Shoots no cause for celebration

YOUR feature article on the Longueville Shoot in east Cork (9th December) filled me with nothing but disgust.

Here we have a food writer describing ‘the joys’ of wildfowling and game shooting at a time when wetlands and other wildlife habitats in this country have for years now been under tremendous pressure.

On the one hand, Regina Sexton claims to have a ‘sentimental and selective’ attitude towards ‘sentient creatures’, while on the other hand she poses in the middle of a bunch of Downton Abbey ‘wannabes’ on the grounds of Longueville House with dozens of wild birds strewn at their feet. She seems to regret that the day’s shoot — in which she appears to have revelled — resulted in a comparatively small ‘bag’ of only 60 birds! Similar shoots in Britain, she adds, frequently result in hundreds of birds being shot. The list of birds mentioned as ‘fair game’ in this article includes red-legged partridge, Jack snipe, woodcock and golden eye duck. Can someone please point out to this person that several of these birds are endangered species, and that conservationists here and in other countries are working overtime to protect their habitats and build up their numbers?