Glorious Twelfth

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Scottish red grouse
Hunting dog with two killed red grouse

The official start of the grouse hunting season on August 12th is known colloquially in Great Britain as the Glorious Twelfth (Eng. " Glorious twelfth") .

Legal situation

Since the Game Act 1831 came into force, red grouse hunting is only permitted from August 12th of each year. The young willow grouse that hatched in spring are fledged around mid-August. Hunting is generally prohibited in England and Wales on Sundays . If the 12th falls on a Sunday, the season doesn't start until August 13th. This was last the case in 2012. Even in Scotland , where there is no Sunday hunting ban, the hunt does not start until August 13th. The red grouse hunting season lasts until December 10th.

Cultural meaning

The start of the hunt usually leads to a large onslaught of hunters at the Glorious Twelfth. Many British restaurants put grouse on their menus from the Glorious Twelfth , some restaurants in London vie to be able to offer the first fresh birds of the season as early as possible. In 1997 the first hunted animals were brought to New York on the same day in a Concorde .

Animal welfare

Animal rights activists have been criticizing the hunt for red grouse for years and attribute declines to it. It is also criticized that measures to protect the habitats of the red grouse are often initiated for hunting reasons and are at the expense of other bird species. Defenders of the grouse hunt emphasize the function of the hunt for the protection of the moors and heaths as habitats for other animals and the importance of the labor-intensive driven hunt for the local employment situation. The high manpower requirement makes the Glorious Twelfth relatively expensive for a hunter , costing around £ 150 for a pair of grouse killed. It is therefore an exclusive pleasure for members of the nobility , high finance or Russian oligarchs , for example .

In 2001, the foot and mouth disease outbreak led to the cancellation of the Glorious Twelfth. For the 2013 season, the British media expected the Glorious Twelfth to be one of the best hunting seasons in years. The favorable climate had resulted in significantly better breeding success for the red grouse compared to the previous year.

Historical aspect

Since the British political upper class had to keep this date, German resistance members in the London ministries could not find their contacts in mid-August 1939, with whose diplomatic help they wanted to take away the illusions about British policy towards Poland from the warring German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop Acquaintances of Adam von Trott zu Solz and the British aristocratic daughter Christabel Bielenberg .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs: Wild birds: management and legal protection , accessed January 8, 2014
  2. ↑ BBC News: Glorious Twelfth to start on 13th due to custom , August 11, 2012 , accessed January 8, 2014
  3. ↑ http://countrysportscotland.com/shooting/red-grouse/ accessed May 1, 2018
  4. ↑ The Standard: Where to eat grouse in London , August 7, 2013 , accessed January 8, 2014
  5. ↑ The food I eat: The Glorious Twelfth , August 13, 2013 , accessed January 8, 2014
  6. ↑ a b Der Standard: Die Angst des Moorhuhns in August , August 12, 2009 , accessed on January 8, 2014
  7. ↑ The Telegraph: Row erupts between wildlife groups and gamekeepers , August 8, 2013 , accessed on January 8, 2014
  8. ↑ The Guardian: There is nothing glorious about the 'glorious twelfth' , August 17, 2010 , accessed January 8, 2014
  9. ^ The Guardian: Oh what a glorious day it is - except for the grouse , August 8, 2010 , accessed January 8, 2014
  10. ↑ Nürnberger Zeitung: The British grouse hunt begins today - The very finest shooting , August 12, 2009 , accessed on January 8, 2014
  11. ^ The Telegraph: Glorious Twelfth canceled in areas affected by virus , May 8, 2001 , accessed January 8, 2014
  12. ↑ The Scotsman: Glorious Twelfth: Sun shines on shooting season , August 12, 2013 , accessed January 8, 2014
  13. ^ The Telegraph: An even more Glorious Twelfth as grouse-shooting season begins. Experts predict best grouse season for years thanks to late spring and heatwave , August 12, 2013 , accessed January 8, 2014
  14. ↑ Christabel Bielenberg: When I was German: 1934 to 1945 - An English woman tells. Authoris. German version by Christian Spiel, Biederstein-Verlag: Munich 1969, p. 45