NE publishes GL28 and GL31

Mark 2 Comments

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/canada-geese-licence-to-kill-or-take-them-for-public-health-and-safety-gl28

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/799914/gl31-woodpigeons-prevent-serious-damage-to-crops.pdf

I suspected there would a last-minute, late-Friday-before-the Bank-Holiday-weekend spasm of action from NE, and there was.

Wild Justice and its lawyers will be looking carefully at these.

[registration_form]

2 Replies to “NE publishes GL28 and GL31”

  1. Ay, well, there’s nothing like a long Bank Holiday weekend for going out and killing some wildlife.

  2. I notice that these new general licences do not give a taxonomic authority for the names of the birds concerned – just the usual common name and a scientific name. For at least four, carrion crow (Corvus corone), Canada goose (Branta canadensis) [both already issued], herring gull (Larus argentatus) and lesser black-backed gull (Larus graellsii) there have been recent taxonomic changes that mean that the scope of the scientific names could be unclear. If an English farmer shot a hooded crow (was Corvus corone cornix, now generally Corvus cornix) under a general licence, would that be an offence? When I were a lad, yellow-legged gull was part of the herring gull group. Etc. This might be mostly a detail, but while they are tightening up the rest of the phrasing (the licences have a section of definitions), it would not harm to specify in the licence exactly what is meant by the names they use, probably by reference to an appropriate up-to-date authority.

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