Country Sports and Country Life Editorial Comment
I
remember the time when I shot my first pheasant. Everything had pointed to a great day out over the fields not far away from home in the depths of County Tyrone. I’d been shooting occasionally for some years, sometimes with my father sometimes alone, with rabbits and an odd pigeon for the pot mainly in mind. An occasional spring of teal might feature on the day but generally these proved too far a way for my single barrel Greener. That’s what I thought then anyway, but it was more than likely my inexperience of such opportunities and more likely still my skill then, or lack of it! I was still many years away from a driven day. That was still to come, but I was glad that between that first pheasant and driven shoots there came an apprenticeship of wildfowling by way of membership of Strangford Lough Wildfowlers, odd estate vermin days (being told that I was on the team for a vermin day at an estate was definitely high on the wish-list). Then came spaniel training for trials, and beating on well known shoots where Driven Days were experienced albeit without firing a shot. It was a great apprenticeship and one that drove home all too clearly the emphasis on safety. But back to that first pheasant. To be truthful the actual event is a little cloudy as it was so long ago but I remember the bog, the wingbeats and the cock calling as it rose to my left just in front of a thorn bush and scrub. Usually birds like this got up too far way but not today. Up, bang, down and moments later I located the cock bird. And another thing is etched my memory, the single pellet that ended up on my plate when we enjoyed the bird for dinner. One pellet had been the birds downfall and I always wondered if it had died of fright when I shouted with joy as it tumble. I still have that very pellet tucked away in an old wallet as a memento of that day. Now, many years and many pheasants and pheasant dinners later, I can state that there must have been more pellets in the 4
food and some probably did end up on my plate. Perhaps I was lucky not to have swallowed them, or maybe I did without noticing. Who knows? What I do know is that I have not succumbed to any leadrelated medical condition, nor have I died of lead poisoning. Not yet anyway. My shooting friends speak of similar experiences with lead shot and food. But now we are in changed times, PC, Woke, and We Know Best. The demise of lead shot is for our own good of course, really. Isn’t it? Or perhaps like Pink Floyd said: All in all it's just another brick in the wall. All of this ramble brings me in a roundabout way to my point, which is this: years ago when there was a call to do away with lead ammo (who remembers the Lead Advisory Group, John Swift et al) the wagons of our organisations were quickly put in a circle (you see I’m still remembering my childhood movies of cowboys and Indians - or native Americans I suppose in PC-speak) and in time we just relaxed a little and carried on with restrictions on its use over wetlands etc. But now a ban on lead shot appears to be inescapable. Most membership organisations appear pro lead shot alternatives, there is a time slot to see it banned, and the Daily Telegraph (who at one time boasted a shooting editor) reported along the following lines that ‘the government is drawing up plans to ban poisonous lead shot, in the latest blow to field sports. ... The metal can pose a risk to people if ingested and studies have found that lead poisoning caused lowered immune systems in wild birds, potentially aiding the spread of diseases such as avian influenza. Some might say that we are seeing yet another rushed example of virtue signalling. Some might say much worse. Perhaps those of us with a lifetime of shooting lead and eating what we shot have all been extremely lucky, given the dire consequences that we are now told about. Perhaps it’s all like the move to cars etc driven by anything but petrol.
Spring/Summer 2021 Countrysports and Country Life
Electricity is a new option folks. Or hydrogen maybe? I’ve yet to see the cost benefit analysis of petrol driven compared to cost, pollution, social and other issues of generating electricity and the elements required from far off lands for the batteries. Oh, but there is always lower car tax. Well, perhaps there is right now. but I’ve no doubt this will rise to fill the coffers depleted by the decrease in petrol usage. Hey ho……the price of ‘progress’ and some might say the latest policy to meet its sacrificial end on the alter of ‘right on,’ vocal green activists. I’ll turn now to something entirely different, hunting. Now I don’t hunt but many do, and many more follow the hunt throughout the year, whether spectating in the field, puppy walking, or by way of their jobs like blacksmithing, or veterinarian. However, hunt enthusiast or not, you may have spotted that Alliance Party MLA John Blair plans to table a Private Members Bill - ‘Blair announces plans to bring Bill to outlaw hunting wild mammals with dogs.’ The media gave it coverage and I noted that one outlet carried the story along with a report that the ‘League Against Cruel Sports was calling on politicians to create new legislation that would ban hunting with dogs,” giving polling figures which they said showed that ’84% of people want ‘the blood sport made illegal.’ Interestingly too, the Alliance Party website carried John Blair’s plans directly above a LACS statement welcoming the move. Among the many comments we received, since the news broke of the Bill, were claims that the media gave Mr Blair an easy ride. Inside this issue we interview John by putting some of your points to him and asking questions which you felt right to be addressed along with some of our own. Claims have been made that the proposals carry wide support. Please read the questions, answers and comments inside and see what you think.
