(And the latest good news 30.05.12. : Tweet from RSPB - "Defra have dropped their plans for buzzards. We are delighted. And all of you that stepped up should be massively proud - WELL DONE Pls RT"
ORIGINAL BLOG POST -
This has made me really mad. It is not just the threat to Buzzards, which is bad enough, but the sub-text. The pleasure of the many is to be sacrificed for the pleasure of the few. Defra's £400K feels just like another banker's bonus.
In an argument there is more than one side, which is why, although I oppose a cull of Badgers in the interest of controlling bovine TB, I can see that farmers have a legitimate concern in that there is a threat to their livelihoods. Buzzards or any other bird of prey don't pose the same kind of threat to the pheasant shooting business.
The proposal is daft on many counts and the RSPB have put the case more eloquently than I can. Above all else the proposal is immoral and brings with it more than a whiff of sleaze.
I don't often write to my MP, but here is what I have sent. Feel free to copy it if you want. Do something. Be articulate and make your voice heard through non-violent means.
Dear Mr Carmichael
As one of your constituents I am appalled by DEFRA's proposal to allocate nearly £400k to a trial programme to control Buzzards on behalf of pheasant shoots.
Buzzards are one of the British conservation success stories and any attempt to imprison them, destroy their nests, or relocate them is irresponsible and unnecessary. It sends entirely the wrong message to the next generation about wildlife conservation.
And of course it will have little effect. I quote Martin Harper of the RSPB:
"So how many pheasants do buzzards eat? An independent report for the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC) found that on average only 1-2% of pheasant poults were taken by birds of prey. This is tiny compared to the numbers which die from other causes, like disease or being run over on the road (which accounts for about 3 million pheasants a year).
Even if predation levels are higher in a few instances, there are plenty of legal, non-contentious techniques for reducing predation, which don’t involve destroying nests or confining wild birds to a life spent in captivity. Scaring devices, visual deterrents, more vegetation and diversionary feeding of buzzards could all make a difference, if done well. A few years ago we endorsed a BASC produced guidance note advising gamekeepers on how to reduce bird of prey predation using some of these techniques.
And is capturing buzzards likely to work? If you swat a wasp, but leave a pot of sticky honey open to the air, it won't be long before another wasp takes its place. The same is true of buzzards. Two gamekeepers previously employed on the Kempton estate in Shropshire were convicted of, amongst other things, illegally killing buzzards in 2007. They had killed over 100 buzzards in less than six months in one small part of Shropshire. As soon as one buzzard was removed, another (ill-fated) buzzard took its place. "
I hope you will pass on my comments to Mr Benyon MP, the minister responsible.
Yours sincerely
Giles Diggle
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