The most important conversation you’ll have this season
BASC’s Gareth Dockerty discusses the social connections we make in the field and asks you to fight for the future of game shooting.
- - Features
- - Features
The most important thing you can do this month
The government’s review of game shooting closes on 1 November. One email is all it takes. If you haven’t sent yours yet, today is the day to act, says Conor O’Gorman.
If you have already emailed Defra about your experience of game shooting, thank you.
More than 4,000 people have taken the time to write, but hundreds of thousands are involved in game shooting in England.
Gamekeepers, shoot owners, farmers, beaters, pickers-up, Guns, gundog trainers, feed merchants, vets and rural businesses of every kind all have a story to tell.
Defra needs to hear from many more of us — and we have just 25 days to make that happen.
We are not the only ones writing. Organisations that want shooting to end are urging their supporters to respond in large numbers.
When Defra weighs the evidence, our responses may well be measured against theirs. We have the stronger case, but we need the weight of evidence to demonstrate it.
Defra review is not a done deal
Some of you may think the decision has already been made. I understand that concern, but this is not a done deal. Defra is obliged to consider every email it receives. Yours will be read and counted. That is not wishful thinking; it is how the process works.
We have been here before — and we have won. In Wales, plans to ban gamebird releasing were shelved after this community responded in force. That happened not because of a single organisation, but because thousands of people took the time to respond to the consultation.
You already have everything you need
You don’t need to be a scientist. You just need your own experience, written in your own words.
Write about the habitat you manage or walk through; the wildlife you see on shoot days; the hedgerows, cover crops and winter feeding; the services and products you buy because of shooting; the charity events you support; and what a day in the field means to you and your family.
That is evidence. Nobody else can give it to Defra on your behalf.
How to do it
We’ve created an email template to make responding easier. Click the button below, add your own experiences and hit send.
Your email will go straight to Defra’s gamebirds team, with a copy sent to us automatically so we can track how many people have responded.
Please do one more thing
Please tell people involved in shooting about the review and your submission. Many of the people we are talking to on shoots, at clay grounds and in gun shops are still unaware of the review.
We can make the case to government, the press and every member we have — but your conversations with fellow beaters, pickers-up and Guns could persuade many more people to act.
This is a fight for the future of shooting and our way of life.
Thank you for being the voice of shooting.
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Conor OGorman
Conor O’Gorman has worked in a variety of conservation, policy and campaigning roles at BASC over the last 20 years.
A zoology graduate with a PhD awarded for grey partridge research, he has over 25 years’ experience in conservation and land management.
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