THE VERY CRUEL SPORT OF CUB HUNTING

Cub hunting, as the name suggests, is the practice of hunting fox cubs with young foxhounds. 

Contrary to what the hunters say, hunting a live animal does not come naturally to a foxhound. As such, the young hounds must be taught how to hunt in preparation for the main season. This is done by hunting fox cubs in a confined area of woodland, which pushes the fox cubs into the pack, rather than involving a long chase. 

Fox cub hunting remains a dirty secret of the hunting world. Despite the ban on hunting wild mammals with dogs this continues to be widely practiced as part of hunting. 

Cub hunting, as the name suggests, is the practice of hunting fox cubs with young foxhounds. 

How common was cub hunting in the 2021 season?

The hunts were active this season; we have collated 115 reports about cub hunting from this time period. 

While this is 50 per cent fewer reports than we received over the same period last season, it unfortunately does not mean there have been fewer incidents of cub hunting. More likely that repeated lockdowns made proactive research and investigations more difficult than usual. Equally, we don’t duplicate reports collated by other hunt monitoring groups, so there is in fact much more illegal cub hunting going on across the country than these numbers suggest.

Cub hunting as an activity is focused on cruelty to animals. However, this is not the only issue with this ‘sport’. Hunts have been known to engage in antisocial behaviour in the process of chasing down fox cubs. In the 2021 season, we received five reports of hunts trespassing on private land, and five further reports of hunts causing havoc; dogs running loose, the destruction of private property, and other antisocial behaviour in residential areas.

THE BRUTAL WORLD OF BRITISH BLOOD SPORTS

BLOOD SPORTS LOBBY IN TURMOIL

By Andy Knott MBE, Chief Executive of the League Against Cruel Sports

Last year was a disastrous one for the brutal world of British blood sports. This was best illustrated in the National Trust’s historic decision to ban trail hunting on its land, a landmark moment in the campaign to consign fox hunting to the history books. 

That and other victories for animals have exposed the blood sports lobby’s feeble excuses for killing our wildlife for fun. Nor are their arguments washing any longer with the public, politicians, landowners and – with the recent case of The Crown vs Hankinson proving trail hunting to be being nothing more than ‘a cover for old fashioned hunting’ – the courts. Yet the attempts to justify the unjustifiable  

END TO ALL HOUIND HUNTING - LET’S HOPE SO - IT IS BARBARIC

 

Enough is enough – let’s end hunting now

Dear John,

It’s time to say ‘enough is enough’.

Animals are being killed, people are being intimidated, land is being trespassed upon and the law is being broken. Despite the ban fox hunts, hare hunts and stag hunts in England and Wales have been hiding behind the smokescreen of ‘trail’ hunting to ride roughshod over the law for over 15 years.

How much more will it take for the government to strengthen the Hunting Act and end this barbarity for good?

We’ve launched a new nationwide campaign - ‘enough is enough’. From today we need you to contact your MPs to call on Defra to strengthen the ban.

Petition my MP

But that’s just the start. This campaign will feature panel events up and down the country to bring key voices together to discuss the issues surrounding hunting, and what can be done to stop it. Following these debates, we will work with you to launch local campaigns to tackle hunting where you are. It’s time to amplify the voices of those who want to say ‘enough is enough’ to those who would seek to do wildlife harm.

This is the beginning of the end for hunting with dogs.

You are amazing and have already made a huge difference – some of the UK’s largest landowners such as the National Trust and Natural Resources Wales have already banned hunting thanks to your efforts, and the League will continue to work to reduce the impact of hunting on wildlife.

We have already held a successful pilot event in Plymouth, the next being in Cheltenham in February. Other events are in the planning stage, so expect to see further announcements on this soon.

Petition my MP

Right now trail hunting is actively licensed on government land, including areas owned by the Ministry of Defence.

Please contact your MP and tell them enough is enough. Ask that they call on DEFRA for an immediate end to trail hunting on government land and to commit to strengthening the Hunting Act to end the cruelty of hunting for good.

I agree - Enough is enough

Thanks,

RETURNING LAND TO THE COMMUNITY AT A COST

 THIS POST IS REALLY ABOUT WHO OWNS BRITAIN

FROM RAPTOR PERSECUTION UK

\TARRAS VALEY VOLUNTEERS RECLAIM PHEASANT REARING WOOD FROM LANGHJOM MOOR 

In 2020 the community of Langholm in the Scottish Borders successfully raised £3.8 million to buy a knackered old grouse moor from the Duke of Buccleugh and transform it into a vast new nature reserve for the benefit of wildlife and the local community (see here).

Many blog readers supported and contributed to this fundraising challenge (thank you) and helped create what is now called the Tarras Valley Nature Reserve.

Kudos to the volunteers who have been busy in recent weeks clearing old fences, netting and feeding barrels from the woods which were formerly used for pheasant-rearing/shooting. 

(You can see their efforts - photographically - on social media)

In November 2021 the community began fundraising once again, to ‘finish what we started’, and has launched stage two of the biggest community buyout scheme in south Scotland to buy the remainder of Langholm Moor which would effectively double the size of the Tarras Valley Nature Reserve.

If you’d like to make a contribution to help support this impressive lot, please visit their crowdfunder here.

A POTENTIAL ANSWER FROM HOUSE OF LORDS ABOUT STATUS OF PHEASANTS - LIVESTOCK OR WILDLIFE

FROM RAPTOR PERSECUTION UK

 Last week I blogged about how Green peer Natalie Bennett had posed a question in the House of Lords, asking the UK Government ‘whether they regard captive-reared pheasants released into the environment as wildlife or livestock?‘ (see here).

This question stems from the Government’s ongoing contortions relating to the legal status of pheasants, a status that seemingly is able to morph from being ‘livestock’ to ‘wildlife’ and then back to ‘livestock’ at various points in the year, which provides the pheasant owner/keeper with multiple opportunities to kill native predators and avoid legal responsibility for public damage all at the same time. This flow chart from Wild Justice sums it up well:

WELL HERE IS A SORT OF ANSWER

Conservative life peer and DEFRA Minister Zac Goldsmith has now responded to Natalie Bennett’s question as follows:

‘A released captive-reared pheasant may be regarded as livestock if it remains significantly dependent on a keeper for their survival, for example for the provision of food, water or shelter‘.

Hmm. That’s not especially helpful when ‘significantly dependent’ hasn’t been defined, although we do know from DEFRA’s new General Licences this year that supplementary feeding of pheasants does not count in this context. Hmm, it’s all very odd.

Wild Justice has taken legal advice on this issue this week and you can expect to hear more from them in due course…. and you’ll hear it first if you subscribe to their free newsletter here.

MORE PHEASANTS SHOT & DUMPED IN BLACK PLASTIC BAGS IN NORTH WALES

Here we go again, one of the most disgusting consequences of releasing approx 60 million non-native pheasants and red-legged partridges into the countryside in their millions. They’re shot for a bit of a laugh and then some of them are simply dumped. Undoubtedly this is driven by an over-supply of birds and little demand by consumers for purchasing game bird meat, especially when it’s contaminated with toxic lead shot.

Unfortunately for the game shooting industry, desperate to portray itself as responsible and law-abiding with the utmost respect for its quarry, this is yet another ongoing, criminal and widespread problem associated with gamebird shooting and such a PR disaster is drawing even more attention to an industry already under intense pressure to clean up its act.

Previous examples include dumped gamebirds in Cheshire, Scottish borders (here), Norfolk (here), Perthshire (here), Berkshire (here), North York Moors National Park (here) and some more in North York Moors National Park (here) and even more in North Yorkshire (here), Co. Derry (here), West Yorkshire (here), and again in West Yorkshire (here), N Wales (here), mid-Wales (here), Leicestershire (here), Lincolnshire (here), Somerset (here), Derbyshire’s Peak District National Park (here), Suffolk (here), Leicestershire again (here) and Liverpool (here).

Yesterday, four bin bags stuffed full of dead pheasants were found dumped behind a hedge in Tremeirchion, in Denbighshire, North Wales. Judy Oliver Hewitt photographs on social media:

This obscene behaviour will continue to receive attention on this blog for as long as the gamebird shooting industry demands licences to kill protected birds of prey for the purpose of ‘saving’ gamebirds.

THIS PART OF THE BLOG FROM LEGAL JUSTICE IS ABOUT GLYPHOSATE

 Glyphosate: taking the p*ss.  Wild Justice is interested in the use of the powerful pesticide glyphosate in the environment - as are many others.  With your help - click here for details - we have contacted local authorities across the UK to ask about their compliance with the requirements of pesticide legislation and simply asking questions is nudging local authorities to make further reductions in use. Glyphosate, is also used in gardens and on farmland.  There are concerns, hotly disputed, that glyphosate may be a carcinogen. UK authorities do test some foods for glyphosate levels.  The renowned entomologist, Prof Dave Goulson, is campaigning for a ban on the use of glyphosate in gardens - see his petition here.

 

Based on fairly small sample sizes there is an indication, no more than that, that levels of glyphosate in UK residents are higher than the average in Europe. You probably have glyphosate in your body - over 70% of Europeans do, and the UK figures are slightly higher than average. Would you like to find out?  If so, and if you would consider participating in a future Wild Justice investigation of glyphosate levels in UK citizens, then read on.

 

How to discover your own glyphosate levels: this website will send you a glyphosate testing kit that you can use in your own home and send off a urine sample to a laboratory in Germany which will send you your results.  The cost of the testing and postage is about £40 (depending on the £/euro exchange rate) so it is a significant investment. And all you'll get for it is a figure for the glyphosate level in your urine that you can compare with averages for other European countries.

 

However, if you share your results with us at Wild Justice, we will ask you whether you would like to take part in a study of glyphosate levels in UK citizens that will track glyphosate levels in individuals to discover more about their trends through the year and any links with lifestyle etc.  We will pay for all the test kits of those invited to participate in the study.  What we can study will depend on the number of you who are interested in participating.

 

Mark Avery sent off for a urine testing kit last autumn, followed its instructions and got his results by email a couple of weeks later. Mark's glyphosate levels were 2.5nm/ml - a bit higher than both the European and UK averages.  Mark said 'The process was pretty straightforward and I was interested to find that my levels were higher than average.  I wonder why. We don't use pesticides in the garden but I live in an arable farming area where glyphosate is used, and my local authority uses glyphosate too. Perhaps I am picking up glyphosate from the food I eat.  I'm interested to know more but that would need a bigger sample of people. Will you join me in taking the p*ss?'.

 

So, the offer on the table to you is to find out your own glyphosate levels through buying a test kit and sending off your urine to be tested. When you get your results then if you'd like to share them with us please forward them to Wild Justice at admin@wildjustice.org.uk . Depending on the response, we may invite you to become part of a study to investigate glyphosate levels and their variability and lifestyle correlates.  Wild Justice will then reimburse the costs of testing kits.

 

Do consider this: you will probably find that you have glyphosate in your urine - 70% of people across Europe who have done similar tests do find that. Levels vary and there are no levels yet set by governments that indicate dangerous levels.  There is some evidence that glyphosate is a carcinogen but opinions differ, and the levels at which it has any human health impact, if any at all, are not well known. So it is just possible that you will find that you have 'high' levels of glyphosate in your urine and you might find that worrying. It is very likely that you will find that you have some glyphosate in your urine which will mean that you are like most other people living in Europe. If you would rather not know how much glyphosate you have in your urine then please don't send off for a test kit.  If you are interested to learn what your glyphosate levels are and feel pretty confident that you can cope with any results that come through, then that is your choice.  Give it some thought before doing anything please.

 

If you like what we do then please share these newsletters with your friends, or with members of your natural history society or workmates if you think they'd be interested in learning about the work of Wild Justice and becoming a part of that work through signing petitions, writing letters and sometimes donating to our projects. Anyone interested can sign up to this newsletter through our website - click here.

That's it for now. Later today we'll be discussing future work with our legal team. 

 

 

Wild Justice (Directors: Mark Avery, Chris Packham and Ruth Tingay

DEFRA CONTINUES TO ALLOW THE BURNING

THE CONTINUAL BURNING OF A PRECIOUS HABITAT

It seems to me madness that DEFRA can keep on allowing the destruction of these habitats that have taken so long to be created.

I have taken this from a post by LEGAL JUSTICE 94

We had a disappointment this week when the Court of Appeal did not give us permission to appeal the refusal of our case against the Westminster government on its feeble burning regulations. We have taken this challenge as far as we can and we are very disappointed that, in this case, the courts have not been helpful in holding DEFRA to account. We still believe that we had a strong case (otherwise we would not have persevered with it) that the decision that DEFRA made on limiting burning on blanket bogs was not only cowardly and feeble in its scope but unlawful in the way that it was made. But we haven't persuaded the courts of our case. However, protecting our upland habitats from damage, and protecting the carbon stored in peatlands, will remain an area of importance and interest to Wild Justice, as it is to many other environmental organisations. Greater limits to burning on peatland soils should be brought in, and we'll be working with others to bring this about as soon as possible.

 

MAYBE WE ARE COMING TO THE END OF FAKE NEWS ON TOXIC SOCIAL MEDIA

 

Dear friends, We did it!!!! Hours ago, the EU Parliament overwhelmingly voted in favor of the most ambitious regulation ever drafted to end the era of toxic social media. We’re still in shock.  We were up against some of the most powerful corporations in the world. But we were louder. Donating in the thousands, flooding key decision-makers with messages, delivering powerful solutions in meetings, and publishing groundbreaking investigations showing the harms caused by Big Tech: the Avaaz community has helped shape history this week, together with other awesome groups out there fighting alongside us and brave lawmakers who decided to listen. We’re not done yet, but if EU lawmakers stand strong in further negotiations, this could be the first wave of a cascade of new laws all over the world that finally put people before platforms and their profits: whenever Facebook, Youtube or TikTok would harm our societies at scale - from making dangerous disinformation go viral to spreading harmful content to kids or misusing our personal data -- our democracies would be able to ensure they take responsibility. 🎉 Join the celebration by retweeting the Avaaz tweet here or posting on Facebook here

Social media has brought powerful innovation to our societies. But for too long they have been  able to evolve with literally just one goal: maximizing their profit, even if that meant radicalizing our societies, delegitimizing science or a rise in teen depression. Now, thanks to this regulation which some have called a new constitution for the Internet, we can demand a future where technologies are shaped around common values, and protect our fundamental human rights, instead of exploiting our weaknesses. Also, with so much disillusionment around politics, this regulation has shown Europe at its best. With almost all the demands from citizens, experts and civic society organizations landing in some way in the text just voted including: Detoxify the algorithm-- make the platforms take responsibility for the harms they cause to our societies, like the viral spread of dangerous disinformation;   Big sanctions -- Face fines up to 6% of their global income, yes we're talking billions of dollars here, if they don’t fix their systems; Open the black box -- Allow independent auditors, researchers and civic society to scrutinize their actions and uncover their wrongdoings; Stop surveillance ads -- Ban the exploitation of children’s data, and our political beliefs or gender choices, to target us with ads. 🎉 Join the celebration by retweeting the Avaaz tweet here or posting on Facebook here For over four years Avaaz has been on the forefront of the public push to force social media platforms to tackle the harms they create. From the EU, to the US, or Brazil, we have reported on disinformation and its scale, commissioning polls on its harmful effects, evaluating platforms' efforts to tackle them, and identifying their failures. None of this would have been possible without the Avaaz membership. It was a huge shared effort. But it paid off. And now we’re making history. With deep excitement and determination, Luca, Sarah, Christoph, Joana, Nadia, Andy, Rosie, Luana, Camille, Barbara, Sam and the rest of the Avaaz team

THE WIDESPREAD MIS-USE OF CROW CAGE TRAPS TO TRAP & KILL BIRDS OF PREY FROM RAPTOR PERSECUTION UK

 RSPB Investigations Officer Guy Shorrock published an insightful blog yesterday (‘Cage traps in the spotlight across the UK’) detailing the ongoing and widespread mis-use and abuse of crow cage traps, often used by criminal gamekeepers to trap and kill raptors, sometimes deliberately and sometimes through reckless negligence.

His blog provided details of an incident in Wales in April last year, and I don’t recall seeing any media coverage of this case. The following text is reproduced directly from Guy’s blog:

A case from April last year again highlights our concerns. A member of public found a crow cage trap on sheep grazing farmland in North Wales containing a buzzard, a red kite and multiple crows. The finder released all the birds and reported it to us.

As with all cage traps outside Scotland, without marking and registration it can far more difficult, often impossible, to identify the trap operator. A visit by my colleague Niall Owen confirmed the presence of a lamb carcass, which should have been properly disposed of and not used as bait, along with two carrion crows. A week later the trap held two crows and a buzzard plus the bodies of two further crows. To identify a trap operator, and to determine whether the licence conditions were being complied with, a covert camera was installed for a couple of days. At this point, there was no clear contravention of the licence conditions. The buzzard was in good health, so it was left in situ and provided with fresh water and food just in case visits were not made. One dead crow was seized and sent off for a post-mortem. Two days later the buzzard was still present, thankfully alive and well, so was released unharmed. We informed North Wales Police who identified the farmer operating the trap and ensured it was rendered incapable of trapping.

The post-mortem on the carrion crow confirmed the bird had died of starvation, confirming further breaches of the licence conditions and animal welfare regulations. Had the original finder and ourselves not released the trapped birds, we fear they would have met the same fate. This case was about negligence rather than any deliberate targeting of birds of prey, and following the police investigation, the operator was given a Community Resolution Order. This had a requirement that they could not operate cage traps until a suitable course has been attended.

Guy’s blog is timely as we await the sentencing of a gamekeeper who has recently been convicted of killing two buzzards in a cage trap in Nottinghamshire (see here). The RSPB has what Guy describes as ‘graphic footage’ filmed on a covert camera showing exactly how the gamekeeper used the trap to catch and then kill two buzzards. I understand the RSPB will release this video evidence after sentencing next week.

I’d encourage you to read Guy’s blog in full (here) to understand the different approaches being deployed (or not) to address these offences in England, Scotland and Wales and how members of the public can help catch the killers.

RAPTOR PERSECUTION IGNORED IN NORTH YORK MOORS NATIONAL PARK DRAFT MANAGEMENT PLAN

 The North York Moors National Park Authority (NYMNPA) is currently consultingon its draft management plan, which aims to set out a series of priority actions to help the Park tackle issues which include ‘recovery from the COVID pandemic, escalating climate and nature emergencies, increasing mental and physical health problems among the general population, and the need to change the way we look after our landscapes‘.

You can download the draft plan here:

nymnp_management_plan_draft_finalDownload

Rewilding Scotland’s grouse moors: a discussion

Scotland’s Moorland Forum is hosting an online discussion between several key individuals about whether rewilding is compatible with other moorland use such as grouse shooting. 

Of particular interest to readers of this blog will be the discussion about the impact of intensive grouse moor management on species such as golden eagles, white-tailed eagles, hen harriers, red kites, peregrines, buzzards, short-eared owls etc.

Members of the public can attend, free of charge, and participate in a Q&A session.

Here’s the advertising blurb from the Moorland Forum:

Join us for a lively and timely discussion.

Moorland Forum Chairman, Hugh Raven, will be in discussion with Steve Micklewright, Trees for Life & Convenor of the Scottish Rewilding Alliance; Magnus Davidson, Research Associate at UHI, Director of Community Land Scotland, a Trustee of Thurso Community Development Trust, founding member of Scotland’s 2050 Climate Group; and Andrew Painting, Assistant Ecologist Mar Lodge Estate & Author of ‘Regeneration – The Rescue of a Wild Land’.

This event will delve into fundamental issues such as whether moorland can ever be seen as compatible with rewilding ambitions. For example, could moorland be wilder and still produce grouse shooting and farmed livestock? And, can we have rewilding sitting alongside modified landscapes or do they compromise each other?

A key concept which will be explored is how people fit into a rewilded landscape, and how rural communities’ fare. Rewilding causes concern for some in terms of the diminution of existing industries which are reliant on moorland such as grouse shooting and upland farming (and the supplier businesses that feed into these activities), in favour of newer opportunities from rewilding. We will discuss these opportunities, the relevance of existing rural skills are and whether earning potential remains comparable. We will also touch on the new Green Lairds – as they have been termed – and their role in Scottish rural communities.

The discussion will also touch on debates about wildfire risks and the impact on moorland species of different management regimes.

The format

The evening will fall into to two parts, with the first half of the evening given over to Hugh Raven in discussion with our speakers, while the second half of the evening will see Hugh pose questions asked by the online audience.

Cost

Places are free, but we ask that you register in order to gain access to the link for the evening and other preparatory information.

After the event

Scotland’s Moorland Forum is running a series of topic-based discussions both as part of its regular schedule of meetings, and as online public events. This event is the first of our public online events.

We plan to explore two major topics that have a relevance to the future of moorlands in the wider context of Scotland’s uplands each year.

After those discussions, a paper will be developed which provides an objective synthesis of the discussion and opinions gathered. The discussions and the resulting papers will be relevant to Scottish ministers, policy-makers and stakeholders, and all with an interest in Scotland’s moorlands and upland areas. The output will become publicly available on Scotland’s Moorland Forum as a resource for all.

Points to note ahead of joining a discussion event:-

• Each topic will be considered in terms of its relationship to moorland or moorland in the context of the wider uplands.

• The aim of the discussions is to capture opinion in whatever way it exists, and it is important that participants come to the events with the understanding that all opinion is valid and should be given space to be heard. Indeed, we hope that an important part of the value of these discussions will be that they allow a safe space for the exchange of ideas amongst people and organisations that have differing views. In this way the broader conversations about the use and management of Scotland’s moorlands and uplands might move forwards.

• Participants must be respectful in their communications and mannerisms.

• The papers that will come from these discussions will not make a judgement on the rights or wrongs of a given topic or viewpoint. They aim to provide an objective synthesis of the various opinions that exist, highlight consensus where it exists, but also capture opposing views. They will aim to identify ways in which discussion can continue to move forwards – this might be through the Forum or by other means.

We look forward to welcoming you on 9 February.

MÚLTIPLE RAPTORS FOUND POISONED

 MULTIPLE RAPTORS FOUND POISONED

This post came to me via Raptor Persecution UK

Police investigation launched after multiple raptors found poisoned by rodenticides

Police are currently looking at cases of deceased Raptors that have

been located around the North East Leeds area which have been

found to contain significant amounts of rodenticide variants. At this

time we are looking into whether or not these Raptors have died due

to consuming animals that have been poisoned legitimately and due

to the amount the Raptor has consumed has proved fatal or if there is

another line of enquiry.

Please if you locate any deceased Raptors DO NOT TOUCH OR

HANDLE THEM but report it straight away via 101 and to Natural

England on 0800 321 600 using What3Words as a location.

This a comment from RP UK

Unfortunately there isn’t any information about the number of raptors poisoned, which species, on what dates they were found, or at which locations.

I haven’t been able to find any other reports or details – there isn’t anything on the West Yorkshire Police website or on its various Twitter accounts.

Thanks to the blog reader who drew my attention to the Facebook page.

COMMENT FROM ME. I have read the 15 comments and it is good to see that sort of discussion taking place. Not all accurate, but that does not matter too much. 

The awful thing is there are poisons out there that may have been hidden away for a longtime and others that are purpose bought. It disgusts me to know that poison is ‘laid’ and carcasses laced with a poison that is intended to kill the predator. Control will never be perfect and neither will the events to safeguard wildlife will never be either.

I have been and still am writing a collection on such crime, habitat loss, mindset of everyone in an attempt to counteract the lawlessness that exists in certain places. Agricultural methods are changing and there are good things happening. It is not all bad although there are instances where any improvement would be welcome. 

It may be that the sparse information coming from Yorkshire Police is necessary for an ongoing investigation. Hopefully there will be a thorough one if it is possible.

Alicante’s Salinas to Santa Aguada

 Thursday 20th January we gambled and went out into only 4 degrees. It was all grey with a chill breeze. The lagoons between Santa Pola and El Pinet yielded little. At the Salt Tower two Sandwich Terns passed by, one solitary Spoonbill - Espátula Común too, and a Slender Billed Gull - Gaviota. Picofina perched for a photo showing those red legs. And where were all the Flamingos?

El Pinet zero and a ten minute sea-watch was only worth the tea stop! If anything had been on the water we would have seen it.

The sun came out and so did the raptors.  Buzzards - Busardo Ratonero and Booted Eagles - Agililla Calzada with some Kestrels - Cernicalo Vulgar on route. At Santa Agueda our tally for Booted was at least 20, with Marsh Harriers - Aguilucho Luganero into double figures with two playing together over the marsh. Blackcaps - Curraca  Capirootada called with Goldfinch - Jilguero and on the pond was our resident Green Sandpiper - Andarrios Grande, Bluethroat - Pechiazul and a Snipe - Agachadiza Común. So it wasn’t all bad!

Someone always complains but it was good to be out. After all it was good to see so many Eagles and more than Winter Watch could muster! But good on them for all that filming.

THE COMPLETE LEGAL JUSTICE NEWSLETTER

 THIS IS THE LATTER PART OF THE LEGAL JUSTICE NEWSLETTER

Wye, Wye, Wye?: hardly a day goes by without there being some news about threats to the aquatic freshwater environment through over abstraction or pollution.  Wild Justice has exchanged legal letters with the Environment Agency, Natural Resources Wales and Natural England over what they should be doing to protect the wildlife of the River Wye. We've made it clear that legal action might follow if they do not up their game - see our blog here.

 

Raptor persecution and Hen Harrier Day: we can report that the Raptor Forensics Fund that we established back in 2020 has been used to support an investigation leading to the conviction of a second wildlife criminal - a second gamekeeper - see here for details. We're pleased to see this fund, established at Wild Justice's initiative and supported by raptor workers (but not, so far, by the shooting community) is helping to speed up invetigations of wildlife crime, some of which lead to criminal convictions.  Wild Justice's Mark Avery was interviewed by The Bunker Podcast about the general issue of raptor persection on grouse moors - click here to listen. Looking ahead, we're talking to our friends in Hen Harrier Action about plans for an in-person, on the ground, Hen Harrier Day event in August 2022.  Wild Justice organised a Hen Harrier Day event in Derbyshire in 2019 with speeches, music and lots of fun - see here for some details - but because of Covid the last two years have been online events - see 2021's event online here.  It would be good to be able to meet up in person again but our plans are at a very early stage - we'll be making decisions over the next few weeks.

 

Hare coursing: we were pleased to see a recent DEFRA announcement on measures to clamp down further on the illegal activity of hare coursing. Wild Justice has played a small supportive role, working with the police but also with other organisations to bring this about - click here. 

 

Coming soon: we're hoping to meet up with Waitrose soon to talk to them about the lead levels in their game meat (click here for details of analyses carried out before Christmas) and to tell them of future tests we plan for their meat. Next week we'll tell you about how you could find out a bit more about glyphosate levels - in your own body. We think of it as the 'Taking the p*ss' study.  Thank you to all of you who have highlighted concerns about glyphosate use to your local authorities already (click here - although this list is already out of date).

 

A petition: Woodcock are lovely birds but you can shoot them for 'sport'. Woodcock breeding numbers in the UK are declining for a variety of reasons and shooting in winter may be one of them. This petition on the UK Parliament website - click here - calls for a ban on shooting. We would probably have worded this petition differently but it does highlight an important issue. The government response is feeble, and simply because of that we would invite you to have a look at the petition and see whether you want to support it. Even obviously pro-shooting organisations, such as the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, point out that shooting early in the 'open' season may affect UK breeding birds, even if most of the Woodcock shot in the UK are winter visitors from far to the east of the UK where the populations are thought (but not known in any great detail) to be stable. DEFRA should be considering changes to the shooting season for this bird as a measure to protect our UK breeding population and your signature mght help them do that.

 

Protecting the Swanscombe Peninsula: it's important to protect existing sites that are rich in wildlife, and many of them are under repeated threat from development. One person's wildlife site may look to others like the ideal location for a housing development, a warehouse, or in this case a theme park!  And the potential developers often have a pile of money to progress their case. Yesterday, a coalition of groups, led by Buglife, launched a crowdfunder to raise a mere £10,000 to do the legal work to prepare to defend this site in a coming Planning Inspectorate examination of the proposed development on a Site of Special Scientific Interest.  Wild Justice supports this campaign and you can chip in to help fund the necessary legal work yourself - click here to see why financial support is needed.  Thank you!  

 

Your cheques in the post: thank you to everyone who donates to Wild Justice - donations are our sole source of financial support. We have our own running costs which include website hosting, public liability insurance, postage, printing, newsletter hosting, membership fees of Wildlife and Countryside Link, subscribing to some publications and newsletters, accountants' fees and we have a small number off part-time helpers who provide essential administrative support.  All of that adds up to around £20,000/year. And on top of that we then take legal challenges and campaign for wildlife. Thank you for your moral and financial support. You'll notice that we sometimes invite you to support the conservation work of other organisations - that's quite unusual, but then we aren't the standard model of conservation organisation, are we?  We'll continue to highlight the campaigns, petitions and legal cases of others alongside our own projects and work. 

 

We often end this newsletter by saying that you can support us financially through PayPal, bank transfers or by sending us a cheque in the post. Sometimes it's said that cheques are hardly used these days but that isn't true. Last year, donations of over £26,000 arrived in the post.  Thank you! And we notice that some of those donors are one-off and others are regular - we thank you all. This is a general 'thank you' but if you do send us a cheque we will thank you by email or through the post if you give us your details - maybe on the back of the cheque. And we don't keep your details (why would we?) so if you send us multiple cheques please give us your contact details each time so that we can say thank you.  We like saying thank you.

 

 

Thank you! That's it for now.

 

Wild Justice (Directors: Mark Avery, Chris Packham and Ruth Tingay).

Wild Justice 93 - Happy New Year and a general round up of news

 Wild Justice 93 - Happy New Year and a general round up of news

Happy New Year! We're nearly two weeks into 2022 and this is a general update on our projects and activities. There's nothing earth shattering to report, but there are several examples of progress being made.  We'll also give you a heads up on some future work, point you in the direction of a petition and let you know of a legal challenge being taken by others that you may wish to support.

 

And we wanted to say 'Hi!' to hundreds of new subscribers to this newsletter who have already arrived in 2022. You are very welcome and you've joined about 50,000 subscribers. Do feel free to forward this free newsletter to your friends so that they can get our news too - anyone can click here to subscribe. These newsletters are sent out periodically but not according to any particular timetable. Since our public launch in February 2019, Wild Justice newsletters have appeared roughly every 10 days and we send them out when we think we have enough news to be interesting. There is always an 'unsubscribe' option at the foot of these newsletters.

 

Schrodinger's Pheasants: we've been talking about the issue of when gamebirds such as Pheasants and Red-legged Partridges are classified as wild birds and when they are regarded as livestock for the last three years but it appeared in the national press last week and caused a bit of a stir. 

 

About 50 million Pheasants are reared and released into the countryside every year for recreational shooting. Yes, 50 million, and another 10 million or so Red-legged Partridges!  When those birds are being reared in captivity they are livestock - and they should benefit from the same welfare protection as, say, chickens kept in captivity.  In late summer, ahead of the opening of the shooting season, those birds are transferred to release pens to start to make the transition to being wild birds, finding their own food and trying to avoid being eaten by Foxes and other predators.  When the doors of the release pens are opened, those gamebirds, reared in captivity as livestock become wild birds. Or do they?

 

The authorities in England, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), have muddied the waters about when captive-reared gamebirds transition to being wild birds. They've suggested that if gamebirds are revisiting their release pens, perhaps to find food, then they are still livestock.  This is a bit like suggesting that Blue Tits visiting a garden bird feeder are livestock when they fly back into a local wood - daft isn't it?

 

The reasons for this muddying of the waters are all to do with whether land owners can kill native wildlife, such as Carrion Crows, under the terms of the general licences, to protect their 'livestock'. We wrote a blog about this ssue (click here) but the diagram below captures the idiocy of this position.

 

 

 

 

Silly isn't it? We are taking legal advice on this matter and would potentially support individuals who wanted to claim compensation for damage done by someone's gamebirds to their vegetable patch.  Pheasants are the cause of many road traffic accidents every year, occasionally fatal ones, and we would question whether shooting interests really want to run the risk of being liable for the impacts that their 'livestock' have on other country folk.

 

Of course, Erwin Schrodinger pondered about the fate of a cat but maybe he would have been interested in the status of Pheasants too.

THE BUNKER - A PODCAST ON ILLEGAL KILLING OF BIRDS OF PREY

The Bunker is an independent political podcast examining the big issues of the UK.

In this week’s episode, Wild Justice Co-Director Mark Avery discusses driven grouse shooting with host Arthur Snell, with a particular focus on the illegal killing of birds of prey that takes place on many driven grouse moors.

This is a good, clear introductory summary of the issues, ideal for the new audiences that The Bunker will attract.

You can listen to the 25 minute podcast here : https://kite.link/BK1201Raptor

Banning single use plastics from 38 Degrees

 Banning single use plastics

Dear John, 

BIG news: the government has launched a consultation into banning some of the most polluting single use plastic items like cutlery and polystyrene food containers. [1] It’s a fantastic opportunity to stop these items polluting our streets, beaches, and oceans - for good. 

But nothing is set in stone, and you can bet big plastic producers will be trying to tone down and delay the ban - even though the UK government is already in danger of falling behind our European neighbours on this issue. [2] So we need to prove that the public really supports it. 

People like you and me don’t usually get involved in government consultations John - and you can bet the people running this one won’t be expecting it this time either! But that’s exactly why it’ll be so impactful when tens of thousands of us do take part! They won’t see it coming - and they’ll have no choice but to listen. 

So John, can you complete a short survey about banning the most polluting items of single use plastic? After you complete the survey, we'll send your answers to the government consultation.

SHARE MY VIEWS

Don’t worry if you don’t know loads about single use plastic - most people don’t! What’s important is whether you think these items, like plastic cutlery and polystyrene food containers, should be banned or not. 

And to make it as easy as possible, the 38 Degrees staff team have linked up with our friends at plastic pollution campaigning organisation City to Sea and together we’ve gone through the consultation line by line - pulling out the important questions and turning them into a simple survey. Now all you need to do is complete it! 

38 Degrees supporters have a brilliant track record of feeding into consultations like this. Just a few months ago, tens of thousands of us shared our views about the government’s plans to privatise Channel 4 - and the government has been forced to delay the plans! [3] 

So, John, can you share your views about banning Single Use Plastic items by completing this short survey? We'll then send your answers to the government team running the consultation!

SHARE MY VIEWS

Thanks for being involved,