I do wonder about vets sometimes.
In the Sunday Telegraph a ‘report’ (which has not yet been published) is featured under the sensational headline ‘The extinct species back from the brink and causing mayhem’.
Crikey! Which species are these?
Well, the article doesn’t give any actual examples of mayhem being caused unless you count the red kite which has now ‘become dominant’ in many parts of the country and ‘is threatening songbird populations’. Ahhh – I detect a strong whiff of tosh!
The report comes from the Veterinary Association for Wildlife Management, whose secretary, Dr Lewis Thomas, is also the author of an article entitled ‘The welfare case for hunting’ which points out that ‘Hunting is also unique in that, unlike all other methods of control, it is selective and will catch up the weak and the sick in direct relation to their degree of debility. Thus the health and vigour of the population is maintained by a process of natural selection.’. It was so remiss of us, almost cruel, not to start chasing songbirds around with packs of hounds after the red kite was persecuted to extinction in England.
The Telegraph article says the report says that reintroduced species can ‘spread disease’ and so they might, which is why such projects are licensed and undertaken with veterinary advice and guidance. I look forward to the VAWM’s views on the annual import of millions of non-native pheasants into the country and then their release into the countryside.
I hope to track down a copy of this report at the Game Fair this week.
I can’t find coverage of this important report elsewhere. I sometimes wonder about vets but can always rely on Telegraph newspapers.
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SINCE EVERY REPORTER IS NOW SCARED OF HACKING, they have run out of articles to print. Poor brainless s*ds.
I see this paper will be released at the Game Fair tomorrow. Perhaps you should visit their display and have a chat, Mark. I’d like to be a fly on the wall for that one. The Telegraph header identifies the Red Kite as Sea Eagle and vice versa and also says that the Osprey is a re-introduced species, not too well researched then.
Enjoy your day(s) at the Game Fair. I expect you’d get a good welcome at many of the displays especially the RSPB.
Richard
It is quite clear that this group of vets should stick to treating sick animals as they obviously have little or no understanding of the protocols involved in reintroduction, the species involved or basic ecology. Oh have you seen the latest tosh on the SGA website Mark?
Paul
http://www.scottishgamekeepers.co.uk/content/gamekeepers-are-unsung-heroes-conservation you mean this?
“Nearly 1000 gamekeepers from all parts of Scotland, England and Wales took part in the study, and over 80% of respondents reported having kestrels, buzzards, sparrowhawks, barn and tawny owls on their patch.”
No mention of hen harrier I see!
I don’t appreciate the antagonistic nature of that little article. I’ve met a certain scientist from a certain game industry linked wildlife charity who was similarly scathing about the RSPB (Mark might know who I mean). Nice guy in his own bullish way and no doubt a hero for some farmland wildlife, but to hear him talk about RSPB nature reserves you’d think they were devoid of value and life just because they didn’t have many grey partridges! (I bet there are more than he might imagine but you might as well criticise an arable farmer for not having any avocets….)
Whilst it may be that many game estates provide benefits for other wildlife (and plenty of gamekeepers care deeply about it too, I know from one or two I have met this summer), if the market for shooting vanished overnight the estates would close, and the keepers would have to leave. The real heroes of conservation are, to my mind, the reserve staff for RSPB and others who manage land purely for wildlife, rather than its commercial potential, and then unlike most shooting estates open up the land for anyone and everyone to enjoy – a real public service.
Or perhaps the farmers who provide great wildlife habitat for its own sake, because they love nature, not as an accidental benefit of providing cover for an introduced alien species!
Anyway, mini-rant over and sorry for taking up a lot of space. This kind of stuff upsets me as our wildlife would be much better of if those of us who loved it whether gamekeeper, birder or whomever could stop creating petty divisions (I’m not helping here I’m sure) and try to work together!
…if I am not greatly mistaken, Ospreys were not generally reintroduced, as the article intimates – they made their own way back to UK (Scotland) in the 1950’s, despite huge persecution from egg-collectors and game-keepers. (they were introduced to Rutland water more recently though).
I do not like the timbre of language used in the article, particularly such unqualified and unscientific tosh as “over successful” – nothing can be over successful, population dynamics do not allow this to happen – such statements are merely human and subjective and take no account of the way population cycles limit species reproduction.
As for this crass statement, well, it beggars belief! “Hunting is also unique in that, unlike all other methods of control, it is selective and will catch up the weak and the sick in direct relation to their degree of debility. Thus the health and vigour of the population is maintained by a process of natural selection.” So, hunters actually know that their target is weak or sick prior to shooting it and thus extrapolate that shooting is natural selection…?
Paradoxically or perhaps in this case, ironically, hunting is ‘selective’, very selective indeed, particularly when the largest stag with the biggest rack of ‘trophy’ antlers is selected, and then shot! That doesn’t sound like survival of the fittest to me, quite the contrary!
It’s a tragedy that this rubbish is going to be read by just the people likely to perpetuate such ignorance and myth.
Sadly, none of the remotely surprises me.
Michael – belatedly – welcome to this blog! I think the article dashes about from an England to a UK focus – so, of course, you are right that ospreys got back to Scotland under their own steam, and actually got back to England under their own steam in 2001 in the Lake District, but they have, of course, been reintroduced to southern England at Rutland Water. Great comments!