BASC Chief Executive, Richard Ali, wrote to the BBC yesterday (presumably to BBC Wildlife magazine). It can’t really be a letter that BASC expects to be published because it looks thrown together, is badly argued (though is very argumentative), is long and rambling, and has a split infinitive in its first line. Ali is complaining…
Category: LEAD AMMUNITION
RSPB does something
The RSPB included a note in its April e-newsletter asking its members to sign Rob Sheldon’s e-petition on banning toxic lead ammunition. this was wittily called ‘Last chance to take the lead’. If this heralds a month of frantic activity on this subject from the RSPB, whose agreed policy is that there should be a…
That FSA response on lead
Yesterday’s response from the FSA on lead was very helpful. Here is what they wrote (in blue) and comments from me: There is no agreed safe level for lead intake. Independent scientific expert groups across the European Union advise that exposure to lead should be reduced as far as possible. You can’t get much…
Just like buses
Responses from the FSA are a little like buses – you don’t see one for a while and then two come along together. This one was very rapid though, in response to an email to them this morning I got this this afternoon. It’s in response to this morning’s blog. Here it is, in full:…
Well, well – what a coincidence
Following my blog of this morning about the appointment of Heather Hancock as Chair of the FSA I’ve received a communication from the FSA – in response to questions I posed to them when their Board meeting was broadcast live on the internet in late January. Although their response is not a complete answer to…
FSA Chair-designate is married to grouse moor (owner)
Congratulations to Heather Hancock on her appointment, from April Fools’ Day, as Chair of the Food Standards Agency. The appointment involves a time commitment of 2 to 3 days per week and remuneration at a rate of £60,000 per annum. The Food Standards Agency is a non-ministerial government department (as is Forestry Commission), which says…
Also in BB this month
As well as the good news for me in the March British Birds, there is a more substantial piece of news (as well as lots of other good stuff): a report by Prof Ian Newton FRS on the lead ammunition debate. At the beginning of his concluding remarks Ian writes ‘My own view is that…
Liz Truss – why are you suppressing the scientific evidence on lead?
It wouldn’t surprise me if Defra made a shockingly bad decision and failed to reduce the environmental risks of lead ammunition – they have been subject to energetic lobbying from the shooting industry and rather limp pleas from the two environmental NGOs who should be making the running (WWT and RSPB). It is clear that…
Ban toxic lead ammunition
Rob Sheldon’s e-petition to ban toxic lead ammunition is making progress without much help from WWT and practically none from the RSPB. It recently passed 12,000 signatures and also received a response from Defra which does not mention that the report of the Lead Ammunition Group, which was submitted in June 2015, still has not…
Guest blog – Ban toxic lead ammunition by Rob Sheldon
Rob Sheldon is a freelance conservationist. He has worked in nature conservation for almost 20 years, including 12 years with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). Since 2013, he has been the Chairman of the Ornithological Society of the Middle East, The Caucasus and Central Asia (OSME). Most recently he has worked…