State Of Nature #2

Two days after I attended the launch of the State of Nature report two bits of news broke that made me really angry.

About nine months ago DEFRA announced it was considering a buzzard cull or the removal of nests to reduce numbers. This appeared to be to protect shooting estate interests. There was a public outcry and there followed a government U Turn and the plan was dropped. It came to light that three nests were authorised to be destroyed to protect a grouse shooting estate. The decision was made by Natural England. A body who's remit is to protect the biodiversity of the United Kingdom.

This discovery opened a can of worms. It seems that about 10,000 Lesser Black-Backed Gulls have been destroyed and shot in the name of "preventing water pollution". It will come as no surprise that these were also shot in the vicinity of another shooting estate.

In a nutshell natural England have been sanctioned the destruction of native species to protect a non native birds simply bred robe shot by a select few.

This could not possibly be more wrong. But it is ...

DEFRA is headed by Owen Patterson and Richard Benyon, the later has numerous links with shooting estates, and he has previous. His opposition to the banning of carbofuran, the poison of choice for illegal persecution of raptors, raised a few eyebrows.

All this after a week of depressing news on the state of our wildlife ... I really do despair!