Upland moorland is a distinctive UK habitat whose management for driven grouse shooting has profound consequences for wildlife welfare, through raptor persecution, predator control and moorland burning practices.
Grouse moor management creates some of the starkest wildlife welfare conflicts in the UK. Legal predator control through snaring causes suffering to foxes, stoats and other species caught in legally set traps. Illegal persecution of raptors — including poisoning, shooting and nest destruction — causes severe suffering and population-level impacts on species already under pressure. The economic imperatives of the driven grouse shooting industry create powerful incentives for wildlife crime. Red grouse themselves, though not factory farmed, face welfare challenges including overcrowding, parasite loading and stress from shooting activities.