DEFRA is consulting on the measures it will introduce to protect sites of nature conservation value from impacts of vast releases of non-native gamebirds.
Wild Justice doesn’t think much of the consultation and is suggesting how the public could respond – click here.
The consultation closes on Monday so a wet weekend might provide an opportunity to find the 40 minutes or so to send in a response. Every response counts for something.
[registration_form]
Responded yesterday using the WJ statements as a sort of template. As somebody that believes alien game bird release should be severely curtailed if not completely banned it is vital we all respond. These birds in high numbers almost certainly do untold damage to our environment directly and indirectly, thus should not be released anywhere near designated nature sites, (IMHO including all SSSIs) unless and until PROVEN otherwise. Shooting such released birds in organised drives has little to do with real sport, or the food chain and is akin to or possibly the same as canned hunting elsewhere. MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD, THIS IS IMPORTANT.
Paul – thanks very much.
Me too and along the same lines. It didn’t take too long to complete the Defra survey and send to them.
I added a final critique “The question Defra needs to address is – how did you let this industry develop at such pace and in such an unregulated way in the first place? 61 million non native birds is one hell of a lot to let loose. The general public have woken up and are watching”.
If 61 million chickens were turffed out into the countryside think of the bird flu risk? Why no concern over the game birds? Why are we content to put our food production at risk without any assessment?
How come the Scottish Government has set up a 1.8-mile (3km) protection zone and a six-mile (10km) surveillance zone around establishments that are found to have birds infected with bird flu. A pheasant rearing farm in Leven has had to haveo14,000 birds slaughtered to stop the spread of avian influenza? Why such large protection and surveillance zones if game birds have such a negligible impact on other birds wildlife and habitats locally?
We go from zero to around ten pheasants in our garden each autumn / winter. The nearest release pen is 1,600m as the crow flies.
I have submitted the consultation with the above information included plus the coordinates of the release pen.
The Wild Justice advice was very useful in helping me fill in the consultation – thank you.
You do know that pheasants breed in the wild don’t you ?
Richard B – you do know that the Pheasants breeding in the wild were originally introduced here don’t you? How many Pheasants would there be in the UKif we stopped releasing them in their tens of millions each year?
I made the additional point the neither the birds, the shoot manager or DEFRA employees are able to follow an invisible 500m line that exists on a map and not on the ground. To avoid errors and vexacious complaints, the outer limit of any buffer should relate to a field boundary, clearly idenfiable on the ground.
Interesting that the ‘protected sites’ are European designations rather than our home-grown SSSIs – considering that the Minister & the Government don’t believe in Europe. Obviously a way of restricting the amount of ‘protected area’ and minimising the impact on pheasant releases, which is likely to be skewed by the fact that woodland SSSIs are likely to be significantly under represented in SACs and SPAs – but over represented in released pheasant shoots.
Lets just release 61 million black and brown rats, every year, too – they’re non-native species, and some people like to shoot them no doubt. (For the avoidance of doubt, that’s irony.)
Thanks Mark,done and sent.Those notes are really useful .Thank You for Everything you do.Regards Bri.