Defra plans to shoot buzzards

[seadogg]

It is planned to shoot buzzards and their nests in response to claims from the pheasant shooting industry that they kills pheasants. This is an outrageous reaction to the loss of a tiny proportion of the millions of Pheasants released for sport.

Have a look at;

http://www.rspb.org.u...-to-imprison-buzzards

If you feel strongly please write to your MP so that your feeling can be passed on.

[Cetti]

This will not happen, seadogg, as too many of us will lobby our MP's and bombard them with emails (I hope!),so eventually this ludicrous plan will be reversed. Seeing Buzzards circling over our homes or out in the country and that wonderful call is such a joy that it's unthinkable that this will be just a memory - just to appease wealthy shooters with nothing better to do!

[wolf63]

If this goes into operation what next? Will all predators be eradicated? As soon as humans start meddling in things that they know nothing about they make a total mess.

[gness]

Now this is one time I will stand up and be counted with every bit of strength and energy I can muster.

[rojash]

"pheasant shooting industry that they kills pheasants"
Following that logic, DEFRA should be shooting pheasant shooters.

[lady-janine]

with rojosh on that. while we are out and about with our guns can we shoot defra, or would be classed as not p&c? or humane? or something?

[seadogg]

Thanks for the thoughtful answers everybody. In my part of the country there have been too many cases of the poisoning of birds of prey which have evolved as a part of the local ecology . Now a government department to be involved in this persecution of raptors. Not with my bl***y taxes!

[gness]

Seadogg. I live near Fineshade where Red Kites have prospered. I have the pleasure of seeing them and three buzzards above my garden daily. Once chained myself to a library door as a protest. Would go further for this. I am passionate about birds of prey.

[tenrec]

Defra - dispicable.

[shoota]

Stick my neck out time............
Buzzards are very successful predators, whilst the eco-system can probably stand the current level of population any more and other species begin to suffer.
They don't only target pheasants, this article is playing on the false perception that 'toffs' are protecting their sport - there is an inbuilt antipathy in the now political RSPB against shooting and they seize every opportunity to milk public sentiment. Partridge and all other ground nesting birds are also at risk as well as the small cute mammals we all love.
I love buzzards, I like watching them and would hate to see them reduced to the level they were previously but I also love songbirds small mammals and gamebirds.
I have a house in rural France where, I can virtually guarantee that if I drive to one of the neighbouring villages the vast majorityof birds I will see are corvids and buzzards.
Do you want that situation to arise in the UK?

[NOX]

Excellent post shoota.

[237SJ]

What a load of rubbish. In my experience the greatest killer of pheasants are motorists.

[shoota]

Read this as well:
http://www.defra.gov....ing-to-cull-buzzards/

[shoota]

Should the RSPB be allowed to continue to follow its own political agenda with your subscriptions and contributions?

[gness]

Thank you shoota. Will still keep an eye on Defra. Not an organisation I trust. And of course I will have a "hard" won obelisk to chain myself to.

[shoota]

Thanks for an open mind Gness - how I wish I were a builder.

[gness]

:-)

[237SJ]

I`m curious about something it says on the rspb website. It says that Buzzards are largely carrion-feeders. As a child, I knew Buzzards as Buzzardhawks. Most hawks are birds of prey, not carrion feeders. I remember seeing a Buzzard taking away one of my Gran`s chicks in it`s claws. Maybe there are politics at work but if the rspb and Defra want to improve things in the countryside, they should cull magpies IMO. They do far more damage to the general bird population and peck the eyes out of lambs and sheep that get on their back.

[gness]

I don`t think man can cull just because we don`t approve of certain happenings in nature.

[237SJ]

I think man can cull if it affecting food production and if people want food on their table, culling is a fact of life and farming.

[gness]

Then we have to disagree on that one. Though I`m not sure what it is we have to cull to provide food. That is a genuine question.