From guns and gundogs to the latest shooting news; the complete online network for the British shooting community.
While the Labrador may be the UK’s most popular dog — more than 45,000 puppies are registered with the Kennel Club every year — it’s also the shooting community’s number one gundog.
But when it comes to an awareness of what constitutes the health status of Labradors being used for breeding, there’s a vast chasm of ignorance among those who rely so much on the working abilities of this breed. I hope it’s not intentional, but I have to say that those who disregard the relevance of testing Labradors for some of the more common problems that beset the breed do so with a cavalier attitude. And I fear it’s based on the assumption that health testing has more to do with Labradors produced for the show ring rather than the shooting field.
Mention hip X-rays and eye tests in shooting circles and even those who are disparaging about such things admit to a vague notion of their existence. The fact that many would mate a bitch devoid of any health testing to a dog of similar status is totally irresponsible. It’s bad enough that they may choose to tread a dangerous path and retain a puppy that is a potential health risk for themselves, but to be selling puppies from such an alliance is duping others and for that there is no excuse.
As a Labrador breeder who has embraced myriad testing procedures over the years — which now include hips, elbows, annual eye tests, DNA testing for general progressive retinal atrophy and DNA testing for centronuclear myopathy — I am restricted to using stud dogs that have an equally high health status. Believe me, it isn’t an easy job trying not to compromise on working ability, temperament and looks in the search for suitable sires that meet a demanding criteria on health.
Fortunately, more breeders are now recognising that these tests do have a relevance and more owners of good dogs are embracing the full gamut of physical and genetic testing. Nevertheless, it remains a constant challenge trying to select stud dogs that won’t undermine your efforts — not to mention the cost involved.
Unfortunately, the Kennel Club — of which I am a member — continues to accept litter registrations (£12 a puppy) from litters bred from totally un-health-tested parents. In many other countries only Labrador puppies from health- ested stock can be registered. So, perhaps only when the Kennel Club sets out a clear and precise code of conduct for Labradors will the rank and file step sharply into line with those of us who have the welfare and long-term future of the Labrador at heart.
Have your say: if you have a view on a current news topic, send it, in no more than 500 words, to steditorial@ipcmedia.com.
Grey squirrel I am a pest control manager, with more than 15 years experience. I read the
news story about the man who drowned a grey squirrel (News, 28 July). He absolutely deserved to be prosecuted — this is not a humane means of despatch. The method I use is to shoot the squirrel in the head with an air rifle while it is still in the cage. The cage should be placed on soft ground to prevent ricochets and the air rifle muzzle velocity should be at least 11ft/lb. The squirrel will tend to run around in the cage when you are near. Instead of following it with the muzzle, keep it in one place and wait until it runs directly underneath, then take the shot.
Too many people are buying airguns and thinking they are master snipers. Many airguns are very low-powered and not up to the job. If you are unsure, take it to a gunshop and ask for it to be chronographed. This will give the muzzle velocity and let you know if it is up to 11ft/lb. If it’s not, do not use it for vermin despatch.
The media also erroneously reported that people were not allowed to control vermin on their land. Using rat traps in fake tunnels on your property and magnum 110 spring traps in specifi cally designed cubby tunnels to control grey squirrels are legal methods of control. The 1995 Spring Trap Approval Order states that traps approved for use in the UK must be placed in tunnels, not set in the open. If you hear a news story about shooting or pest control, it may not be accurate!
Have your say: if you have a view on a current news topic, send it, in no more than 500 words, to steditorial@ipcmedia.com.
Sharpshooter Shooting Times is wonderfully “British”, in the unfashionable, fair-play sense of the word. I was reminded of this when I read Letter Of The Week in the 4 August issue, which contained a trenchant criticism of me by Ruth Kerr. She took exception to my practice of making sweeping generalisations about Guardian readers.
Ms Kerr is absolutely right. I am gratuitously beastly about Guardian readers, and stereotyping is an idle habit that is indeed offensive, divisive and unhelpful. Frankly, we shooters need all the friends we can get.
Yet, which other fieldsports publication would award a self-confessed Guardian reader a pair of Hunter wellies for telling off an obscure redneck columnist? It’s sort of poetic — and very effective. I have reformed. I shall try, very hard, never again to resort to clumsy, inaccurate stereotypes of The Guardian and all who sail in her. Incidentally, if The Guardian ever ran a letter- of-the-week competition, I wonder what the prize would be? Not Hunter wellies, that’s for sure. A pair of organic sandals, perhaps?
What the numbers really say
The police National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU) has recently issued its latest annual report. This follows the NWCU’s Tactical Assessment, dated June 2010, which gave details of the number of reported offences, by category, for last winter. This revealed that poaching, in all its forms, was by far the most frequent type of offence, racking up a whopping 772 incidents out of a total of 1,101 between December 2009 and February 2010. Hare coursing was the biggest single category, with 446 recordings, with Lincolnshire alone accounting for 55 per cent of the total.
Raptor persecution and poisoning, by contrast, notched up only 10 incidents during the reporting period. In other words, during the past winter, poaching outnumbered raptor persecution by more than 70:1. The assessment states: Raptor persecution currently accounts for less than one per cent of all wildlife incidents reported to the NWCU.
However, most poaching takes place in winter whereas the majority of raptor persecution occurs in spring or summer. Even so, the same Tactical Assessment reveals that the total number of recorded raptor incidents across the entire UK, over the past two whole years, was only 216. Interestingly, the NWCU annual figures are about half those routinely trotted out by the RSPB in its annual Birdcrime report.
But back to the NWCU report. Given the relative rarity of raptor crime, which category of wildlife crime dominated the case-histories part of the document, with lots of shiny pictures? Yes, you’ve guessed it — raptors. Admittedly, it was cases of illegal hawk keeping that featured most, rather than gamekeepers, but it goes to show that it’s the most photogenic crime that gets the most attention.
Meeting Joe Public
Stumping through the Game Fair crowds like a mastadon negotiating a primeval swamp, I repeatedly bumped into people who recognised me from the photo at the top of this page. How scary is that?
One Game-Fair-goer said: “Your photo does you justice.” Now that’s really worrying, when you think about it. Another chap eyed me for a moment, rather in the manner of a wounded cape buffalo looking at a hunter whose rifle has just jammed. Then he said: “Are you who I think you are?” That’s a hard one to answer, isn’t it? I mean, there are times when even I am not entirely sure who I am. But it emerged that I was indeed who he thought I was (and I didn’t owe him any money), so all was well.
Indeed, I must make it clear to readers, should you ever see me skulking around anywhere, please feel free to accost me for a chat. I have to admit that I am always gratified to discover that there are a number of bitter- and-twisted fellow travellers out there.
Sharpshooter On the Friday of The CLA Game Fair, I watched two ministers from the Department for Environment and Rural Affairs — Jim Paice MP and Richard Benyon MP — chatting to people in the National Gamekeepers’ Organisation tent. Both ministers seemed relaxed, as if they had dropped by at a neighbour’s house. They seemed to be at ease among their own kind.
The next day, I saw the secretary of state for DEFRA, Caroline Spelman MP arrive at the Game Fair. She had driven herself in a private car and arrived a bit later than planned because of the traffic.
What a contrast, I thought, to the causal arrogance of cabinet ministers in the previous Government. They used to arouse the ire of Londoners every time their police outriders cleared the traffic as the bulletproof ministerial cars swept past, like a scene outside the Kremlin in the Soviet era. There is nobody who feels quite so comfortable in a limo as a Marxist with a chauffeur.
Later, I happened upon the stand of the Farming & Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG). This is an excellent organisation, helping farmers to help wildlife. I mooched in to have a chat with the person holding the fort. His morale was high because Jim Paice, the farming minister, had visited the stand the previous day. “He just walked in, by himself, and we had a good chat,” enthused the FWAG person.
Under the previous Government, ministerial visits to The CLA Game Fair had a different tone. Every single Labour minister looked distinctly uncomfortable among ordinary country people. The chosen ones would sweep in for a mercifully brief interval, having been disgorged from the dark, air-conditioned depths of a limo — or even a helicopter. No queuing among the ordinary taxpayers for these splendid personages. On a formal walkabout, they would be surrounded by a cordon of flunkeys and men in sharp suits with earpieces, who spoke into their cuffs as they scanned the crowd.
I’m not saying all Labour ministers were unpleasant — but it was obvious that they only used to turn up because they’d been told to. It reminds me of that countryside march in London when that human weasel Alun Michael MP put himself at the head of the column and told the press that the event was a “celebration of the countryside”.
If Gordon Brown ever attended a CLA Game Fair — and I don’t think he has done — one can only imagine what sort of remarks he might make in his car after shaking hands with a member of the fair-going public: “What an awful, bigoted sort of woman. And what does she do with all those ferrets — eat them?”
I don’t know if the coalition will last. I don’t know how it will treat us in the forthcoming review of firearms legislation. But I do know that, in comparison with the last bunch, this lot are a breath of fresh air. Farming minister Jim Paice was a farm manager for 15 years. His DEFRA colleague Richard Benyon is a landowner and a qualified land agent. Both men shoot. The main DEFRA minister, Caroline Spelman, has a background in agriculture. Just compare this with the days when DEFRA was run by a socialist vegetarian from an inner city.
Don’t get me wrong — these new ministers are not going to do us any actual “favours”, in the strict sense of the word. Indeed, they will be sensitive to accusations of favouritism and we should take great care not to put them in a position where this charge could have any credibility.
Furthermore, the financial skeletons the previous Government left jangling in the cupboard mean we are all going to be affected, one way or another, by public sector cuts. It’s going to get ugly. But the mere fact that we will no longer be treated as “unpeople” by the Government of the day marks a welcome change from 13 long, dark years of Labour misrule. And the turning point was there for all to see at The CLA Game Fair.
Comment and opinion on country and field sports and countryside events and issues
04th August 10:
30th July 10:
21st July 10:
30th June 10:
23rd June 10:
16th June 10:
09th June 10:
06th May 10:
After submitting written recommendations to the HASC, BASC see... Read more
Shooting community crashes Westminster computers as deadline for firea... Read more
Save up to 30% on a subscription to Shooting Times & Country Magazine, subscribe today!
