Steven Mace
03-27-2002, 08:48 PM
EU goes for game shooting
By Wesley Stanton
27/03/2002
The four horsemen of the apocalypse were proud to confirm this week that they have added a fifth member to their team. While Pestilence, Famine, War and Death are to continue in their assigned roles, it was felt that the time is right to recognise the good work of a hitherto enthusiastic Belgian amateur as a full-time tormentor of the world. His name? European Red Tape.
Not so long ago, Red Tape started working his mischief with fruit. If bananas didn’t meet European Union (EU) curvature standards, then they couldn’t be served up to a British public (wholly innocent of the terrible consequences of non-conforming food shapes). Then he turned to law-abiding shopkeepers: British retailers, faced with prosecution should they only show their produce in pounds and ounces, were forced to display their wares in kilograms and grams for no real reason. And now? Red Tape is tightening his noose around the neck of the British game shooting industry.
If the EU has its way, new health and hygiene rules will be foisted on us which could mean that vets would need to accompany the Guns on game shoots. Draft regulations emanating from Brussels might make game shooting subject to incredible bureaucracy. And – in the true tradition of Red Tape – it’s utterly pointless, as the matters of killing and storage of game are already adequately covered by British law.
The regulation is to be put to the European Parliament next month. It requires anyone responsible for taking game and taking it on the market to have “sufficient knowledge of wild game hygiene and pathology in order to undertake an initial examination of wild game on the spot”. EU member states would have to organise courses in the “normal anatomy, physiology and behaviour of wild game animals” for shooters and gamekeepers. They would also be instructed on how to identify “abnormal behaviour and pathological changes” in the animals that they kill. If no-one with “qualifications” were present at a shoot, then it might fall to the local James Herriot to examine freshly-shot game.
“We are very concerned at these proposals – it sounds like red tape gone mad,” said BASC spokesman Simon Clarke. “We are concerned that it could create unnecessary expense and bureaucracy on shoots. We’re waiting for full details of the proposals.”
The proposed rules only apply to large, commercial shoots – anyone who shoots small quantities of game would remain unaffected.
When Labour pledged to leave shooting alone, it was given a cautious welcome by BASC and others. But politicians are adept at making a commitment to one thing, and then undermining the nature of that commitment by “back door” methods. Let’s hope that this isn’t one of those instances.
http://www.leadshot.com/story.asp?id=502
Steve Mace
By Wesley Stanton
27/03/2002
The four horsemen of the apocalypse were proud to confirm this week that they have added a fifth member to their team. While Pestilence, Famine, War and Death are to continue in their assigned roles, it was felt that the time is right to recognise the good work of a hitherto enthusiastic Belgian amateur as a full-time tormentor of the world. His name? European Red Tape.
Not so long ago, Red Tape started working his mischief with fruit. If bananas didn’t meet European Union (EU) curvature standards, then they couldn’t be served up to a British public (wholly innocent of the terrible consequences of non-conforming food shapes). Then he turned to law-abiding shopkeepers: British retailers, faced with prosecution should they only show their produce in pounds and ounces, were forced to display their wares in kilograms and grams for no real reason. And now? Red Tape is tightening his noose around the neck of the British game shooting industry.
If the EU has its way, new health and hygiene rules will be foisted on us which could mean that vets would need to accompany the Guns on game shoots. Draft regulations emanating from Brussels might make game shooting subject to incredible bureaucracy. And – in the true tradition of Red Tape – it’s utterly pointless, as the matters of killing and storage of game are already adequately covered by British law.
The regulation is to be put to the European Parliament next month. It requires anyone responsible for taking game and taking it on the market to have “sufficient knowledge of wild game hygiene and pathology in order to undertake an initial examination of wild game on the spot”. EU member states would have to organise courses in the “normal anatomy, physiology and behaviour of wild game animals” for shooters and gamekeepers. They would also be instructed on how to identify “abnormal behaviour and pathological changes” in the animals that they kill. If no-one with “qualifications” were present at a shoot, then it might fall to the local James Herriot to examine freshly-shot game.
“We are very concerned at these proposals – it sounds like red tape gone mad,” said BASC spokesman Simon Clarke. “We are concerned that it could create unnecessary expense and bureaucracy on shoots. We’re waiting for full details of the proposals.”
The proposed rules only apply to large, commercial shoots – anyone who shoots small quantities of game would remain unaffected.
When Labour pledged to leave shooting alone, it was given a cautious welcome by BASC and others. But politicians are adept at making a commitment to one thing, and then undermining the nature of that commitment by “back door” methods. Let’s hope that this isn’t one of those instances.
http://www.leadshot.com/story.asp?id=502
Steve Mace