Eat grit, lead, expire?

An extract from RPUK, part of a blog post showing responses from  Mairi Gougeon, Environment Minister and Joe Fitzpatrick, Minister for Public Health, Sport & Well-being, to questions lodged by Scottish Greens MSP Mark Ruskell. The questions relate to Flubendazole, the active ingredient in medicated grit left out on grouse moors for red grouse, and the use of lead ammunition.

I hope Mark Ruskell follows up these unsatisfactory replies which to me seem un-informed at the least. Would anyone seriously eat game not knowing if or how much medicinal chemicals or highly toxic lead was on their plate!

Raptor Persecution UK blog post, click here (more detail than I can post here)

"Rather than take the Veterinary Medicines Directorate’s word for it (because the VMD has previously proven itself to be undeniably crap at its job – see here), I thought I’d have a look at the number of red grouse that have actually been tested for anthelmintics since 2016 to see how representative the sampling effort has been. The VMD publishes annual databases on the number and type of sampling it has undertaken. Here’s what I found:

2016: 6 x red grouse tested

2017: 8 x red grouse tested

2018: 3 x red grouse tested

2019: 6 x red grouse tested


So in four years of testing, the VMD has managed to test a grand total of 23 red grouse for residues of the drug Flubendazole. When you consider that an estimated 750,000 red grouse are shot in the UK each year, it’s no wonder the VMD can say with confidence that it hasn’t detected any drug residues above the maximum permitted limit, because it’s hardly tested any samples at all!"

and

"Again, rather than trust what the VMD says, I wanted to look at the actual data myself. How many gamebirds have actually been tested for toxic lead contamination since 2015? Here’s what I found:

2015: 6 x partridge; 6 x pheasant; 0 x red grouse

2016: 7 x partridge; 7 x pheasant; 0 x red grouse

2017: 6 x partridge; 7 x pheasant; 0 x red grouse

2018: 5 x partridge; 5 x pheasant; 0 x red grouse

2019: 6 x partridge; 6 x pheasant; 0 x red grouse


So in five years of testing for toxic lead residues in game bird meat, the VMD has examined 30 x partridge and 31 x pheasant and 0 x red grouse. That’s a total of 61 samples out of a possible 90 million shot partridge and pheasant (conservatively estimated 57 million released each year, multiply by five (years) and divide by 1/3 believed to be shot each year = 90 million shot of 285 million released)."

"Lead is a highly poisonous metal (whether inhaled or swallowed), affecting almost every organ and system in the human body."

Flubendazole information, click here