Bird shortage triggers swathe of shoots to be cancelled

The Countryside Alliance, along with Aim to Sustain, Guns on Pegs and rural businesses, contributed to a major news article in the Sunday Telegraph last weekend.

Bird flu in France has led to a ban on the import of birds, chicks and hatching eggs from the region – hitting a rural economy already scrambling to recover post COVID-19. According to an analysis by Guns on Pegs, a third of shoots could be cancelled this year, with the best estimates standing at 30% of the usual numbers of partridge and 70% of pheasants being ready next season.

Tim Breitmeyer, owner of the Bartlow Estate in Cambridgeshire, said it is "coming up to crunch time" and that some shoots have already decided to pull the plug.

"We will definitely have a shooting season," he told The Telegraph. "But we will have to reduce the number of days pretty savagely, I don't know exactly how many.

"It is not by any means what we would have wished for. People are just getting back on their feet after Covid. It is another small knife in the rural economy."

Many of the already fragile communities that will be hit with a bad season this year will not have many other sources of income to fall back on; especially in the winter months when tourism is down. This pain will only be exacerbated by the cost of living crisis, with rural economies feeling the pinch of rising prices of everything else they rely on, such as heating oil, diesel and livestock feed. The impact will also be felt by pubs, hotels, caterers and country sport shops. When shooting is negatively impacted, the whole countryside suffers.

Tim Bonner, Chief Executive of the Countryside Alliance, told The Telegraph: "Shooting contributes billions to the UK economy and is a major lifeline for a wide-ranging list of other businesses, including hospitality.

"Many of the already fragile communities that will be hit with a bad season this year will not have many other sources of income to fall back on. This pain will only be exacerbated by the cost of living crisis. When shooting is negatively impacted, the whole countryside suffers."

Anthony Stone, a gunsmith and country clothing merchant who owns Emmett and Stone Country Sports shop near Marlow, Buckinghamshire, said: "Businesses like ours, that trade in products from other rural businesses, rely on a successful shooting season.

"The difference between a good season and a bad one can be catastrophic. When shooting is impacted negatively, many other businesses feel that pain too."

It is estimated that £125million is spent privately by shoots on conservation each year, but this is always dependant upon how good the season is for the landowner. The shooting community will continue to carry out that role whether or not they have partridges and pheasants this season, but the loss of income is bound to have an impact on future investment in conservation.

Garry Doolan, of Aim to Sustain, a coalition of shooting organisations, said: "Shooting sustains huge areas of the countryside and is at the forefront of tackling the biodiversity crisis through the creation of habitat and management of species.

"The shooting community will continue to carry out that role whether or not they have partridges and pheasants this season, but the loss of income is bound to have an impact on future investment in conservation".

The Countryside Alliance, alongside other organisations, have been in constant contact with the relevant Government departments and Civil Servants, and will continue to fight and monitor this situation, and keep you updated.

A spokesman for the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: "This has been a particularly challenging year for avian influenza, with many countries, including France, experiencing large outbreaks of this highly infectious disease.

"We are actively speaking with the European Commission about amending both our import and French export rules to facilitate trade from restricted zones. We will continue to support our game farming and shooting sectors and will be writing to them to update on progress being made to address the interruption to egg supplies."