And you're quite entitled to your opinion.
While I can appreciate your point about clays being a viable alternative, I would express my opinion to you that it isn't. You are in a static, artificial environment and there's a very major difference in that there is no dog work involved. Due to the repetitive nature of the gun-fire, there can be a lot of local resistance to clay shoots because of noise pollution - gun fire on ordinary shooting days is far more random and less intrusive.
Incidentally, on environmental grounds alone, there are numerous studies (independently done) that support the existence of properly run shoots as they are a positive influence for conservation - many habitats would disappear if it weren't for the shooting fraternity.
OK, so hunting with dogs is now illegal and there are certain formats that I for one won't be sorry to see disappear off the horizon (stag/hare/mink). There are also certain large-scale driven shoots that I personally disapprove of and would never attend again (having done so on a couple of occasions when working one of my gundogs for my then boss). They are not sporting occasions.
But most shoots are on a small to medium scale, run in the main by part-time, unpaid gamekeepers and are the main sport for the farmers on whose land they are run - it's a great social occasion, we eat what we kill, the birds are raised and cared for to a very high standard, the dogs love doing what they have been bred to do and consequently are probably better-balanced than most pets. I certainly can't express very well on here the pleasure I get from watching my dogs work but when they put in an exceptional piece of work, it's awesome to watch!
But we're all different and have different ways of looking at life. To me, whether a pheasant is a) shot or b gets killed by a car on the road or c) chomped by a fox, then end result is still the same - one dead pheasant. Death from old age isn't that frequent an end for most birds! At least methods a and c mean that the death isn't a total waste........
