Sir Roger Gale
Member of Parliament for Herne Bay and Sandwich (including West Thanet)
Gale launches "The Case Against Bird Shooting"
and "Snares: The Time for a Ban" with Bill Oddie for The League Against Cruel Sports
​
February 24th 2016
​
North Thanet`s MP, Sir Roger Gale has this week hosted the House of Commons launch of two campaigns mounted by the League against Cruel Sports. The documents set out the cases, respectively, against the rearing of "game" chicks for subsequent slaughter, under conditions that would not be permitted for poultry, and the use of snares to "protect" the chicks, from predators when released and before the birds are shot.
​Speaking at the cross-party Commons event supported by Government and Opposition Members the MP said: "Some believe that shooting is wrong. That is not a view that I hold myself. Most of us have no objection to the shooting of wild game birds for the table in sensible and modest quantities. The practice of rearing `game` chicks under appalling conditions and by their thousands however, simply to be released as `target practice` for those participating in what they claim to be a `sport`, is to me utterly revolting.
Likewise the use of snares - and only a handful of countries now permit their use - to catch predators, is unacceptable.
​
The wire snare is completely indiscriminate - the gamekeeping equivalent of a land-mine - and traps and kills not only foxes but deer and domestic animals, including cats and dogs, also.
It is, as the League`s leaflet says, Time For A Ban in the UK."
The League`s new Chief Executive, Eduardo Goncalves, also speaking at the meeting, said that "I am not a killjoy but I do not believe that people should kill for joy" and added that there was a world of difference between shooting "one for the pot" and "thousands for the pit", referring to the practice of shooting birds and then burying their discarded carcases.
The ornithologist, environmentalist and television personality Bill Oddie, speaking after the screening of a graphic video, condemned "target practice using living creatures" and dismissed the "sport" of the game shooting of birds released from cages as "ritualised vandalism".