Emma Gatten should not be surprised red grouse shooting has not taken off in other countries (Comment, January 29), these wild birds are endemic to the British Isles. The Germans and Belgians did try and introduce them but these populations had gone by the 1970s. As a result thousands of overseas visitors still fill our rural pubs and hotels once the summer holiday makers have left.
Perhaps as importantly, shooting also helps to fund the rural communities that have been managing our precious heather grouse moors for generations. We must thank the red grouse, and those that wish to shoot a few, for us still having some of the best managed and maintained heather moorlands in the world.
Andrew Gilruth, GWCT Director of Communications