Nothing to grouse about
Jim Shannon, the fluent Ulster Scot speaking DUP MLA for Strangford, is concerned about the welfare of the poor old Red Grouse. He wants his colleague the Environment Minister Arlene Foster to consider the impact of birds of prey on the grouse population. Arlene acknowledges that the Red Grouse population is low but she's not convinced the Hen Harrier, the bird of prey in the frame, is the most likely culprit. She points out that the Hen Harrier is eating so many smaller birds such as the Meadow Pipit and the Skylark that it hasn't got room to fit any grouse in its tummy.
So who could be preying on the Red Grouse? It's a mystery. It surely isn't Jim Shannon himself, who as this blog noted earlier, is in favour of extending the shooting season...
I'm 
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Ironically the people who blow the crap out of animals conserve them. They don't like anybody (poachers) or anything (birds of prey, foxes) else doing the job for them.
It's not dead animals they want, it's a bit of sport that results in dead animals.
I know a man who uses hounds, terriers and lurchers to chase foxes round the fields all winter. When the farmer asks him to shoot a fox any other time of year he promises to do it but doesn't bother, "cos then there would be no foxes to chase next year".
So what the MLA who talks to himself is really saying is, "Can we please do something about these birds that are being killed by something that does so in order to survive, so that I can do it later for a bit of fun. And for longer. Thank you."