THE MOORS

We went to Teesdale today, across the wild moors, where we saw something we have never seen before . . . a grouse shoot. Beaters, dogs, people in 4x4’s armed to the teeth all moving in a line across the horizon. We stopped to watch.

The beaters seemed to be young men dressed in jeans and trainers, carrying white pillowcases which they waved in the breeze. There could have been twenty of them. There were a lot of gun people, at least thirty. We didn’t see any shooting or killing; I think it had only just started.

According to The Guardian, it costs £7000 [yes, seven thousand pounds] a day to go grouse shooting so if I am right and there were thirty shooters on the moor today, that’s err . . . a lot of money for whoever owns the grouse moor. It’s still controversial, birds of prey even protected species such as hen harriers and peregrine falcons as well as eagles and kites are trapped by gamekeepers because they prey on young grouse and the estate owners don’t want the numbers of birds reduced. It would affect the value of the moor and the price they can charge per gun.

It is never going to stop however. There is too much money being made.