Glorious Twelfth

As a Glorious Twelfth (Eng. " glorious twelfth " ) is the official start of the hunting season for grouse shooting on August 12, is colloquially known in the United Kingdom.

Legal situation

Since the entry into force of the Game Act 1831 to hunt ptarmigan in each case allowed only after 12 August of each year. From about the middle of August hatched in the spring of young grouse are fledged. On Sundays, hunting in England and Wales is prohibited. If the 12th falls on a Sunday, the season therefore begins from the 13th August. Recently this was the case in 2012. Even in Scotland, where there are no daily Sunday hunting ban, the hunt begins in this case until August 13. The hunting season for red grouse lasts until December 10.

Cultural Significance

The start of the hunt usually results in the Glorious Twelfth to a large influx of hunters. Many British restaurants put on the Glorious Twelfth grouse on their menus, some restaurants in London are vying to offer as early as possible the first fresh birds of the season. In 1997, the first hunted animals were housed with a Concorde on the same day to New York.

Animal Welfare

Animal rights activists criticize for years to hunt grouse and keep stock declines back to it. There is also criticism that measures to protect the habitats of the Moor grouse are often initiated from hunting grounds, to the detriment of other species of birds. Defender of the grouse shooting again emphasize the function of hunting for the protection of bogs and heaths as habitats for other animals and the importance of labor-intensive hunt for local employment situation. The high personnel expenses makes the Glorious Twelfth for a hunter with about 150 pounds sterling to cost of a hunted grouse pair of relatively expensive. He is therefore regarded as exclusive pleasure, for example, members of the nobility, of high finance or Russian oligarchs.

In 2001, the outbreak of foot- and -mouth disease to the cancellation of the Glorious Twelfth. For the 2013 season expected British media on the occasion of the Glorious Twelfth one of the best hunting seasons for years. The favorable climate had provided much better breeding success at the grouse compared to last year.

Historical aspect

As the British political upper class had to embrace this event, found in mid-August 1939, German resistance fighter in the London ministries their contacts not before, with their diplomatic help, they wanted the warmongering German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop take the illusions about the British policy towards Poland, it reports the Known by Adam von Trott and British aristocrats daughter Christabel Bielenberg.