Maybe you should be campaigning for an alternative method to deal with the problem!!!!
For the sake of confusion.....I'm not the campaigning type
Maybe you should be campaigning for an alternative method to deal with the problem!!!!
Choose the legal route or the easier route? Indiscriminate poisoning is just that. Indiscriminate.
I, not that long ago, recovered a Golden Eagle and a Fox poisoned on the hill side. A Golden Eagle johhnytheboy, a status symbol of our great nation. Similarly I've recovered a White Tail Sea Eagle, Buzzards galore and a host of other mammals and birds.
I've listened to opinions and views galore in relation to both sides. Raptors will take game birds of that there is no doubt. Buzzards are more common now than at any other time in living history so is there an argument for selective culling? Possibly.
Or are there other methods that can be taken to ensure that they don't take game birds?
Badgers are a good example. Calls galore for culls down south from areas rife with bTB. Why do we not have it in Scotland? Our methods of cattle movement are better controlled and managed. We dont have have any notable bTB here as a result.
Seals. The new Marine act has come into place which hopefully will reduce the killing of seals which in the main can be controlled by other measures but there are hardly any license applications to shoot seals.
I just get annoyed when the hunting, shooting, fishing brigade get on their high horse shouting from the rooftops that only they can be for the benefit of the countryside.
In my experience it is quite a way away from the truth. Some of the biggest, localised destruction I have seen of habitat and wooded areas is on the Islands on Loch Awe from fishermen who go there, between trees butchered for firewood, litter and human waste left and fishing line strewn all over the place it's shocking!
Purely out of interest, how many of these resulted in a prosecution of people working for shooting estates? I wonder purely because whilst I hear occasionally of such acts, I have not encountered gamekeepers with that mindset in England (doesn't mean it doesn't happen of course - theres good and bad in all professions)
MMmm
I hear of very, very few succesful prosecutions of people involved in game shoots (past or current). Indeed the last group of people I heard of getting a bad press for poisoning raptors were pigeon fanciers!
Just to be clear...only one of those cases you mentioned (the top one) relates to a prosecution on wildlife matters - and there is no evidence that any wildlife was injured. The second case is someone charged (not found guilty) and the third a firearms offense.
I don't disagree that the first one was definitely a wrong un - but the fact is he wasn't convicted of killing a raptor.
As for the rest, accusation is not the same as conviction - and its invidious to pretend that a trial is not required to show that these people have committed an offence. Innocent until proven guilty is a cornerstone of our justice system. Whilst you might indeed have information and a viewpoint, that determination rests with a jury.
I never said that a trial is not required. Like I said watch this space in relation to both.
Cheers
Just a couple from the last few months.
."succesful prosecutions of people on game shoots"
As for the rest, accusation is not the same as conviction -
In the words of Dragnet "Just the facts".
Red
The only reason all of this is happening, is there is no legal route to deal with problem raptors!!
Quite
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/3597952.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/derbyshire/4083487.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/shropshire/7808839.stm
http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news...mekeeper_failed_to_prevent_trapping_1_2330152
http://www.perthshireadvertiser.co....-former-perthshire-gamekeeper-73103-26110898/
You know BR, these convictions are out there. Many take several years to come to fruition, some never make it to court but they are out there and in Scotland, 2009 was one of the worst years on record for raptor persecution.
more common now than at any other time in living history
I see very few people out there investing millions of pounds in creating and maintaining diverse woodland habitat. Shoots do. Thats all I need to know (again, I have never shot a driven shoot or been employed by one, just calling it as I see it).
Red