Intensive management of grouse moors for shooting creates high densities of target birds while causing welfare harm to predators, prey species, and the wider moorland ecosystem.
Intensively managed grouse moors create landscapes where wildlife welfare is subordinated to the production of shootable birds. Predator control that kills thousands of foxes, stoats, and corvids removes animals who have welfare interests of their own. Mountain hare culls that kill thousands of native mammals to protect a shooting resource represent welfare harm that is poorly justified by ecological evidence. The land management decisions made on grouse moors shape the welfare of every animal in the landscape, not just the grouse themselves.