Sometimes, we despair.
This is one of those times.
From yesterday’s Farming Life, written by Dan Kinney:
“At last I see some green shoot of common sense about hen harriers, that most vicious of raptors which, when hunting, quarter moorland like pointers or setters, a mere couple of feet above the heather……..”
Full article here
We could mock the author, we could bemoan the lack of education, we could laugh at the 19th Century attitude, we could try to reason against the prejudice. We could do all these things, but the most useful thing we can do is to join the Golden Eagle Trust, a charitable organisation dedicated to the restoration of Ireland’s lost birds. This is the group behind the successful reintroduction to the Irish Republic of the golden eagle, the white-tailed eagle and the red kite, and who are working hard to protect other species, including the beleaguered hen harrier.
Twenty Euros will pay for a year’s membership and help this small team to continue their vitally important work. And God knows it’s needed. Please support them and buy your membership online here
Photo from Peter McAllister (@petermc0104)
Raptor Persecution UK 
I also despair, time and time again, how ignorant this man and people like him are,their minds focused on just two things, the extermination of anything that MAY EVEN SLIGHTLY take some of their money away from them and their hatred of Raptors. What a pathetic and sad bunch people of his ilk are.
I am very quickly getting fed up with the hunting and shooting people using the term countryman.
Why is this man using a picture of himself holding a gun his article is all you need to know which side he is on.
Talking of vicious killers, I presume that shotgun or rifle he’s holding is just for show and how nature intended. Unlike those vicious raptor types who’ve armed themselves with hooked beaks and sharp claws to go about their slaughter of anything that moves in the countryside.
What a boring, wandering bit of drivel – starts about harriers, forgets what he’s ranting about and ends up listing fishing tallies! I am glad to learn that at least one farmer is standing up for the voles though: re buzzards: “It is not preyed upon. On my farm in the past 10 years, I have lost all the snipe, redshank, oystercatchers, woodcock, lapwing and a great many voles.” Who’d have thought it, a man who has probably shot all his own woodcock and snipe, he is now sad at the lack of voles. I hear rumours he may soon be opening up a rabbit sanctuary……
Strange about the moles, can’t understand it, maybe it’s something to do with the attitude that to prove that they’re renowned big game hunters they’ll kill a few Moles and display them on a gibbet for all to see. Pity you can’t post photo’s on this blog, I’ve got a nice one showing 15 dead moles hung on a fence wire and another one showing a mole caught in a mole trap, such mighty prowess is mind boggling.
@Nirofo 15? You must have missed the recent Lammermuir mole-ageddon:
It just shows how low these people will stoop, their minds must operate on nothing more than Neanderthal base hunter killer instinct.
By the way, how did you manage to post the photo on here ?
This has gone SO FAR BEYOND THE PALE that it’s out there with the madmen, despots, and dangerously ill-educated of this world. If Mr Kinney is representative of the sort of people who roam our countryside carrying guns, one will have to be most circumspect when taking a walk these days !
The picture with a gun said it all. Kinney is a ‘countryman’ who obviously gets great excitement and enjoyment out of shooting and destroying all natural living creatures, that inhabit the countryside.
Thank you to this article, this narrow viewed individual has allowed me to find out about Golden Eagle Trust. I can now support them and follow their good work and I can share so others like me can follow and support them. To this individual who’s view is as narrow as the sight on his gun I say, lower you gun occasionally take in the wider view and maybe you could see the world in a different light. Change your ways because opinion of your kind is turning and you may find yourself and your ways on the endangered list….. Hopefully in my lifetime!
Guys, I mean this seriously: If you need some pro-Wildlife cartoons, contact me. Just finished a voluntary job, so I´ve got time for another. Can´t join the Golden Eagle Trust until I´ve got news about job etc. But I would really like to do something for the wildlife. About the bad publicity: Please don´t let it spoil Christmas and the new year. Happy midwinter & a wildlife-friendly 2015! cvonderd@gmail.com Caroline from Germany
Queen Victoria has a lot to answer for! I have always hated the attitude of townies in their criticism of country bumpkins but sadly they are right when it comes to the view of bumpkins dim hatred of nature.
I put it down to ingesting too much lead. Much the same as uncontrollable youngsters in towns, they have breathed in lead for all or most of their lives.
These gun men are the ‘vicious killers’ in the countryside and the photo over the article heading is very apt! How I despise these self-styled, so-called ‘countrymen’ – their ignorance about ecology and balance in nature, coupled with a clear lack of empathy with the natural world around them always astounds me. Also, when they make their constant attacks on the RSPB about income, they need to recognise the fact of huge numbers of individuals who support the work of the RSPB and contribute financially to their projects – unlike the many landowners and shooting estates who do receive very substantial payments from the public purse!
He is promoting a criminal activity… But perhaps that is legal in Ireland… Freedom of speech etc.?
Hen Harriers kill, just enough, to exist and have done presumably for many centuries but “people” with shotguns, over the last couple of hundred years, kill for what? – what they perceive as fun/sport, or money so who are the “vicious killers” really?
What a hypocritical idiot Kinney is , calling the Hen Harrier a vicious killer, the Harrier has to kill to eat, where as Kinney and his cronies kill for fun.
Certainly not the most impressive bit of journalism – all very Irish – but jumbled up with some random bits from Scotland and the UK.
“If only countrymen (in the truest sense of that word) were permitted to control many species of birds and mammals and thus create a desirable balance of nature, the countryside would be a more interesting and ecologically more sustainable environment for all to enjoy.”
The above is a direct quote from this article, but in turn quoted from elsewhere. Interesting that mammals are included there too. As far as I’m aware, most mammals can already be destroyed for pest control/environmental reasons. Maybe it’s time we extended that list to include the most destructive mammal there is which damages the balance of nature……………… And no, I don’t mean badgers and beavers.
It all started with the Victorians, and its really all gone on ever since. What a sad article.
It just bugs me that clowns like that are allowed to show so much disdain at “the public interest” and expect the public to still shovel cash into their pockets. Irish farmers should be particularly grateful to the EU for keeping them in house and home, you would think they would be bending over backwards to show some gratitude.
After you have given consideration to joining the Golden Eagle Trust, why not write a letter to the EU pointing out the way Irish Farmers are treating specially protected raptors and ask why— seeing as the land is not in good agricultural and environmental condition—- are Irish farmers still receiving subsidies???