The infographic as depicted by LegalJustice can be seen on their site and not shown here. It captures the absurdity of DEFRA's position on whether birds such as Pheasants and Red-legged Partridges are or are not livestock. It seems they are whenever it suits the shooting industry but not when it doesn't.
On 1 January, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs issued a new general licence, GL42, which authorises the killing of certain species of birds (mostly of the crow family), in England, to protect livestock from serious damage. Changes to the wording in that licence in relation to gamebirds, that Wild Justice understands were introduced after pressure from shooting interest groups, attracted public concern (see this article in The Guardian and this from George Monbiot). Last week, after receiving legal advice, Wild Justice sent a formal legal letter to DEFRA as the first stage of a challenge of the lawfulness of GL42. Unless we receive a legally watertight and convincing response to that letter we will proceed to seek permission for judicial review of DEFRA's decision.
Wild Justice said: Any licence authorising killing of wildlife should be clear about when it can be used. DEFRA's GL42 fails that test. In any case, why is DEFRA fiddling with definitions of livestock while wildlife declines?
Our legal challenge has been reported in The Guardian - click here.
For more detail of the murky issues around gamebird releases and general licences see our latest blog - click here.
We will publish more information about the details of our legal challenge soon.
If you like what we are doing, please consider making a donation through PayPal, bank transfer or a cheque in the post - see details here. Sunday, 13 February, is the third anniversary of Wild Justice's public launch and first legal challenge, also on general licences. In that time we have caused considerable reform and revision of these licences but there is still more to do. Our work is funded solely by donations.
Thank you!
Wild Justice (Directors: Mark Avery, Chris Packham and Ruth Tingay).
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