THE wealthy and well connected will mark August 12, known as the ‘Glorious Twelfth, by gunning down grouse.

While the gun lobby claims it spends vast sums of money ‘improving’ and transforming upland areas, you will not hear what goes on behind the scenes.

The moors are subject to extreme land ‘management’, including burning, which encourages the growth of young heather shoots on which the grouse feed.

However, these practices have damaging environmental consequences, because the moors’ boggier areas (known as blanket bog) have great quantities of carbon locked into the underlying peat.

According to a recent report released by the Committee on Climate Change, ‘an estimated 350,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year is emitted from upland peat in England, the majority of which [260,000 tonnes] is from areas that are being rotationally burnt.’ You can add to this the routine snaring, trapping and poisoning of any animal deemed to be a threat to the survival of the grouse. Even iconic raptors have been illegally targeted.

All of this effort is solely to boost grouse numbers and keep them alive until the ‘Glorious Twelfth’ when they will be blasted from the skies by those who want to be part of an elitist club.

Fiona Pereira, Animal Aid (via email).