Following the victory of Wild Justice last week, a legal victory not a campaigning one, I have written a series of blogs about different aspects of the subject from the can of worms of non-compliance with existing legal requirements on registering captive gamebirds to the implications for other jurisdictions, and from the details of what…
Category: REARED GAMEBIRDS
Gamebirds victory (16) – the 500m myth
DEFRA Secretary of State, George Eustice, says; The negative effects of gamebird releases on protected sites tend to be localised with minimal or no effects beyond 500m from the point of release. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/defra-concludes-its-review-into-releasing-gamebirds-on-and-around-protected-sites I wonder why Mr Eustice thinks that. Might it be because that’s what was in a DEFRA Witness statement made by an…
Gamebirds victory (15) – the 500m buffer zone.
There is a narrative developed by DEFRA and Natural England that the Madden and Sage review, and the bits that they didn’t look at, all combine to mean that any impacts of gamebird releases are limited to, and are known to be limited to, 500m from release sites. This is not true. It’s not true…
Gamebirds victory (14) – NE’s got some work to do
If you read the DEFRA witness statement (paras 11-21) you’ll find that Natural England has a lot of work to do checking sites before DEFRA can be sure that gamebird releases are not wrecking our best wildlife sites. If only there were a regular and frequent programme of assessing important wildlife sites which was properly…
Gamebirds victory (13) – the complex business of licensing
In the previous blog I explained that DEFRA will put Pheasant and Red-legged Partridge on Schedule 9 of the WIldlife and Countryside Act – as non-native problem species. However, they will do other things too. DEFRA intends to limit the operation of the Schedule 9 listing to areas that are important wildlife sites or within…
Gamebirds victory (12) – Schedule 9, WCA
In order to avoid getting a whipping in court yesterday and today, DEFRA had to concede last week on the necessity to assess the impacts of the release of tens of milllions of non-native gamebirds on protected wildlife sites. That is what Wild Justice asked for and that is what we got. Because DEFRA has…
Gamebirds victory (11) – what happens next?
Today, in a series of blog posts, I will concentrate on what needs to happen next as a result of the Wild Justice legal victory. But, since there is a lot of nonsense being written about the Wild Justice legal victory, here is the sealed court order which ended the case and which is based…
Gamebirds victory (10) – DEFRA turned its back on studying these things
As long ago as 2014 I asked DEFRA: ‘What research has been done that addresses the range of ecological costs and benefits of rearing and releasing Pheasants for shooting? Does native wildlife benefit or is it harmed by Pheasant shooting? Does Defra have plans to do any such research?‘ https://markavery.info/2014/03/31/letter-mp-response-defra-2/ and they replied: ‘Defra has…
Gamebirds victory (9) – lead, another ignored factor.
Comments Off on Gamebirds victory (9) – lead, another ignored factor.
Lead ammunition was part of the Wild Justice legal challenge to DEFRA but DEFRA (and Natural England) tended to ignore it. I can see why, it’s a very difficult issue for them politically though very clear biologically. Just as readers of this blog think that Waitrose should deal with the issue of lead in the…
Gamebirds victory (8) – an unproven but potentially important impact
Here’s a dead Pheasant. Something will come along and eat it (although since it is surrounded (for a distance of far more than 500m in all directions) by grouse moor the density of scavenging birds and mammals might be quite low. A good bet for the destination of quite a lot of roadkill gamebirds is…