Pressure from animal rights activists has scared the NEC Bimingham into banning hunting guides from exhibiting at the Great British Shooting Show in 2020. Please help reverse this situation by signing our petition on the Change.org petition website, here: Chng.it/BFrxsmKXVh – it has hit 3,000 signatures in just a few days, boosted by a call from antis to ban the whole show.
Meanwhile, egg on faces at the Birmingham Mail, which put out the story. The UK-based newspaper published a story slamming hunting safaris offered at the popular British Shooting Show, which has taken place at the NEC outside Birmingham, UK, since 2017.
Unfortunately for the newspaper, the ads next to the article for some readers are for the Game Fair, a UK hunting show that has more hunting safari operator booths than the British Shooting Show. Ad agency Doubleclick, an Alphabet subsidiary, provides the adverts and pays the Birmingham Mail.
The story embarrasses the London-based Daily Telegraph, too. It put out the same story, and it is a former media sponsor of the Game Fair.
Animal rights activist and Birmingham Mail writer Alison Stacey wrote the opinion piece that attacked the British Shooting Show for allowing hunting safari operators to have stands. She wrote to the safari agencies she slated: ‘Campaigners claim that selling tours where customers can pay to shoot and kills animals, including endangered species such as rhinos, lions and bears is cruel and barbaric and that such companies are not welcome in Birmingham. They claim that your appearance would bring shame on our city.’
However, Stacey did not include comments from the safari agencies or from Fieldsports Channel pointing out the conservation benefits of regulated hunting. Instead, she ran comments from antis claiming that trophy hunting is bad for conservation.
The Game Fair takes place on 26-28 July 2019 at Hatfield House in Hertfordshire. It annually attracts more than 100,000 people. Visit GameFair.org
