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Natural England, who issue the General Licences under which we shoot pests species, are conducting an extensive consultation on proposed changes to these licences. All responses have to be with them by 19th May. Some of the proposed changes will seriously limit the shooting that you currently enjoy if they are allowed to go through. We cannot rely on others to protect our sport and I urge you to submit a response before the deadline date.


The consultation document (48 pages) and response form (35 pages) are available on the Natural England web site. The Countryside Alliance have the most comprehensive response which is available on their web site but BASC are not very helpful as they seem to be simply saying “no” to everything without explaining why.


While some of the questions are irrelevant I have responded to about 30 of them! They range from taking the jackdaw off the general licence, tagging all larcen traps, reporting all birds killed under the general licence, Natural England being able to prohibit you from using the general licence if you fail to comply with any conditions (appointing themselves judge and jury), and, worst of all, requiring you to prove that frightening the birds away does not work before shooting them. So how could that work when roost shooting or decoying? Defra tried to introduce this latter condition in 2005 and had to back-track after the outcry that followed.


I believe that the more responses they get the more they are likely to see common sense, especially if those responses are from reasonable people with experience of putting the general licences in practice in the real world. Please do your best to influence it so that we get a sensible outcome.

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Guest stevo

this is taken off the Natural England's website , 1 hr ago

Wildlife myths

1. Natural England is introducing a new licence condition requiring farmers and land managers to scare off wood pigeons damaging their crops before they can resort to shooting

 

This is not true. Firstly we are not introducing a new condition. Proposal 31 on the General and Class Licence Consultation is to amend the wording of the existing condition which requires licence users to have considered legal, non-lethal measures before they rely on a General Licence to kill one of the protected species listed under the licence. The new wording has a similar expectation that the licensee will have considered “reasonable and appropriate steps to resolve the problem, such as scaring and proofing”.

That wording does not require farmers and land owners to try to scare off pest and other species before resorting to shooting. It is reasonable to conclude that, in most cases, scaring can only be part of a control strategy to deal with issues like crop damage. Accordingly, we don’t expect users to trial non-lethal methods first if experience or best practice suggests that these methods would be ineffective in tackling the problems caused by species such as wood pigeons.

In the same way, licensees are not required to wait until damage has occurred before taking action. In most instances where there is the potential for damage – and the potential for wood pigeons to cause damage is well known - it is reasonable and appropriate for farmers and land managers to use licensed measures to reduce the risk of serious damage occurring. The licence wording recognises this and does not mandate a “shoo before you shoot” approach and there is no expectation that scaring measures must be taken each time or immediately before any shooting.

 

 

http://www.naturalen...ythbusting.aspx

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just received e-mail from n.g.o. about this today saying that natural England are proposing to take jay and jackdaw off general licence, n.g.o. sent a letter of reply raising their concerns about this proposal.also a link to natural Englands e-mail address so we could voice our own objections it only takes a few miniutes to reply your concerns the more people who send them their concerns on this matter the better.or this could end up being passed through we only have till the 14th of may to get replys in I think sure someone will put this right if date wrong but not far out so come on guys get typing.

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If I’ve missed another thread where this proposed change to the G.L.s is being discussed more, please point me to it.

 

Regarding the below N.E. “setting the record straight ..” statement on their website

 

Wildlife myths

1. Natural England is introducing a new licence condition requiring farmers and land managers to scare off wood pigeons damaging their crops before they can resort to shooting

This is not true. Firstly we are not introducing a new condition. Proposal 31 on the General and Class Licence Consultation is to amend the wording of the existing condition which requires licence users to have considered legal, non-lethal measures before they rely on a General Licence to kill one of the protected species listed under the licence. The new wording has a similar expectation that the licensee will have considered “reasonable and appropriate steps to resolve the problem, such as scaring and proofing”.

That wording does not require farmers and land owners to try to scare off pest and other species before resorting to shooting. It is reasonable to conclude that, in most cases, scaring can only be part of a control strategy to deal with issues like crop damage. Accordingly, we don’t expect users to trial non-lethal methods first if experience or best practice suggests that these methods would be ineffective in tackling the problems caused by species such as wood pigeons.

In the same way, licensees are not required to wait until damage has occurred before taking action. In most instances where there is the potential for damage – and the potential for wood pigeons to cause damage is well known - it is reasonable and appropriate for farmers and land managers to use licensed measures to reduce the risk of serious damage occurring. The licence wording recognises this and does not mandate a “shoo before you shoot” approach and there is no expectation that scaring measures must be taken each time or immediately before any shooting.

 

 

 

This is all well and good but the actual wording of the proposed revision, given in their ‘Assessment of Regulatory Impact’ document, is as follows:-

 

Proposal: Amend the wording of the following condition

From:

"In respect to the species listed at paragraph 2(i)(a) above, this licence can only be relied on in circumstances where the authorised person is satisfied that appropriate legal methods of resolving the problem such as scaring and proofing are either ineffective or impracticable"

To:

“In respect to the species listed at paragraph 2(i)(a) above, this licence can only be relied on in circumstances where the authorised person has taken reasonable and appropriate steps to resolve the problem, such as scaring and proofing”.

 

 

To me, this appears to specifically say you have to have tried other methods first, which raises the question how often and how recently did you try scaring; Once in your lifetime and it didn’t work; Once this year and it didn’t work; Once that morning, before you started shooting, and it didn’t work.

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