Knowing what, where and why

I will always remember my first pigeon. I was standing under the old oak in the middle of the farm with my father. It was a left-to-right crosser and I wandered home whereupon my mother cooked it for my tea. It was a long time ago in so many ways. At that point, pigeon shooting just happened and the minutiae of laws that governed your right to do it were hardly thought about. It’s easy to look back with nostalgia but, in truth, I think we’re actually in a better place now.

The withdrawal of the general licence in 2019 was a real headache. Since boyhood, I’ve loved pigeons and I’d bet that my respect for them is far greater than those who cheered through a temporary ban on pigeon shooting could possibly imagine. Take it from me, as a farmer’s son, agriculture is not an easy business. Lots of us struggle to make ends meet, and more than £75 million worth of hard-pressed farmers’ money is lost, 8 May 2019). It would be a mistake to look at high instances of mental health issues among farmers and constant attacks on their world as being unrelated.