DURING this week we will see the shooting and blood sports lobby celebrating what they call the "Glorious Twelfth" of August.

Once again birds will be used as live targets for sport and lead shot will be blasted at flying targets.

Some will be missed, many will be wounded, some fatally, others not. Injured birds will crash to the ground and will flap or run around depending on the severity of their injuries, until they are picked up and their necks wrung. This is not humane killing — it is blood sport that causes unnecessary animal suffering for the entertainment of the shooters.

It isn't just the live flying targets that suffer for sport, it is also the collateral damage that is done to much of the nation's wildlife as gamekeepers wage war on predators.

From protected raptors to foxes, the nation's wildlife is persecuted in support of the blood sports industry.

This isn't conservation, it is killing accompanied by the broadcasting of toxic lead over the countryside. That lead, an estimated 3,000 tons of it every year, is landing in areas that may contribute to the public water supply and some of its also ends up in the birds on the plate where, if ingested, it becomes a danger to the person eating it.

The Glorious Twelfth is all about people using live animals as targets for sport and inhumane killing. The health and welfare of the birds is being put at risk for sport and for commercial gain. The best answer is NO to using animals as live targets for sport, whether with guns or dogs.

What hope for our wildlife when we have a Prime Minister who says that there is nothing cruel or barbaric in killing animals for fun?

Kathleen Moyle

East Budleigh