Cost of eating grouse
WEDNESDAY'S Food and Drink article on grouse shooting was interesting and informative and I would not dispute the stated facts. However it presents only one side of the story and I feel a bit of balance is required.
The article was part of the Food and Drinks page, but in reality a high proportion of the grouse are discarded and never reach the table, indicating that killing for food was never the prime objective. The reality is that the people involved just enjoy killing the grouse.
The 'maintenance of the grouse moors' to which you refer, involves trapping and killing such rare and beautiful creatures as stoats and weasels, while crows, rooks, jays and magpies are trapped or shot with impunity. Snares are set by the hundred in order to catch foxes, which then writhe around choking themselves until the gamekeeper comes along to finish them off.
Court cases up and down the country indicate that even protected species such as badgers and rare birds of prey are being poisoned or cruelly caught and slaughtered. When cases are detected the game keeper is invariably the fall guy, whilst his masters are conspicuous by their silence. By definition those involved are organised professional criminals. I wonder if their criminal record results in dismissal, expulsion from the British Association for Conservation and Shooting, and removal of gun licence.
With the above points in mind, the sight of a desolate British grouse moor no longer fills the heart with pride, and the recipes suggested in your article must have a flavour somewhat tainted by the unsavoury circumstances in which the food was obtained.
Realist
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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