Legal challenge to releasing game birds - Merged Threads

[Novice]

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jul/18/release-of-non-native-game-birds-to-be-challenged-in-court

I'm sure no one saw this coming...

[WestonSalop]

Here we go again...………….

[Yellow Bear]

And also notice that is the Grauniad feeding it!   Left wing class war at it's most obvious

[Mr.C]

Best shoot'em all then

Bring back wolves and european bears I say.

[Yellow Bear]

dual post

Edited July 18, 2019 by Yellow Bear
dual post

[JohnfromUK]

"Sporting Gun" reported this;

Breaking news!
Wild Justice latest challenge

If you thought that Wild Justice was going to go away quietly following the general licence rumpus and legal challenge, think again.

In the five weeks since Defra announced three new general licences (GL34, GL35 and GL36), the campaign group, which consists of scientists Dr Mark Avery and Dr Ruth Tingay, plus Chris Packham, the TV presenter and naturalist, has been preparing its latest campaign to hold the shooting community and sport to account.

Dr Mark Avery told Sporting Gun on June 14 that shooting needed to “clean up its act in many many ways” lest it hasten its own demise. He said Wild Justice would continue to put it under rigorous scrutiny and today we have another indication of that with the announcement of Wild Justice’s crowdfunding initiative and legal challenge to Defra regarding the impact of the release of non-native gamebirds into the countryside and their effect on native wildlife.

Wild Justice confirmed it had sent what is called a pre-action protocol letter to Michael Gove, the environment secretary and that it was aiming to raise the legal costs of over £40,000 via crowdfunding, starting this morning. Leigh Day solicitors are representing the group.

We will endeavour to get reaction from the shooting community over the coming days, but here is what Wild Justice said in its embargoed release, which went live at 10 am today, Thursday 18 July.

Wild Justice says:
Every year 43 million captive-reared Pheasants (and 9 million red-legged partridges) are released into the countryside. The numbers released have increased about 10-fold in the last 45 years and, like most of the rest of the shooting industry’s activities, are not regulated by government. More paperwork is needed to reintroduce native UK species into the countryside for conservation purposes than to release non-native omnivorous birds on a vast scale to fuel recreational shooting.

Gamebird releases and associated shooting are of concern because:
• Pheasants and red-legged partridges eat a wide variety of native plants, invertebrates, reptiles and even small birds and mammals. These impacts must be properly assessed particularly since release numbers are unregulated and increasing.

• One in three released gamebirds are shot for recreation but the rest die of disease, on the roads, from starvation or are killed by predators. This bonanza of prey and carrion feeds the numbers of a range of generalist predators and scavengers. High UK populations of red foxes and carrion crows may affect the numbers of some ground-nesting birds such as curlew and lapwing.

• Gamebirds can carry diseases that affect native wildlife, commercial poultry stocks and people. Pheasants often have high burdens of the ticks that transmit Lyme disease to humans. Millions of live gamebirds are imported into the UK each year for rearing on game farms.

• Pheasants are shot with lead ammunition, the vast majority of which is discharged into the countryside and accumulates. Lead is a poison for wildlife and people.

• The illegal persecution of birds of prey continues at a high level in the UK and over 60% of those convicted of offences are gamekeepers – most of whom will be employed by shooting estates which release pheasants and red-legged partridges

• Pheasant numbers are increasing most rapidly in upland areas where their impacts on heathland wildlife through direct predation (eg of adders and common lizards), through their droppings and browsing affecting sensitive plant communities and through altering predator numbers are of growing concern.

• Gamebirds on country roads cause serious road traffic accidents each year.

• Increasingly, shot gamebirds are being dumped or buried in the countryside because the market for food consumption is saturated but the market for recreational shooting is booming.

• Although the shooting industry claims that management for gamebirds benefits other species there is increasing evidence that they are actually a problem for farmland birds because they compete with them for food resources in winter.

• The density of released pheasants in woodlands is often 10-times that recommended to safeguard invertebrate populations.

• There are very real welfare concerns around the breeding, transport and release of gamebirds including in regard to their importation in their millions from European breeders.

• For all these reasons, and probably many others, Wild Justice believes that gamebird releases ought to be regulated. The Habitats Directive requires the UK to assess ‘plans or projects’ which may affect protected sites of nature conservation importance. There is no doubt in Wild Justice’s mind that the release of 50+ million non-native gamebirds into the countryside is a plan or project which has ecological impacts and which must be assessed.

• Chris Packham, a director of Wild Justice, said: ‘The UK’s shooting industry is one of the least regulated in Europe with no centralised collection of any data. No one knows how many birds are released or shot, whether wild or captive bred. So how on earth can that shooting industry claim to be making informed decisions about sustainable harvesting, stocking or conservation? What is blindingly obvious to anyone with even a basic understanding of natural sciences is that dumping at least 50 million non-native birds into the UK countryside will have a profound effect on its ecology – it’s about time we measured what that effect is.’

• Ruth Tingay, a director of Wild Justice, said: ‘It's worth noting that the 50+ million figure is only a guesstimate, made by the shooting industry six years ago. For all we know there could be 100 million Pheasants and red-legged partridges being let loose in the countryside every year. The fact that the Government doesn't know or care how many are released, and its previous refusal to assess the extent of the environmental damage caused, will come as no surprise to conservationists who have watched this Government put vested interests ahead of wildlife conservation time and time and time again.’

• Mark Avery, a director of Wild Justice, said: ‘Let’s take a step back: if we had never seen a pheasant or red-legged partridge in the countryside and someone suggested releasing over 50 million of these omnivorous non-native gamebirds annually would we just nod it through with no concerns? No! It’s only because this situation has crept up on us through lack of regulatory control that we are in this position. Government has been lax and now Michael Gove must act.’

• Carol Day, solicitor at Leigh Day, said: ‘The aim of the law is to ensure that plans and projects that could have a significant adverse effect on important wildlife sites are properly evaluated before permission is given to carry out the plan or project. Our client is arguing that the scale of gamebird releases and the potential impact on the UK’s most important wildlife sites is such that a process for assessment must now be provided.’

[Yellow Bear]

1 hour ago, Mr.C said:

Bring back wolves and european bears I say.

Some idiots want to  -  but just not down south where they live

[Penelope]

Release English Partridges instead!!

 

Tongue in cheek.

[johnphilip]

Ok so will Canada geese have to have a passport  to come here 😎

[JohnfromUK]

7 minutes ago, johnphilip said:

Ok so will Canada geese have to have a passport  to come here 😎

No - they are Commonwealth, so OK.  But after Brexit if we leave on WTO terms - French partridge will have a tariff.

[Farmboy91]

Let's just hope after the last time round we're all a bit better prepared for WJ's nonsense. Would be nice to see the shooting orgs knock them for 6 this time. 

[David BASC]

Dear All,

see BASC's initial reply here: https://basc.org.uk/blog/press-releases/featured-news/basc-responds-to-wild-justices-latest-challenge/ updates will be on our website as the situation develops

Regards

David

[Papercase]

Article from the guardian here.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jul/18/release-of-non-native-game-birds-to-be-challenged-in-court

 

The twisted three and fan club  are at it again it would seem. Hopefully sense and good science will prevail and it goes the same way as the grouse shooting parliamentary review. 

 

Papercase.

 

 

Edited July 18, 2019 by Papercase
Apologies for the duplicate post!

[old'un]

Not having a go at you David (BASC) but I hardly think that response from BASC is going to worry WJ.

[David BASC]

BASC has instructed lawyers to ensure that if Wild Justice’s latest challenge comes to court then BASC will be recognised as an “interested party”. This will allow BASC to oppose the case being put by Wild Justice, which is deeply flawed.

At the same time BASC has been briefing supportive MPs and Peers, who have raised the issue with Defra Ministers – and received assurances from the government that this legal challenge will be ‘robustly defended.

[old'un]

16 minutes ago, David BASC said:

BASC has instructed lawyers to ensure that if Wild Justice’s latest challenge comes to court then BASC will be recognised as an “interested party”. This will allow BASC to oppose the case being put by Wild Justice, which is deeply flawed.

At the same time BASC has been briefing supportive MPs and Peers, who have raised the issue with Defra Ministers – and received assurances from the government that this legal challenge will be ‘robustly defended.

that's more like it, fighting talk, thank you David

Avery’s full take on non-native birds released into the countryside, David (BASC) your legal team may wish to read this and see what you can pull from it…https://markavery.info/2019/07/18/wild-justice-in-the-news-again-challenging-gamebird-releases/

Edited July 18, 2019 by old'un

[panoma1]

Does this mean it was, and is, illegal to release any species, for whatever reason, not naturally found living in the wild in the UK? 

Would this not include any species sourced from other countries and released into the UK? Species which were formerly, but are no longer found (are extinct) in the wild in the UK?

Would this not include ALL species of flora and fauna, not native to the UK, which have been imported into this country and become established in the wild?.......

Would this not impact on rewilding? And the introduction into the wild of species not (no longer!) native to the UK such as Lynx, Sea Eagles, Red Kite, Beaver etc, etc?

 

[London Best]

Didn’t the Romans first bring the pheasant here?

[old'un]

3 minutes ago, panoma1 said:

Does this mean it was, and is, illegal to release any species, for whatever reason, not naturally found living in the wild in the UK? 

Would this not include any species sourced from other countries and released into the UK? Species which were formerly, but are no longer found (are extinct) in the wild in the UK?

Would this not include ALL species of flora and fauna, not native to the UK, which have been imported into this country and become established in the wild?.......

Would this not impact on rewilding? And the introduction into the wild of species not (no longer!) native to the UK such as Lynx, Sea Eagles, Red Kite, Beaver etc, etc?

 

Good question, why not put it to Avery, link above.

[panoma1]

Can Wild Justice prove that Pheasants didn't roam this country when dinosaurs ruled? If not,  they can't prove the shooting community is not re-introducing a bird formerly native to the UK! Lol!

1 minute ago, old'un said:

Good question, why not put it to Avery, link above.

That's a matter for the legal eagles, I wouldn't **** on Avery, Packham or Tingay, if they were on fire!......Even less give them any hint of a defence ( if this is one?) lol!

[Stonepark]

BASC ready to fight legal challenge
to rearing and releasing gamebirds

 

This morning (18 July) Wild Justice, the crowd-funded extremist anti-shooting campaign, announced that it was writing to Defra to challenge the release of pheasants and partridges on the grounds that these conflicted with the requirements of the Habitats Directive. BASC believes that the Wild Justice case is weak, misinterprets European law and ignores the benefits of shooting to the environment.

We have instructed lawyers that, if any legal action results, BASC should be registered as an 'interested party' to oppose the claim. We have also briefed supportive MPs and Peers, who have spoken to the government and have received assurances that any legal challenge will be "robustly defended".

In a statement issued to the press, Caroline Bedell, BASC’s executive director of conservation, said: “This is another extremist attack on shooting by those associated with the League Against Cruel Sports that ignores the well-documented evidence of the benefits of shooting to conservation and the wider environment.

“The Code of Good Shooting Practice, which sets out the framework for sustainable shooting, includes reference to Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust research which sets out figures for sustainable game bird releasing that do not damage the environment.

“Studies show that well-managed shooting is of benefit to the environment and conservation organisations and the government has acknowledged the benefit of shooting to the environment. For example, shoots maintain 25,000 hectares of cover crops which provide important sources of food and shelter for songbirds, particularly during the winter, and shoots actively manage 500,000 hectares of woodland and 100,000 hectares of copses for the benefit of the environment.

"Shooting influences 14 million hectares of rural land management and almost two million hectares are actively managed for conservation. It is estimated that shooting provides for 3.9 million work days being spent on conservation each year, which is the equivalent of 16,000 full-time conservation jobs.

“Without driven shooting the rural environment, and our economy, would be significantly poorer.”

[bluesj]

In some resects they are right some of the shoots do need to clean up their act, well maybe a bit of a tidy up. Like the disposal of processed carcases that made the news a few times last season. 

[zipdog]

You have to love the extent of BASC’s lobbying.

BASC need to be doing far more to promote our sport and its virtues. Active campaigning, informing and winning public opinion, not just being reactionary to every challenge which is launched against us.

At the moment BASC is no more than a telephone sales company.....

 

RING RING

Shooter : Hello, I would like to be a member of BASC.

BASC: You’ve made the right choice, in additional to our excellent insurance cover we campaign throughout all of the UK and Europe to safeguard the future of shooting. Membership is £80.

Shooter : Ok.

End of conversation.

 

RING RING

BASC: Hello, insurance underwriter please can you insure Mr X incase he shoots anyone.

Insurance underwriter: No problem its £20.

BASC: Excellent.

Feet up and tea break time

 

RING RING

Shooter:  Hello, it appears Wild Justice are challenging our Sport are you going to do something.

BASC: Ok course we are working very hard behind the scenes, please keep an eye on our website for the latest updates.

Shooter: ok. 

 

RING RING

BASC: Hello, are you a Lawyer?

Solicitors: Yep.

BASC: Ah good, its appears a few of our members are getting upset about this Wild Justice group, can you have a look at it for us.

Solicitors: Yep.

BASC: Great I’ll just update our website to say our Lawyers are on the case, thanks. 

BASC: Ow p.s do you have a work experience kid who can knock a quick poster together? 

Solicitors: My 11 year old daughter is on school holidays.........

BASC: Excellent.

 

Feet up tea break time

 

RING RING

Shooter : Hello, I would like to be a member of BASC.

BASC: You’ve made the right choice, in additional to our..................... (Repeat)

Edited July 18, 2019 by zipdog

[B725]

Why keep knocking BASC they and other's do a lot that we don't see we would be a lot worse off without them. 

[JohnfromUK]

3 minutes ago, B725 said:

Why keep knocking BASC they and other's do a lot that we don't see we would be a lot worse off without them. 

+1