Award is a gimmick

THE “conservation” award (Gazette story, November 25) given by James Purdey and Sons to the Norfolk Estate is nothing more than a promotional gimmick for the shotgun manufacturers.

By The Newsroom

Published 2nd Dec 2010, 12:35 BST

My research shows that the Norfolk Estate received around £400,000 in taxpayers’ money in 2009, and is receiving similar money every year over a 10-year period, of which the most significant amount is supposed to be for conservation purposes. Even feed for wild partridges, which are encouraged so they can be shot for sport, is passed off as wild bird seed mix and the estate receives £4,725 each year from public money!

Any fool could throw a small fortune of public money at an estate and see an increase in some bird species, but there is a downside with encouraging wild birds to be shot for sport and that is extreme predator control using snares, traps and poison – a nastier side to so-called conservation.

Simon Wild,

National Anti-Snaring Campaign,

Littlehampton