Good morning!
We try to avoid weekend newsletters but this week has been action-packed so there are things to tell you. But you should expect another newsletter on Monday morning on a new subject and probably another later next week too. Busy, busy, busy!
This newsletter touches on the Westminster Badger debate (on Monday afternoon - seems like a long time ago now), an excellent result on general licences in Wales (on Thursday), a no-show consultation on general licences from Northern Ireland (every day this week), news on DAERA's intentions on a Badger cull in Northern Ireland (Thursday) and, just for interest, a quite sensible analysis of Wild Justice from someone in the shooting community. We'll also give you a heads-up here on things that are happening next week - because that will be busy too.
Very good news on general licences in Wales: last Saturday we flagged up the recommendations that Natural Resources Wales staff had made to their board about general licences. Those recommendations were approved by the NRW Board by 6 votes to 3 on Thursday afternoon. These represent a massive win for Wild Justice (including all our supporters who funded our legal challenge and who responded to the consultation paper). Magpie, Jay and Jackdaw will not be able to be killed under general licences for the alleged purpose of nature conservation in future. Also, the single remaining species covered by the NRW General Licence GL004, the Carrion Crow, will only lawfully be killed in 7 months of the year and not 12 months. There are some other important refinements to this licence and probably sensible ones to other NRW general licences. See our blog on the subject - click here.
There were over 600 responses to the consultation on general licences - we reckon a high proportion of those responses were from Wild Justice supporters. You were a part of this victory - thank you.
Please excuse us for taking such delight in this result, but it has been a lot of work for a tiny organisation like Wild Justice to campaign and take legal action over several years. The shooting industry said that our progress in our legal challenge was a defeat but they aren't being so brash now. As a NRW staff member said, in introducing the paper, the fact that Wild Justice did not persuade the court that the licences were unlawful didn't mean that we hadn't made a lot of good points that should be addressed. We thank and congratulate NRW staff and most of their Board in ensuring that Wales now has the best general licences in the UK. Time for England, Scotland and Northern Ireland to catch up!
Lest you think we are going soft, let us point out that NRW could have got to this sensible position quicker and with a bit more enthusiasm and good grace. Also, one of their Board who spoke against the change was, it seemed, mourning the passing of the ability to kill Magpies to protect Blackbirds on his farm - he should be told that wasn't lawful under the old licences anyway! And the Board member, from a farming background, who criticised the paper for neglecting the views of the rural community needs to realise that science applies to us all, and those who farm need to justify their views with rather more hard evidence than 'I live in the countryside you know'.
Westminster Hall Badger debate: On Monday afternoon the Wild Justice petition which gained over 106,000 signatures on ceasing Badger shooting was debated in Westminster Hall. The crux of our petition - that shooting free-running Badgers in the dark is inhumane - was not properly addressed, and certainly not by the DEFRA minister Jo Churchill MP. We'll be following this up, and may ask you to do the same. It's almost as though this government is blind to inhumanity. See our blog for a link to the transcript of the debate and our thoughts on it - click here.
We'd like to thank our friends in other conservation organisations, especially the Badger Trust, for help in amassing signatures while the petition was live and in briefing MPs in the run up to the debate. But this matter would not have had this publicity if over 106,000 individuals had not signed the petition - we thank all of you.
Northern Ireland general licence consultation: the Department of Environment, Agriculture and Rural Affairs in Northern Ireland still haven't published their consultation on general licences following our successful legal challenge - see here. Maybe they have been waiting to see what happened in Wales first - if so, they have even more catching up to do now. We shall read the consultation with interest and have chased DAERA for a new date for its publication.
Northern Ireland Badger cull signalled to go ahead: DAERA announced that they intend to go ahead with a Badger cull in Northern Ireland based on shooting of Badgers - see here. We have been expecting this, and preparing for it. Further news next week. Over 1000 people have supported our crowdfunder which will fund a legal challenge against this cull - click here.
What they say about us: in a surprisingly open-minded article, former gamekeeper David Whitby says a few things about Wild Justice on the rather conservative Guns on Pegs website.
Here's a long quote: 'Though both L.A.C.S. and H.S.A. still exist, it is a new pressure group that is focused upon game shooting, Wild Justice. Fronted by Chris Packham, Dr Mark Avery and Dr Ruth Tingay, these are not just well-meaning amateurs who are passionate about a furry, cute looking fox. Rather they are informed naturalists with the public ear. Their argument that sixty million gamebirds released have a detrimental impact upon the environment is hard to refute. The claim that the product of dead game is worthless, and supply far exceeds demand is nothing short of true. That rearing conditions have resulted in a disease-ridden stock causing the death of hundreds of thousands of gamebirds and a use of antibiotics in a scale that is shameful is beyond doubt.'.
That's more complimentary than we are accustomed to see and he didn't even touch on raptor persecution or lead ammunition here. We aren't 'focused' on game shooting as our work on Badgers, glyphosate use and support for Beaver reintroductions (amongst other things) makes abundantly clear, and Wild Justice isn't 'fronted' by the three of us, it is run by the three of us, including doing most of the work, but let's not quibble. The whole article is worth a read - click here.
Next week: next week we will tell you of a new initiative, meet Waitrose and tell them of the latest analyses of the lead levels in their meat, have a Wild Justice board meeting, finalise our response on Badger culls in Northern Ireland and, no doubt, a whole bunch of other things.
That's it for our 102nd newsletter. Please consider forwarding this email to a few of your friends and they can subscribe, for free, by clicking here. Have a good weekend!
Wild Justice (Directors: Mark Avery, Chris Packham and Ruth Tingay).
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