) wrote:


LOL! the Guardian's Country Diary column! That's like Popular Mechanics
having a Water Colour column.

[snip]

A long established and well repected column. Some fine contributers
over the year.

Sometimes I think this town v country crap is just a bit
anachronistic.Especially as a lot of us country folk can no longer
afford to live there..... Face it folks we lost.... The Townies
dropped the money bomb on us and we had no chance...

It has bugger all to do with town v country, you try doing it in
London and we'll still not allow it.

As for the tame bird banging industry, my main gripe is that it is
accompanied by rampant gomlism..

Typically no thought for the birds.

All irrelavant trolling xposts snipped.

Richard Webb

All relevant cross posts, content and context replaced, because I
never gave permission to do otherwise.




On Thu, 02 Oct 2003 17:43:38 GMT, "" wrote:

Found on the animal aid website recently

http://www.animalaid.org.uk/

PHEASANT SHOOTING
An item describing the ugly reality of the pheasant rearing and
shooting industry has appeared in The Guardian's Country Diary column
- marking the start of the new shooting season.

'During the summer,' the piece reads 'the young pheasant poults were
released. Now they dither along hedgerows and get flattened on the
roads near to where they are fed by gamekeepers. They look too young
and confused and will have to be booted into the air by beaters to get
them to fly.' Read the whole article here.

Animal Aid has launched a pack of specially designed playing cards,
which use sharp wit to reveal the ugly reality of pheasant rearing and
shooting. You can order your own pack of cards in the online shop.


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +

Full story

News bulletin: October 2003

BLOOD-RED HARVEST
The new pheasant shooting season
The start of the new pheasant shooting season was marked in The
Guardian's Country Diary column with the following by Paul Evans.



Animal Aid's new playing cards, released to mark the start of the
pheasant shooting season, use sharp wit to reveal the sordid reality
of pheasant rearing and shooting.


Red is the sunset, the early holly berries, the rowans, hips and haws;
also it's the colour of another "harvest", blood-red. The pheasant
shooting season starts at the beginning of October, although the
serious shooting will not take place before November.

During the summer the young pheasant poults were released. Now they
dither along hedgerows and get flattened on the roads near to where
they are fed by gamekeepers. They look too young and confused and will
have to be booted into the air by beaters to get them to fly.

Around 25-35 million pheasants are released into the British
countryside every year and the ecological implications of this massive
loading of birds on to the environment is still not well understood.

Perhaps it is because they offer less of a challenge than, say, snipe
or woodcock that pheasants have become the target of choice. Few of
these scuttling, scraggy birds will ever get eaten and the "sport" is
in harvesting pheasants for the bag, not the pot.

At odd times, the quiet of the countryside here is shattered by very
weird noises. Electronic sounds, like hawk screams and alarms, blare
from the woods. This is a sound deterrent for pheasant predators.
Foxes, weasels, stoats and polecats are still regularly killed for the
sake of pheasants and retain their status as "vermin". But one
person's duty to control vermin is another person's duty to protect
wildlife. The gap between the two is widening as attitudes towards all
kinds of hunting polarises in society. If the racket in the woods
really does deter animals that would otherwise be killed by
gamekeepers then fair enough; my sympathies, like my genealogy, lie
with the vermin.

Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited

Insight into the whole sordid affair

http://www.animalaid.org.uk/campaign.../pheasants.htm


Did you know the RSPB partners on the Abernethy estate are game
shooters and breeders? Did you know the RSPB profit from the slaughter
of millions of game animals including deer?


. . . . . . . .





The facts expressed here belong to everybody,
the opinions to me.
The distinction is yours to draw...

/( )`
\ \___ / |
/- _ `-/ '
(/\/ \ \ /\
/ / | ` \
O O ) / |
`-^--'` '
(_.) _ ) /
`.___/` /
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----. __ / __ \
----|====O)))==) \) /====
----' `--' `.__,' \
| |
\ /
______( (_ / \______
,' ,-----' | \
`--{__________) \/

I'm a horny devil when riled.


pete who?

-=[ Grim Reaper ]=- 6/97

.""--.._
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||__ `'-,
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_ /|//} ``--._ |
.'` `'. /////} `\/
/ .""".\ //{///
/ /_ _`\\ // `||
| |(_)(_)|| _// ||
| | /\ )| _///\ ||
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/ | :: | |_.-` | \ ||
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`\\` /` / ||
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jgs / | ||
| \ ||
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`-.___,-. .-. ___,' ||
`---'` `'----'`
I need a drink, feel all giddy...hic!

. . . . . . . .





The facts expressed here belong to everybody,
the opinions to me.
The distinction is yours to draw...

/( )`
\ \___ / |
/- _ `-/ '
(/\/ \ \ /\
/ / | ` \
O O ) / |
`-^--'` '
(_.) _ ) /
`.___/` /
`-----' /
----. __ / __ \
----|====O)))==) \) /====
----' `--' `.__,' \
| |
\ /
______( (_ / \______
,' ,-----' | \
`--{__________) \/

I'm a horny devil when riled.


pete who?

-=[ Grim Reaper ]=- 6/97

.""--.._
[] `'--.._
||__ `'-,
`)||_ ```'--.. \
_ /|//} ``--._ |
.'` `'. /////} `\/
/ .""".\ //{///
/ /_ _`\\ // `||
| |(_)(_)|| _// ||
| | /\ )| _///\ ||
| |L====J | / |/ | ||
/ /'-..-' / .'` \ | ||
/ | :: | |_.-` | \ ||
/| `\-::.| | \ | ||
/` `| / | | | / ||
|` \ | / / \ | ||
| `\_| |/ ,.__. \ | ||
/ /` `\ || ||
| . / \|| ||
| | |/ ||
/ / | ( ||
/ . / ) ||
| \ | ||
/ | / ||
|\ / | ||
\ `-._ | / ||
\ ,//`\ /` | ||
///\ \ | \ ||
|||| ) |__/ | ||
|||| `.( | ||
`\\` /` / ||
/` / ||
jgs / | ||
| \ ||
/ | ||
/` \ ||
/` | ||
`-.___,-. .-. ___,' ||
`---'` `'----'`
I need a drink, feel all giddy...hic!