Code of Practice
The British Association for Shooting and Conservation has responded to the growing
concern about unsporting practices in commercial goose shooting. A new "Code of
Practice for Agents and Guides Offering Inland Goose Shooting" has been published and
widely circulated amongst commercial operators.
Copies of the Code may be obtained from the BASC's Scottish office at Trochry, By Dunkeld,
Perthshire, PH8 0DY.
Excesses on the part of some visiting "sportsmen" has caused grave concern
for several years. As populations of both pinkfooted and greylag geese have increased, so
has the temptation to earn a "fast buck" by taking out visitors to the
traditional goose grounds. The problem has been greatest in eastern Scotland and around
the Solway but no part of the country where geese congregate has been exempt.
Typically, professional guides would take out parties of between four and six Guns to
decoy geese flighting to their feeding grounds in the morning. So long as a strict code of
ethics was followed, no harm arises from such activities. There were far too many reports,
however, of groups as large as 10 Guns being hidden along a ditch to await the arrival of
the geese.
Reports were received of several hundred geese being killed in a morning and of other malpractices such as remaining on the fields all day and artificially feeding fields to attract geese.
Many of those problems were not actually illegal but they caused the stomachs of real wildfowlers to churn in disgust. Although there is no evidence to suggest that the growing populations of grey geese were threatened by those incidents, there was a very real danger that the good name of the sport was being brought into disrepute and the excellent relationships which wildfowlers had with conservation bodies was being threatened. Worst of all, the news media - especially the tabloid press - simply loved to get their mucky hands on the more sensational stories of goose abuse.
The BASC was slow to act - probably because there was little that could be done while laws were not actually being broken. There was a suggestion that offending guides might be blacklisted but, perversely, the likelihood was that blacklisted guides would actually become much sought after commodities in the eyes of continental visitors. The old "Pick a Pervert and Kill a Barrowload" syndrome.
Concern continued to grow and, eventually, a first step was taken in the publication of a Code of Practice. This Code is regarded by many as being very wishy-washy but it does at least lay down a few groundrules.
For example it insists that guides and agents must appraise their clients about the
legal constraints on repeating shotguns, electronic calls, protected species and the
selling of dead wild geese.
It suggests that not more than 8 (!) Guns should be in any party and that geese should not
be harried all day. A bag limit of 5 pinkfeet or 3 greylag per Gun is suggested but the
Code does not make it clear whether those figures are per flight, per day or per week.
The publication of the Code has been supported by Scottish Natural Heritage, the Scottish Landowners Federation, the NFU and the Association of Chief Police Officers.
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