THERE is nothing glorious about a date which marks the beginning of the shooting season and the mass killing of wildlife for 'fun'.

The days of shooting one's dinner are long gone, replaced with high-profile 'big bag' shoots where the more you can shoot the bigger hero you are.

More than 40 million pheasant and eight million partridges are intensively reared each year for shooting, using rearing methods banned for chickens on welfare grounds. The public has largely stopped buying battery chickens, but continue to buy game under the misguided notion that it is 'wild' or 'natural'.

Thousands of wild animals, domestic pets and livestock are destroyed each day as a result of indiscriminate methods of predator control used to protect these stocks. We are repeating our calls for an end to the manufacture, sale and use of snares.

KATY ROBERTS League Against Cruel Sports