I’m entitled to shoot for food (From Lancashire Telegraph)

I’m entitled to shoot for food

4:12pm Tuesday 24th October 2006 in Opinion By Telegraph letters

IN response to Miss A Allotte, I don't quite get why you class my reply as laughable as I do eat 99.5 per cent of what I shoot.

As for shooting magpies and crows, I point out two things.

Firstly, I've tried eating both and find them bitter and unpalatable, but pigeons (wood pigeon not feral or commonly known as street rats) taste fabulous.

I have over 30 recipes for wood pigeon and why would it be classed as "suspect meat" as all God's beautiful creatures seem to be fit and healthy.

Also, do you realise magpies and crows do untold damage to songbird population, destroying nests and devouring young birds?

It seems your knowledge of country life is a little short. Now did you also know that lead shot is also banned for some quarry which people like me shoot, such as ducks, geese, waders?

Its use is also banned anywhere waterfowl feed and roost. This includes the foreshore, flight ponds, rivers and streams.

As for shooting being a sport, it is a sport but not a competition to see who can shoot the most. It is about being out in the countryside, enjoying yourself in a perfectly legal and moral pastime.

RICK HOLDEN, Meins Road, Blackburn.