Alliance responds to the RSPB's unsubstantiated claims

The Countryside Alliance has responded to a number of claims made by the RSPB in the press today.

Adrian Blackmore, Director of Shooting at the Countryside Alliance, has responded to a story pushed out by the RSPB which has made sensationalist claims that it has been overrun with reports of birds of prey being illegally killed since lockdown began, and that the majority of incidents have been on, or close to, sporting estates managed for game bird shooting.

However, it has provided no figures or firm evidence with which to back up these serious claims of what it is calling a 'persecution crimewave'. The three confirmed incidents that the RSPB has mentioned, which occurred over a three week period, were nowhere near any shooting estates, yet the RSPB has no qualms in linking this alleged 'surge' of incidents to shoots. In doing so, it is merely alienating itself further from those that do so much for wildlife and the environment, and with whom it should be actively seeking to work.

Sadly, the Charity's dogged determination to damn the shooting community at every opportunity is making that increasingly unlikely.

Mr. Blackmore has written to the Daily Mail to outline the concerns raised above.