Replies

I'm sure you can tell us a few things about what passes for civility and law in the UK.

Unfortunately the two concepts are being driven apart by this ghastly new legislation.

As a former bird dog owner, would my late, departed Golden Retriver be out of a job with the advent of new legislation ?

No. Shooting is still legal, and this usually involves the use of dogs to retrieve the birds which have been shot. In such cases the dog is not being used to chase and kill the animal - which is the criterion covered by the new law. Incidentally, Her Majesty the Queen is well known as an excellent handler of gun-dogs.

Are there bird hunts anywhere in England ?

Not in the English sense of the word 'hunt'; the principal quarry of the hunt is foxes, but there are also hunts for stags, hares and a few others. There are tons of bird shoots, indeed on occasion one can hear the guns from my house. I doubt that hunting birds would be very effective, as they could simply fly away.

I seem to remember hearing that there is a small fox hunting fraternity in the U.S. probably focused around Virginia. Certain on the last Countryside March I saw a few Americans carrying Old Glory (and very welcome they were).

Geoff, our next door neighbor in Minnesota was an Englishman who had never been introduced to shooting sports or gun ownership. I took him out to the Minnesota Horse and Hunt Club and, sore shoulder aside, he picked up on the shotgunning art rather quickly. We went to a couple of gun shows at the fairgrounds in St. Paul and the sight of 100 tables full of every kind of fire arm imaginable was almost too much.
Within a month, he had acquired a new Glock 9 MM pistol and I saw him coming and going at the pistol range in Burnsville. A few years ago, he returned home and, sadly, had to give up his right to own a gun.