At last ! A policy worth voting for !!

Not prejudice at all Flower. I grew up in the country, have friends who are farmers and some of my work takes me to farms and rural establishments. Most farmers or farm employees are not snipers, and to use a scatter gun to take out an animal will usually wound it at anything over 50 meters. I have observed deer culling and the chaps that "stalk" (a bit tongue in cheek as it was in a landrover) were not scatter gun shooters but using rifles to take them down. Two totally differnet types but not your typical shooter of vermin. They leave that to the scatter gun brigade.

Shooting an animal properly will kill it faster than in a slaughter house in my opinion, but only if they use a rifle and squash head round and hit the skull area. Unfortunately most farmers are not like these chaps. They can use a weapon and hit the target but how many actually achieve a good kill rate. The dear culls, I observe, are 100% hit and dead. If they cannot achieve a definate hit then they do not take the shot, they will move on. This is a lot different to scatter gun shooting.

Dave_Notts

Sorry about that Flower, offence was not my intention.

In my experience those that use scatter guns use them because it is the easiest way to hit a target. They are hedging their bets i.e. laying down more bits of lead than a single shot. Within a certain distance you will kill the animal, but only a short distance more (add a bit of rain on to a pelt, feather, fur) can reduce the power of the lead penetrating enough to kill but rather maim.

I am not against the use of a shotgun, I have even been known to use one once or twice, but to claim they kill effectively can not be borne out in my experience. There is a good 20% wound rate, where the animal is in agony until the dog or other finds it. There will be a few that have to linger and die longer and the lucky few that do recover......but only a small number of them.

That is why I used shooting in the original context of my first post.

Dave_Notts

This is where I forgot to say that the reason they head shoot is that when the squash head enters it shatters into small fragments. One reason is that it doesn't come out the other side of the animal and potentially wound anyone/thing the other side. The other reason, following on that it doesn't come out the other side, is that the meat is to be used in food. The head is not used and disposed of with the entrails and hooves. This leaves the meat free of potential lead/metal contamination.

Sorry, should have said and this is only going off the experence of this shoot and not all shoots as they are different

Dave_Notts

This is an interesting and topical point, currently there are major discussions about the future of lead ammunition in this country. German stalkers are awaiting the publication of trials to decide the fate of lead ammunition their, prompted by the ricochet of non lead bullets which have caused several injures and one fatality.

Another conviction from a very poor piece of law. IMO

http://www.countryside-alliance.org.uk/hunting-campaigns/hunting-events/hunting-conviction/

Some good Christmas cheer for Northern Ireland

“ Ulster Unionist South Down MLA John McCallister said: “I am concerned that this bill is the thin edge of the wedge for our rural way of life. First this bill then shooting, then fishing - you do not want to go down that road. Why would you tie up police resources when you have many other issues to deal with? It criminalises some of our most law-abiding citizens."

http://www.countryside-alliance.org.uk/hunting-campaigns/hunting-views/hunting-for-christmas-cheer/

Looks like the tide of opinion may be on the change

New polling* published to coincide with the biggest day of the hunting year shows that six out of ten people think the Hunting Act has been a waste of police time and eight out of ten believe animal rights activists should not be allowed take the law into their own hands.

The police have dealt with thousands of allegations since the Hunting Act came into force, but there have been just twelve attempts to prosecute hunts of which eight have failed. The latest case involved three members of the Sinnington Hunt in Yorkshire who were cleared of all charges after a three day trial earlier this month.
The poll, carried out by ORB for the Countryside Alliance, asked 2 questions:
Do you think that banning hunting and the subsequent requirement to police the ban is a good use of police resources?

•No 62%
•Yes 33%
•Don't know 4%

Do you think that animal rights activists should be allowed to take the law into their own hands for the purpose of protecting wild animals?

•No 85%
•Yes 13%
•Don't know 2%

Countryside Alliance Chief Executive Alice Barnard said: "The Hunting Act has wasted thousands of hours of police time and millions of pounds of taxpayers money. Police officers have spent endless time investigating allegations made by animal rights activists when they could have been tackling real crime like burglary, knife crime and drug dealing.
"No wonder Tony Blair has now admitted that the Act is one of his greatest regrets, and the new government has called it an unnecessary drain on police resources.
"The coalition government is committed to a vote on the Hunting Act. When the law is debated and its failure and waste exposed, we are confident that the country and parliament will support the arguments for getting rid of it."

From here;
http://www.countryside-alliance.org.uk/hunting-campaigns/hunting-views/hunting-act-%E2%80%9Ca-waste-of-police-time%E2%80%9D/

Those with an interest in the matters of the countryside may find the blogs of James Barrington very interesting. As the former Executive Director of the League Against Cruel Sports, he has now seen the light and talks far more sense.

James (Jim) Barrington is a former Executive Director of the League Against Cruel Sports. He has been involved in various animal welfare campaigns for almost 40 years. Currently, he is a welfare consultant to the Countryside Alliance, Council of Hunting Associations and the All Party Parliamentary Middle Way Group.

From here
http://jamesbarrington.wordpress.com/author/jamesbarrington/

Hunting, Shooting and Spinning - The flawed Hunting Act

http://jamesbarrington.wordpress.com/2011/06/15/hunting-shooting-and-spinning/

http://www.countryside-alliance.org.uk/ca/campaigns-hunting/james-barringtons-animal-welfare-blog