15.5M Birds Shot Each Year

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How many pheasants and partridges do you think are shot in the UK every year? If you want, take a moment to think how many that might be. The actual number might surprise you.

Animal Aid says that every year, around sixty million pheasants and partridges are bred to be shot. It doesn’t say there are all shot. The fact is that some might die before growing old enough to be driven into the air. Or they might escape the guns and live out their lives. Or at least they might live until the next shooting season.

WildJustice says that 43 million Pheasants and 9 million Red-legged Partridges are raised and released to be shot.

The pheasant shooting season in Great Britain runs from the 1st October – 1st February, and the partridge shooting season runs from the 1st September – 1st February.

The Pheasant Shooting season in Northern Ireland runs from the 1st October – 31st January and the partridge shooting season runs from the 1st September – 31st January.

Let’s approximate and say there are equal numbers shot in Britain and Ireland. The numbers are probably not the same, but let’s split the difference and say the season overall runs from 15 September to 31 January – that’s 138 days.

Let’s say that all the birds raised are shot and that an equal number are shot each day during the season – so that’s 430,000 per day. Is that credible?

It doesn’t seem credible, does it? So let’s see if we can approach it from another direction, starting with how many people shoot pheasants.

The Game Shooting Census and Shoot Owner Census is run by GunsOnPegs and Strutt & Parker. For their report in 2018 they surveyed 652 shoot across the UK. From that they extrapolated to the total number of shoots and arrived at 9,000 shoots and 1,724 birds shot per shoot. So they did it for us and it’s an easy calculation: 15.5M birds shot each year by the shooters’ own calculation. Let’s go with that, while accepting the figure may actually be much higher

15.5M Birds Shot Each Year

Isn’t that an incredible number? People paying to line up and have pheasants and partridges herded towards them, and then shooting them when the birds take the air. I mean, if you could hear all the shoots over the UK, the sound of guns must be almost continual. It has to be, in fact.

Let’s say there are ten daylight hours in a day over the shooting days, and the guns are shooting half the daylight hours. That’s about two-and-a-half-million seconds.

So there are six guns somewhere in the UK firing non-stop for 138 days.

Lead Shot

Moving on from the shooting, let’s look at the amount of lead shot that is used.

Let’s suppose that every shot bags a bird. It’s unlikely, but let’s go with that.

GunsOnPegs quotes the recommendations from ElyHawk cartridge maker. For a 12 bore shotgun they recommend the 30g No.6 and the 32g No.5.

A pellet of No.6 weighs 1.6 g. So in 30g there are 18 or 19 pellets. Let’s say 18. A pellet of No.7 weighs 1.28g. So in 32g there are 25 pellets.

Let’s assume that the shooters use 30g No. 6 and 32g No. 7 equally, and split the difference between 18.5 and 25, and say 22.

So with 15,500,000 birds, that’s 341 million pellets of lead, some of which land up in the pheasants and partridges and a lot of it that ends up on the ground.

When lead comes in contact with moist air it becomes reactive. And especially so when the soil is acidic, as most farmland soil is. And even a moment’s thought will show the danger, because lead is forbidden to be used in water pipes.

Each year, more lead lies on the ground and be absorbed into the ground and the groundwater, to be absorbed by birds, animals, and humans.

Lead is a cumulative poison that affects the neurological system. Children absorb a larger amount of lead per unit body weight and are more susceptible to lead poisoning than adults. Lead causes a lower IQ, behavioural changes and concentration disorders.

Pollution on the Road

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Govt report says 52% of all small particle pollution from road transport came from tyre and brake wear in 2021, 24% from abrasion of roads and their paint markings, 15% from car exhausts, and 10% from vans and HGVs.

Source: The Guardian

If We Were All In The Same Boat

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Instruction

Expand upon the idea that when everyone believes they are in the same boat then they will put up with inconveniences and deprivation of bodily needs in a way they will not put up with when they believe that some among them are laughing all the way to the bank.

ChatGPT

The idea suggests that a sense of fairness and equality is important for people to endure difficult situations or hardships. When individuals believe that everyone is equally affected and that everyone is making the same sacrifices, they are more likely to accept the situation and cooperate. However, when they perceive that some people are benefiting from the situation or not making the same sacrifices, they are less likely to put up with the inconveniences and deprivation. This can lead to resentment and decreased motivation to cooperate, which can negatively impact the overall outcome. It highlights the importance of ensuring that burdens are distributed fairly and that everyone is seen to be contributing equally to the common goal.

Instruction

Expand upon the idea that it is an illusion to believe that when everyone believes they are in the same boat then they will put up with inconveniences and deprivation of bodily needs in a way they will not put up with when they believe that some among them are laughing all the way to the bank.

ChatGPT

The idea of the illusion of equal suffering assumes that the belief that everyone is in the same boat is not always accurate or attainable. In reality, people’s experiences, perspectives, and circumstances can be vastly different, even in the same situation. For example, some individuals may have access to resources or privileges that make their experience of the situation easier or less impactful, while others may face greater challenges. When these disparities are not acknowledged or addressed, the belief that everyone is in the same boat can become an illusion.

Additionally, the idea that people will accept difficulties if they believe that everyone is suffering equally is not always true. People’s reactions to hardship are influenced by many factors, including their personality, prior experiences, and individual circumstances. The belief that everyone is in the same boat may not be enough to overcome these factors and motivate people to endure hardships.

Therefore, the belief that everyone is in the same boat may not always be enough to ensure cooperation and acceptance of difficult circumstances. It is important to address and acknowledge the differences and disparities that exist among individuals and to work towards creating a more equitable and fair distribution of burden.

Backish To The Future

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Do you remember the end of the film Back To The Future where the professor comes to Marty McFly’s house in the DeLorean? Only now, the car can fly, and it no longer needs atomic material to power it.

While he’s waiting for Marty, the professor roots around in the garbage cans for fuel to put in the car. He opens the hood and starts pouring the remaining contents of a Coke can into the fuel hopper.

Then he gives an ‘absent minded professor’ kind of shrug and tosses the can itself into the fuel hopper.

Don’t you think human being a little bit like the car, when you think of all the great variety of things that we can take into our bodies that we digest to power our cells.

Of course there are things we can’t use. But it is said by some – Yuval Harari, for example – that a big part of how we got so brainy is because we harnessed fire. And with it we can cook food.

By cooking food we get much more nutrition out of raw materials compared to raw food.

That sets us apart from other animals. Think about cows and elephants that have to spend all day eating just to get enough food. The analysis might break down when I think about hummingbirds that get nectar from flowers, but still…

It’s lucky for cows that their necks and heads can point downwards, or they would get terrible neck ache.

Did you know that giraffe have a huge muscle that stretches down their backs so that they can pull their heads back upright after reaching down to drink? And they have multiple valves in the blood flow in their necks so that they don’t black out when they lift their necks.

And that brings me to the perfect birthday cake. With all the ingredients that could go into a cake, strawberry is the flavour that my mind sees as ‘home’. My tastebuds like many flavours and consistencies, but strawberry trifle (I know it’s not a cake) beats them all.

The prompt is: How do you show love?

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How do you show love? By thinking of the other person. By judging everything they do and say favourably. By supporting them in everything they endeavour to accomplish. And all of this after one has decided that this is a person one can trust – and then never looking at that decision again.

Ah yes, is that how we all operate? Is this how I operate? If only. We/I have much to learn.

Define Success, Baby

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Nothing happens in a vacuum. Even if one were a castaway, all alone on a desert island, one would still have in mind the approval of people back in the civilisation.

Imagine the castaway is fishing. Success would be measured in terms of proficiency, skill, manual dexterity, as seen through the eyes of people back in civilisation.

If one became really proficient, one would be proud of how much more ‘real’ one was than the others imagined in one’s mind’s eye.

Tell me it isn’t so.

Except for sociopaths, in our heads we all live in a community of other people.

So now, what is success?

Is it one where each person sees the others as a springboard to success?

Is it one where each person does not care about whether the others are successful – except insofar as a lack of success by others endangers or helps the individual’s chance of success?

Is it one where success means a common success?

A common success means each person feels that success is only success when everyone succeeds. It means each person feels responsible for everyone else. And together they all have each other’s backs, so to speak.

Are we any good at community? Why should we be when the arc of human development over the past centuries has been for all of us to search for and find our individual voice. We may be polite, accommodating, civil, or rapacious and grasping – with all shades in between – but in truth we are all elbowing our way forward in the stream. If we fall behind we think we are failures.

And how has it all being working out?

We tried a big man in the sky and that kept us united under one roof for a while. But then some people invented an authority structure and the churches and the kings and those on top made everyone else feel like they were bound in place rather than enjoying the drumbeat of life. And in truth, how easily could we cope with true equality when each of us would have to expose our feelings and build on that?

How many of us would rather hang on the coat-tails of others with more drive and settle in place for the duration without making too much of a fuss?

Now we, or at least Google and Facebook, have access to big data from which we learn that our precious individuality is in large part a mirage. We are predictable. We give off signals all the time.

Did you hear the story of how one American company sent out coupons for items it thought its customers would be interested in. The company then had to apologise because it knew more accurately when a woman was pregnant than she herself did. Or the company sent out relevant coupons before the wife had told the husband. And this was maybe ten years ago. We leave such a trail of data points that we have become exposed for the predictable creatures we are.

So where is our individuality that we guard so preciously?

When my choice is between pain and pleasure for me, I am like a bull with a ring through its nose sniffing out the good stuff and avoiding the bad. And what does that mean? It means that the choices before me are like a prison that hems me in. I choose between the possible. Follow my trail over the years, and you will know me.

So, success – is my success even mine?

To find the success you want, be among the people who inspire you.