News

Supermarkets stopped my pigeon shooting!

Do you know of any farmers refusing pigeon shooting because their crops go to a supermarket chain and part of the deal is that if there's any 'contamination' to the produce from spent shot the entire crop will be rejected?

Would you like to appear on our site? We offer sponsored articles and advertising to put you in front of our readers. Find out more.

It happened to me last week with a chap who grows lettuce – and they are being absolutely battered to death by wood pigeon. What a waste of food – and a worry for shooting if buyers can make demands of this sort.

Pigeon shooting
PETER THEOBALD
I certainly have, in fact a few years ago a farmer stopped me shooting on peas that were nearly ripe for vining because the lead shot was coming through the machine and ending up amongst the harvested peas.

In this age of civil lawsuits, you can only imagine what would happen if a housewife found some spent pellets in her plate of peas.

There is no way of sieving out these pellets from the crop, so I think the farmer is fully justified in not wanting to take the risk, frustrating though it may be for you.