The Art of Not Caring #12

10 million birds are killed each year in Europe, mainly for entertainment and profit. The reduction of their populations by hunters is pointless, unethical, and extremely risky for the survival of many species. Bird hunting harms the entire natural environment. The meat of wild birds has no economic significance. Birds are not hunted for food. There are documented cases of the killing and abandonment of the bodies of many dead wild geese in bushes or buried in fields. Over the last three decades, the number of birds characteristic of agricultural landscapes has declined by half. During hunting, a large number of birds are injured by one or two pellets and are not retrieved. They die a senseless, painful death. Moreover, large amounts of lead from hunting are introduced into the environment. Each piece of ammunition used to kill birds contains up to hundreds of tiny toxic lead fragments, which end up in water, vegetation, and soil—often on farmland.