| I believe Game shooting is acceptable, and indeed, | | | | Game shooting only serves to irritate the |
| needed in today's modern Britain. | | | | communities and does nothing to help them: |
| I will attempt to prove this in the following essay, by | | | | Per annum, shooting contributes 1.3 billion pounds to |
| taking the most favored anti-shooting arguments and | | | | the British economy. It helps this country with 1 300 |
| answering them, point for point. | | | | 000 000 pounds sterling per year. This is not a figure |
| Game birds are released into the wild to die in huge | | | | to be scoffed at. Gameshooting provides 70 000 full |
| numbers unnecessarily and unnaturally: | | | | time jobs per year, not counting the amount of part |
| Game birds, in this case pheasants (as grouse | | | | time jobs it offers teenagers and young adults. |
| shooting is entirely wild), are released into the wild | | | | Thanks to shooting, two million hectares are actively |
| after being reared in outdoor pens for several weeks. | | | | conserved through the 250 million spent on |
| They are then given several months and weeks to | | | | conservation efforts in Britain alone. The equivalent |
| acclimatize themselves to the wilds. The pheasants | | | | of 2.7 million work days on conservation is provided |
| do wander onto roads, but so does practically any | | | | by shooting and consequently we have a much wider |
| other animal, especially agricultural animals (sheep | | | | amount of natural countryside and different habitats, |
| cows on the road). They live a free life, and are free | | | | as well as a method, indeed a vessel in which old |
| to go from the area at anytime, as the only thing | | | | traditions (not necessarily shooting) can continue and |
| holding them back, and indeed can hold them back, | | | | be passed down the generations. |
| are the presence of game feeders. These game | | | | Shooting has helped put Game firmly on the menu, |
| feeders not only feed the local wildlife and songbirds, | | | | with it being served in butchers and often |
| and provide a source of food all year round. | | | | supermarkets around the country. It has been served |
| It is a high probability that many of the woods used | | | | in high class London restaurants, and has been |
| in rearing and the holding of pheasants would not | | | | promoted by Famous chefs (Michel Roux, Brian |
| exist today, as they would have been returned to | | | | Turner, Antony Worrall Thompson and Anton |
| farmland as they are unsound to the agriculture | | | | Mosimann). |
| economy. In fact, a large proportion of Britain's | | | | When game is shot, the birds are nearly all retrieved, |
| hedgerows would not exist today if it were not for | | | | and put in a refrigerator trailer. They are not thrown |
| gameshooting. Those very same woods and | | | | away, or buried to rot. They are handed out fairly |
| hedgerows provide a HUGE increase in wildlife | | | | around the shooters and the estate larder and nearly |
| habitation for nature. | | | | every one of them is eaten. |
| Gamebirds die in an unnatural and incredibly painful | | | | Gamebird chicks are reared in huge numbers in |
| way: | | | | cramped conditions: |
| Gamebirds, on nearly all counts, are given a free life, | | | | Grouse chicks are reared on the moor, completely in |
| in which they are free to mate, eat, fly, and wander | | | | the wild, so it is not applicable to them. Pheasant |
| over the earth wherever they may please. And, | | | | eggs are first hatched in large incubators, and then |
| maybe once a year, they a flown over a group of | | | | moved, as like any young chicks, to an area where |
| sportsmen, where they have more chance of being | | | | the chicks are near heat lamps and plentiful food. |
| untouched by gunfire than any cow being used for | | | | Chick aggressiveness is not uncommon, but is usually |
| meat has of escaping the abattoir. They have a | | | | cure when they, as poults, are released to the |
| better life than any cow or chicken, and more chance | | | | keepers across the country, to be grown in rearing |
| of surviving. Even when they have the unlucky odds, | | | | pens. Of course, some keepers choose to rear their |
| they often die as soon as they are shot, and if they | | | | own chicks, and this is obviously slower than the |
| are shot by an incompetent shot, who are often not | | | | other method. |
| allowed too shoot, their necks are broken almost | | | | In conclusion, I believe Gameshooting is justifiable and |
| instantly when they hit the ground. There are | | | | indeed, needed in today's Britain, to put another form |
| occasional times when a pheasant may be hit by a | | | | of healthy food on the shelf (Indeed it has been |
| clipping shot, and will glide to the ground. These | | | | proved Pheasant is an anti-depressant!) , and that |
| 'runners' are then retrieved (but not killed) by a gun | | | | game shooting is less cruel to the Gamebirds than an |
| dog, and will be killed humanly. | | | | abattoir is too cows. |