Petitions Committee

National Assembly for Wales

Cardiff Bay

Cardiff

CF991NA

8^th May 2018

Dear Committee Members

I write in response to a petition that has been presented to the committee number P-05-816 titled “Say NO to pheasant shooting on Welsh public land”.

The petition was started in August 2016 by Animal Aid who also presented the exact worded petition to Natural Resources Wales (NRW) sometime in 2017.

The review conducted by NRW on whether the use of firearms was appropriate on land they own or manage called for scientific evidence based information to be submitted. This was duly received by NRW from a wide variety of interested parties.

NRW have concluded in their written report that they should continue to allow the leasing of land for shooting and note that shooting contributes to the delivery of Sustainable Management of Natural Resources, the Environment Act and indeed delivers on the wellbeing goals as set out in the Future Generations Wales Act.

I would respectfully ask that the committee give full attention to the report published by NRW which refutes the claims made by Animal Aid in the petition and sets out clearly the evidence received and the conclusions. The link to the extensive review and documents numbers 1 - 4 can be found here https://naturalresources.wales/guidance-and-advice/environmental-topics/consultations/our-own-consultations-closed/shooting-review-consultation/?lang=en

I would also ask that the signatures of the petition be scrutinised for authenticity and a factual figure be published on the numbers of signatures received from people residing in Wales. It is evident that the campaigning by Animal Aid and the League Against Cruel Sports lost the argument when asked to present scientific evidence, and it is of no surprise that they have now attempted to obscure the issue by using misleading claims about shooting to generate large numbers of signatures from all over the world via various social media campaigns. However, I would stress the importance of NRW’s review being based on evidence and not on emotion and an opinion poll.

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I would very much welcome further engagement with the committee on this issue and would be happy to forward to you our submission to the review if it was required.

I look forward to hearing your views on the petition.

Yours Sincerely

Rachel Evans

Director for Wales