All poultry subject to compulsory registration

[Woody girl]

What about pheasants?
Round here, thousands are bred, then let loose for the shootin' crowd to have some fun.
At what point does a bred bird, become a wild bird and no longer need registration, or, as I suspect will they be exempt?
During the shooting season,
I have several every day come into my garden, leaving their droppings and eating my seedlings that have to be protected to survive. Real nuisance! I'd rather a noisy Cockerell next door.

 

[GreyCat]

I agree. It's totally pointless registering poultry when there's loads of wild birds (and birds reared for shoots) around. Similarly, rather pointless making knife law tighter when kitchen knives are the most used thing for committing crime...... and this scheme feels like the knife laws: seen to be doing "something" even though the "something" being done won't address the issue.

I'd far rather a noisy cockerel next door than what I had last night: young "lady"driver in her car with 2 blokes in there too, parked outside our house, loud music on, 11pm. After a while I went out- they also were drinking, so I rapped on the window and told them (in my best "stern mum" fashion) to "turn off the noise, clear up their mess and leave.... now." Or I would be calling the police. The young lady driver was alarmed and complied quickly in leaving. They did leave their empty drink cans behind, the driver having tipped the rest of hers out into the road. [We picked the cans up this morning, she regularly leaves her car in the same place during the day even though she doesn't live in the street, so when she next does, the empty cans- in a bag- will be gaffer-taped to her wing mirror.]

I wish they would put more effort into tackling this sort of antisocial behaviour instead of worrying about a few chickens.

GC

 

[pieinthesky]

More time ticking boxes = Less time doing something useful!

So nothing gets done - but at least we know who to blame if what doesn't get done, gets done wrong.

 

[bearbait]

What about pheasants?
Round here, thousands are bred, then let loose for the shootin' crowd to have some fun.
At what point does a bred bird, become a wild bird and no longer need registration, or, as I suspect will they be exempt?
During the shooting season,
I have several every day come into my garden, leaving their droppings and eating my seedlings that have to be protected to survive. Real nuisance! I'd rather a noisy Cockerell next door.

I believe that some 57 million game birds are released into the UK countryside every year to be shot. They present sudden competition for our native species' feeding at that time, along with the potential for spreading Bird Flu. Once the game birds ("poultry") are released into the countryside they metamorphose into "wild birds" in the eyes of the law and are no longer subject to regulation.

 

[Pattree]

I do think that the regulation is futile and I have no interest whatsoever in the idea of raising animals so that they can be killed for pleasure.

However:

Game birds cannot be released into the wild without a clean bill of health acquired via a 21 day quarantine period - sufficient for the strains of bird flu that we know about. It is true that these birds are then rated as wild birds.
They can be gathered and penned again at which point they regain their domestic status immediately but must go through a 21 day quarantine period dated from the arrival of the last bird. Birds killed in the wild must not come within 500M of live domestic birds.

The legislation is futile. The reasons for it are class based and/or political but neither the politicians (for the most part) nor the game keepers are stupid. Cunning, skilled at their jobs, strategic in their thinking and partisan / self interested in their strategy for sure but we weaken our own case in the debate should we underrate them.

 

[Woody girl]

Birds killed in the wild must not come within 500M of live domestic birds.

So, how does that work?
One of my friends keeps chickens, and her property backs onto a field used for a shoot. Her property is often covered in pheasants escaping the guns.
Should she take time off work to go and tell the pheasants they are not allowed on her property?
What a joke.

 

[Pattree]

While they are free they are “Wild” and no one has responsibility for them. Once the live ones are gathered after a shooting session (something that I didn’t know happened) or once they are shot the 500M rule applies.
It’s not particularly useful legislation but there’s it is.

 

[HereBeDragons]

We only have wild chickens on the farm….

 

[haptalaon]

This is about protecting the large pountry industry by having the information to wipe out those who if necessary can support themselves in the event of food carbon rationing... remember these people think long term ... could result in all heir loom birds being killed, resulting in nothing left but commercial stock.....

tbh the big risk for bird flu is always going to be more likely in mass-production (thousands of birds crammed into little spaces where disease can spread, imported and exported all over the world) than in 'a handful of chickens in my back yard' production

 

[TeeDee]

 

[August Landmesser]

In the US if any bird test positive for bird flu the whole flock is culled, ensuring that all the birds with natural immunity are removed from the gene pool. If they'd let the flu run it's course some birds would survive and pass their immunity down in perpetuity, creating whole flocks with natural immunity.