HELEN Shuker of the British Association of Shooting and Conservation is a press officer practiced in spin. (SA, August 28). She rails against criticism of the cage breeding of partridge but doesn't detail the traditional partridge breeding method she instead promotes. It involves a small box and the incarceration of a breeding pair, just as surely as does the newer raised laying cage method.These disgracefully cruel artificial conditions are evolving physiological and behavioural change in the birds. She talks up the shooting economy as worth £1.6 bn a year to the countryside. What she doesn't say is that this unbelievable sum (more than the collateral damage in the Israeli - Hezbollah war of the same year) was decided in 2006 from the return of only 2,000 questionnaires from willing, canvassed and motivated members of the shooting industry. She also doesn't add that her employers commissioned the survey. But worst of all she spins that all this effort is to put food on our tables. It most definitely is not. It is about killing purpose-bred creatures for fun. The public cannot accept that this cruelty is anything less than providing pleasure for wealthy big-spending punters who could instead try Scrabble.
KIT DAVIDSON Shooting Consultant Animal Aid Bradford Street Tonbridge
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