Conservation campaign group Wild Justice has today launched new legal action against DEFRA regarding the release of non-native Pheasants and Red-legged Partridges on sites of high conservation importance.
Wild Justice’s claim is that DEFRA has failed to monitor compliance with General Licence 43 (GL43) which regulates gamebird releases in England and also with the lawfulness of the reissue of GL43 a few days ago.
For further details please read the Wild Justice blog (here) and subscribe to Wild Justice’s free newsletter (here) to be the first to hear about updates on this and on other campaign work.
Raptor Persecution UK 
The lelease and the breeding of raptors on artificial nest sites such as city churches and cathedrals. Of mainly perigrine falcons needs to be brought to an end the country is awash with these birds decimating the wild bird population.
Reply to Mr Brighton.
Yes you are right they should be put back to their own environment as is see them coming across were I live with little birds in their claws and the R.S.P.B. They care more about them than they do about the songbirds. They think it’s funny 😄 for them to kill birds 🐦.
Dave winter
And each of the “songbirds” that you fake concern for consumes countless thousands of invertebrates every year.
You’re both seriously out of your depth here. Maybe you should stick to “Pigeon Weekly” or wherever it is you get your ill-informed ideas from.
So in your humble opinion Dave, exactly where is a peregrines natural environment ?.
“they should be put back to their own environment”
Where is that, then?
“with little birds in their claws and the R.S.P.B.”
They have ‘little birds’ AND the ‘R.S.P.B’ in their claws? Really?
“They think it’s funny 😄 for them to kill birds”
No, they think it is natural. Xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
It’s crule disgusting RSPCA and RSPB Defra Natrual Engaland the government
They are all going to ruin our wildlife
Selling black headed gulls eggs for &£8 to fine diening
The UK birds are on the red list
“It’s crule disgusting RSPCA and RSPB Defra Natrual Engaland the government
They are all going to ruin our wildlife”
How are ‘they’ going to do that, then? Do you have any reasoned argument which you can form into English?
“The UK birds are on the red list”
Sorry, which birds, exactly? Do you mean all UK birds are on the red list?
Not sure what you’re trying to say here, Kelly.
It’s mainly domestic cats that kill our garden and town birds.
If more cats kept indoors or at least in at night this would save many birds.
Exactly.
These birds are butchers also buzzards they kill anything in sight song thrush is nearly gone young hare’s all wildlife decimated by these birds of prey what so special about these birds that they keep protecting them
You must have those infamous Super-Robo-Terminator-Death-Slayer-Buzzards knocking around that I’ve heard about? Ours mainly sit on fenceposts, wall tops or telegraph poles for hours on end, soar about a bit and eat a few rabbits (roadkill or caught) whose numbers are in near plague proportions (thank you, keepers).
That’s when they are not being shot at for absentmindedly gliding over the grouse moor!
Please tell me more about some of your sightings of these Buzzards in action, and all the myriad of prey you have seen them – as you implied – butchering on sight…
I’m not sure where you are living but the rest of the UK’s lagomorph population has been ravaged by VHD and rabbits are no longer a common sight in the countryside.
As for pheasant shoots, DEFRA will continue to turn a blind eye to all game keeping activity eventhough it has been the direct cause of many thousands of housed poultry being infected with HN51 and subsequently destroyed along the border between England and Wales in Montgomeryshire, Powys and Herefordshire. Instead to be seen to be doing something about HN51, DEFRA continue to persecute small scale poultry owners by banning all shows and sales (in England and Wales only), which are essential for the survival of traditional and rare breeds.
“the rest of the UK’s lagomorph population has been ravaged by VHD and rabbits are no longer a common sight in the countryside.”
According to the Animal and Plant Health Agency’s GB Wildlife Disease Surveillance
Partnership quarterly report for April – June 2020: “between the years 1995 and
2018 the rabbit population in Great Britain has declined by 53% and this decline is seen across most regions” and ” it therefore must be considered that the population
decline might be due partly to RHDV, initially to classic RHD and latterly, since 2010, to
RHDV2 infections. Similar declines have been reported in some but not all areas of
continental Europe.”
But in the latest available report April – June 2022 (dominated by avian H5N1 disease) only five Rabbit ‘incidences’ are identified as having died from Rabbit Haemorrhagic Disease.
As far as I can tell, there are no reliable up-to-date figures for the current UK (wild) Rabbit population.
Have a look around Suffolk theres loads
“Have a look around Suffolk theres loads”
Is that a reliable ‘figure’ then?
Another ignorant comment, which is nothing more than hyperbole and falsehood.
https://data.bto.org/trends_explorer/?species=Song+Thrush
You don’t live in the real world, these raptors don’t go out and kill for the fun of it, they kill to survive. It’s ignorant people like you who give these magnificent creatures a bad name. They’re persecuted enough without morons like u adding to the Frey. I sincerely hope your a vegetarian or that would make u a hypocrite x
Do try to comment without the inclusion of bare-faced lies!
There have been no releases of Peregrines by the RSPB, or any other conservation body in the UK. But I suspect that you already know that.
And, if you wish to whine about “artificial nest sites”, then I presume that you also wish to ban the millions of nest boxes used by the “songbirds” that you profess to care about.
“the country is awash with these birds (perigrine falcons) decimating the wild bird population.”
More lies. The UK Peregrine breeding population has declined by 50% since 1995. https://www.bto.org/understanding-birds/birdfacts/peregrine
It’s people like you are so selfish
Every bird needs freedom
I hope your not the killing our birds of prey
Are you joking! The Peregrine falcon is still incredibly rare and the sighting of these beautiful birds would make anybodys day. We know that the the game shooting lobby wants to make all wildlife that even thinks of killing their tame targets extinct, but please bear in mind that the majority people in the Uk love seeing wildlife. As it happens Peregrine falcons should be actively encouraged in Cities as their main prey is ferel pigeons. Other raptors will eat Rabbits etc. The shooting lobby is spreading misinformation about bird life. They are totally ignorant about wildlife anyway, all they want is to kill it. It has been proven in nature reserves that if nature is left to it’s own devices then all birds and wildlife benefit.
I have only ever seen one peregrine in the wild, and I’m 75! Not a townie either.
birds eat each other , Snakes, fish etc., to survive and they have to do this because there’s no alternative. Unlike us who breed, rear and send to the slaughter house all manner of fellow creature for our consumption which we do not need to do but that seems to be considered as just fine. I’m 77 and been a vegetarian most of my life and vegan for some yrs now. There’s so many other things to eat rather than a fellow creature. Respect the birds and stop trying to judge them and oh please, shut down these shoots and leave the birds to sort themselves out.
The killers are not native birds, but those who flood nature with single species just to kill them for sadistic ‘fun’!
Great idea but I expect the people ruling the decision probably enjoy hunting or have investments within the practice, good luck anyway at least it’s been brought to the attention of the nation the more voices the better
Yes, I didn’t know.Dont think DEFRA are the ones to look after wildlife.They should stick to Agriculture.
Wildlife should have its own body.
DEFRA will never be even handed when it comes to dealing with both. Always bias towards the agriculture and countryside economics and not conservation or rewilding.
Never mind the mayhem in the Autumn when hundreds of starving pheasants get run over on roads.
Starving pheasants, were did you get idea from, shoots spend a lot of money on feed like wheat, mazie and high protein pellets and a supply of fresh water.
Hi Martin, as I see it is is pot-luck whether a pheasant poult ends up with a decent adult life for a few months on a well managed estate , or a grim life in which being shot must be something of a relief. Well fed and in good habitat or largely neglected (unless they start straying too much) until needed in unsuitable habitat, all depends on the tendency & business model of estate and integrity of the keeper. Get really unlucky and you may be a pheasant on somewhere like the xxxxx Estate, as seen on YouTube. Until there is a proper framework of laws with proper regulation, it is a lottery in which perpetual borderline hunger to keep them / move them in location, disease and starvation is the fate of far too many released birds up and down the country.
Hazel pheasants get the feed.
“Wildlife should have its own body.”
It does. Natural England. But the last Labour Government changed its terms of reference, and the Tories (and Lib Dems) took advantage of those changes.
The pheasants arnt allways starving,,, the young pheasant chicks sometimes get wet in the very inadequate breeding sheds and die because they are cold and wet.
The problem is if the release of pheasants and partridge does get banned it will be devastating for so many birds of prey you will see a massive drop in Buzzards, Goshawks, Sparrow hawks and Pergrines as they all rely heavily on large bird releases as there is not actually enough prey species for the high numbers of birds of prey.
Alex thats a load of BS.
The population of buzzards and other birds of pray only suffers from this barbaric industry.
They’re being poisoned and killed by the pheasant industry.
Many investigations are currently running.
Pheasants aren’t native and they destroy everything surrounding them when they’re released.
Here in partes of wales there are areas where you can’t drive a mile without hitting a few in season. They destroy crops, gardens and woodlands due to unimaginable numbers being flushed on one go into the environment
Please provide a link to the peer-reviewed evidence that supports this claim. And for your assertion that numbers of raptors are “high”.
“The problem is if the release of pheasants and partridge does get banned it will be devastating for so many birds of prey…”
It is true that the release of so many millions of alien game birds every year has changed the ecology of our countryside. The GWCT released a review of published papers on this at the end of 2021, but – strangely – they do not claim that it benefits raptors at all.
The GWCT say that hedgerows, woodland, songbirds and the effect of predator control are all ‘net ecological benefits’. They say the effect on butterflies and chalk grassland invertebrates is ‘neutral’, but that parasites, diseases, reptile predation and the illegal killing of raptors all represent ‘net negative ecological effects’…
(They qualify this last point by claiming that there is only limited evidence of the illegal killing of raptors, and that it only happens in isolated cases anyway.)
See https://www.gwct.org.uk/media/1251254/Gamebird-Releasing-Report-2021.pdf
The BTO did a similar exercise (2019) and the only general conclusion they found was some evidence of a positive correlation between released game birds and inflated predator numbers (which indicated that predator control was not effective). The problem is that no one knows how many game birds are being released and how many predators are being controlled.
See https://www.bto.org/community/blog/what-effect-might-annual-releases-non-native-gamebirds-be-having-native-biodiversity
The RSPB also did a paper review in 2020, and their findings say that the positive impacts involve the secondary benefits of habitat management, supplementary feeding and legal predator control, while the negative impacts involve the browsing of ground flora, predation of invertebrates, amphibians and reptiles, the use of lead ammunition, illegal persecution of predators, additional food sources for predators and disease transmission to wildlife.
See https://www.rspb.org.uk/globalassets/mason-et-al-2020-rspb-gamebird-review-1-compressed.pdf
Absolutely, Keith.
While there is indeed evidence that Pheasant releases can boost the number of generalist predators, as you say, none (at this time, and to my knowledge) has been published which supports the claim that the same is so for raptors.
Interestingly however, if we take Alex’s opinion (and that’s all it is – subjective opinion) that…
raptors owe their recovery to Pheasant releases…
that there are, indeed “too many especially Sparrow hawks (sic)”…
and his implication that this has a deliterious effect upon the much-cited “songbird” populations…
then the blame for these declines (real or perceived) would lie firmly at the door of the shooting “industry”!
“Hoisted with his own petard”, I believe.
But, back in the real world, let’s have a gander at the truth about Sparrowhawk numbers…
https://data.bto.org/trends_explorer/?species=Sparrowhawk
How about you actually go off your own experiences!!! I actually live in a village where there is a pheasant shoot all the pheasants are well cared for and the village is full of birds of prey there are so many Buzzards, Goshawks, Sparrow hawks, Pergrines, Merlins, Hobbies and Hen Harriers on the moor but since the Buzzard numbers increase about 10 years back most of the kestrels have gone which is sad.
Without this shoot you would not get all these birds of prey in such numbers as there is nothing much for them to eat . Yes some shoots do kill birds of prey but the majority don’t actually and have ironically helped with the spread of these birds by providing easy food for them.
To my knowledge no one has looked into the benefits of shoots to birds of prey but it doesn’t mean to say I’m not right just because some scientific research hasn’t been done on it!!!!! As far as regards bird of prey numbers well you only need to look up into the sky all you see are one bird of prey after another of all species!!!! When I was a kid you never had buzzards where I live or Pergrines, Goshawks or even any sparrow hawks now you have everything and lots of each species too many especially Sparrow hawks which just spend all day hitting your garden feeding station every 20 minutes until they get successful!!! I’m sure I will be proven right in the future when pheasant releasing becomes banned resulting in a decline in bird of prey numbers but of course I’m sure the decline will then be blamed on climate change!!!!!!
Alex, nobody (myself included) can ever completely “win” the point in an argument with themes as passion-inflaming as this one, without recourse to a base of research that would “stand-up” for an airing in say, a House of Commons committee debate. All of our own experiences and anecdotes are valuable but subjective and often geographically localised. You may be living on one of the good estates, another person on one of the bad. But regards using the argument that intensive rear & release operations are good in general for the species you mentioned, that is quite a claim that (although it may be true to your locality) needs backing up by objective research – IF it is to be a foundation to the case FOR intensive rear and release. GWCT (I’ve been following their stuff for 30 years) don’t tend to make this one of their arguments very often, as (in my opinion) it keeps the lid very much open on and in fact spotlights the raptor persecution can of worms!
So you can’t provide a shred of actual evidence for either of your claims, but simply resort to anecdote and opinion masquerading as fact.
Q.E.D.
The fact is that no matter who does the scientific studies they will be biased one way or the other. When all the shoots are stopped and all the gamekeepers are gone who will be to blame when the birds of prey decline? Or they don’t increase? We reley too heavily on scientific studies instead of actually seeing the world through our own eyes! You don’t believe me because I’m a nobody and I’m not stating statistics and backing up my views with what a somebody important says but it doesn’t mean I’m not right only time will tell!!! By the way I’m nothing to do with shooting and would never go shooting.
Whether I personally believe you is irrelevant.
“The fact” remains that all informed people, and conservation bodies base their actions on sound, peer-reviewed science; not the assertions of individuals who base their opinions on prejudice and subjectivity, and who cite terms such as “too many”, while having no real awareness of the issue.
The facts are there for all to see. Your opinion can, and will never change that.
That explains why all the Conservation bodies are making such a mess of the Environment!!!!! Left to most Conservation bodies they would have the country completely under trees again (Mainly so they can get all the grant money which is a lot!!!!) Britain is so valuable for its mosaic of habitats but if its left to all these organisations we will soon cover all these habitats with trees so we can go down the rewinding, carbon neutral to name but a few!! Trees are great but in moderation if we go back to how Britain once was we will lose all the man made but so valuable species rich habitats!
All these organisations setup with the best of intentions but money currupts them!!! You only need to look at the RSPB [Ed: rest of comment deleted as it’s just an unsubstantiated rant. Alex, you’re welcome to comment here but you’ll need to provide scientific evidence (not old wives’ tales) to back up your claims]
What are you on about, now?
Are you seriously suggesting that the RSPB and other NGOs wish to see reedbeds, lowland heaths and other open habitats “completely under trees” in reward for money? If so, you really need to learn about how much work goes into preventing just that…
Click to access reedbed_management.pdf
https://www.rspb.org.uk/our-work/conservation/projects/dorset-heathland-project/
Predictably, your comments are getting more and more bizarre, as, one by one, the falsehoods on which you base them are refuted by simple, established fact, and your confused agenda becomes increasingly apparent.
Over the years, this unfortunate scenario has been repeated many times on this site, with numerous antagonists. While attempting to pose as authorities, they’ve only succeeded in revealing their own lamentable ignorance of the pertinent issues, and ultimately embarrassing themselves.
Do you really wish to follow that same path?
Furthermore, you need to understand that “bias” is always, by necessity, acknowledged in scientific papers. Peer-revision, and subsequent publication, depends on that simple fact.
In that sense, your definition of bias does not exist.
P.S. I too am “a nobody”. But I have the intelligence to accept solid evidence, and question unsupported, anecdotal claims, and falsehoods from anyone who cites personal observations as fact.
You say you have the intelligence to accept solid evidence but only if it suits your views, if the Game Conservancy did a scientific study on the benefits gamekeepers to birds of prey and backed up the study with strong fact based evidence and lots of important statistics and the conclusion was that yes gamekeepers are far more a benefit to birds of prey then not and that most bird of prey deaths are actually a result of predation, starvation and killings from same species and actual deaths due to gamekeepers was actually only 1% . All this was backed up in black & white with lots of important statistics and graphs and important documents. You and all the other raptor obsessive people would say it was biased and not true, you would rip it to shreds and refuse to accept the findings. All this solid evidence is only accepted if its singing from your hyme sheet anything else would be discredited!!!
And yet, you still can’t come up with such a “scientific study”, can you?
Still you fail to grasp the meaning of “peer-reviewed”, and I seriously doubt that you have even the slightest understanding of the field of statistics. Yet you choose to speculate upon a non-existent work, and it’s subsequent reception, in order to bolster your non-existent argument. You see, any idiot can make up stories. That’s why peer-revision exists.
You started here by claiming UK raptor populations are dependent on the annual release of gamebirds, including your opinion that raptor number are “high” (do you understand what the word “subjective means?). When challenged to provide supporting evidence for you claim you failed to do so. Instead, you introduced yet more anecdote, opinion and falsehoods regarding the Sparrowhawk population.
Subsequently, you’ve meandered off into more fantasy regarding land management, in a clumsy, ill-informed tirade against conservation NGOs. Once again, your assertions have proved entirely false.
You’ve failed to learn anything at all from your experience here. And your poorly-concealed agenda is now completely exposed by your silly comment…
“You and all the other raptor obsessive people”
You’ve based your every comment here on f*** scientific fact! I’m right because I say so!
Well, such conceit really doesn’t cut it in the adult world.
Click to access bc2021_report.pdf
https://akjournals.com/page/why-is-peer-review-important
You only have to see what a state our country is after following the science over covid!!!! Massive inflation due to printing too much money to pay everyone to stay at home that’s why we all have to pay so much for everything now thanks to following the science!!!! Too much importance is put on scientific research which is easily manipulated to suit the desired outcome. There are,'”Lies, Dam Lies and Statistics”
Are there any other unrelated subjects that you’d like to mention, in order to divert attention from your previous falsehoods?
Perhaps you’d also like to recommend reading tea leaves, or maybe even sacrificing a few virgins? How about some good old witch burning? That should do it! I trust that next time you’re in need of medical treatment, you’ll refuse it, on account of the science behind it. Or, better still, throw the device on which you’re concocting your nonsense into the bin.
Even more hilariously, having just invented a hypothetical “scientific study” as part of whatever ludicrous point you’re trying to make, you now imply that if such a such a study existed, you’d dismiss it out of hand! Yet again, you’re tying yourself in knots.
As I’ve already mentioned, it’s glaringly obvious from your comments that you have no real concept of what the word “science” actually means. And as for your misquotation of Disraeli/Twain: this old chestnut is frequently trotted out by those, like yourself, who simply don’t know what statistics is (or are you just pretending to be stupid?). Perhaps if you bothered to learn a little about the subjects on which you’re so keen to opine, you wouldn’t be making such a fool of yourself.
Now (unless you’ve just fallen off your flat earth) maybe you’d like to be a grown up, and…
retract all the rubbish you’ve made up…
apologise for insulting all the good folk who give their time in the production of valuable data…
apologise to all the NGO staff, who work extremely hard in order to conserve our natural heritage…
apologise to every person around the world, who works to improve the lives of the rest of us, with scientific research…
apologise to every teacher who uses scientific fact in the education of our children…
apologise to those of us who have taken the time to learn about how nature really works…
and apologise for insulting the intelligence of everyone who follows this blog.
You clearly feel threatened by non scientific views!! I feel sorry for you and any others who are not capable of thinking for yourselves!!! I’m all for science but I’m also for free thinking and experiencing things yourself not just living your life through books and internet and believing everything you read because they have science to back it up!!! As I keep saying it is so easy with science to manipulate your desired outcome but use all the statistics to make it look the real deal. We are all entitled to our own views whether they are backed up with science or not!!! The whole point of comments is to voice your opinion. The fact that you are completely unwilling to allow my opinion without ridiculing me is very disappointing. I do actually have a bachelor of science degree so I am fully aware of scientific research ect, but actually experiencing things yourself is just as valuable and certainly should not be dismissed and mocked just because it does not have a scientific report to go with it!!!
“As I keep saying it is so easy with science to manipulate your desired outcome”
and
“I do actually have a bachelor of science degree”
Says someone who refuses to understand what ‘peer-reviewed’ means.
You are just delusional and dishonest.
“if the Game Conservancy did a scientific study on the benefits gamekeepers to birds of prey and backed up the study with strong fact based evidence and lots of important statistics and the conclusion was that yes gamekeepers are far more a benefit to birds of prey then not and that most bird of prey deaths are actually a result of predation, starvation and killings from same species and actual deaths due to gamekeepers was actually only 1% . All this was backed up in black & white with lots of important statistics and graphs and important documents. You and all the other raptor obsessive people would say it was biased and not true, you would rip it to shreds and refuse to accept the findings.”
But the ‘Game Conservancy’ DID do such a study, and they found that ‘gamekeepers’ had a ‘negative ecological effect’ on birds of prey.
See https://www.gwct.org.uk/media/1251254/Gamebird-Releasing-Report-2021.pdf
“You and all the other raptor obsessive people would say it was biased and not true, you would rip it to shreds and refuse to accept the findings.”
But it is YOU who are refusing to accept the findings of the ‘Game Conservancy’ scientific study into the work of ‘gamekeepers’.
What a very silly hypocrite you are.
Ooh! That’s got to hurt!😂
No I was just using that as an example I wasn’t refering to any actual study!!! I have no interest in reading scientific studies I’ve got better things to do then that!!!! I was just saying that scientific studies are great for all you raptor fanatics until they come up with the wrong results and then suddenly those ones will be discredited as being biased ect. I do wonder why it is only the gamekeepers to blame for bird of prey kills, from my experience (not that clearly counts for everything with you lot!!!) But some of the worst killers of birds of prey are farmers!!! In fact alot of farmers have an attitude if you can’t make money from it kill it!!!! I also know quite a few so called important birdie people who regularly shoot sparrow hawks in their gardens with air guns as they get fed up with the relentless killing of the garden birds yet those same people are pointing the blame at gamekeepers the minute a hen harrier goes missing!!!! Which is very hipercritical !!! But of course this is just my own observations and I can’t back it up with any scientific studies/evidence so you won’t believe it!!!!!
You shouldn’t just be pointing the blame at gamekeepers you should also be pointing the blame at the so called custodions of the countryside!!!!!
“I wasn’t refering to any actual study!!! I have no interest in reading scientific studies I’ve got better things to do then that!!!!”
Ha! Says it all. Can’t even spell, either.
You are such a twisted troll.
“I also know quite a few so called important birdie people who regularly shoot sparrow hawks in their gardens with air guns…”
I don’t believe you. I think you are lying again. Name them!
“But of course this is just my own observations and I can’t back it up with any scientific studies/evidence..”
Quite. So you just make ‘stuff’ up. Which is why you post anonymously, isn’t it?
Well,you certainly have a masters in fabrication. Everything you come up with is complete fraud. Bachelor of Science my arse! 😂
P.S. If you truly know any “birdie people” who shoot Sparrowhawks, they are criminals, and you are guilty of failing to report a crime.
The “we know best” , countryside allowance, who are clearly against Tree planting & insist on annual hedge ruining, where the songbirds try to feed, nest, & roost, are more than happy to see a considerable acreage of “productive” land growing the feed for the millions of non native birds shot full of lead for fun.
I have done a fair bit of country biking and it seems every wood you see is a death zone for wildlife. Yes these are the pheasant rearing ones. They even employ wildlife killers, they are called gamekeepers. Nothing lives in these woods apart from the fat moving targets. They are fat because they are fed with enormous quantities of grain. Much of this grain rots spreading disease the rest also attracts so called “vermin” which sets up its own food chain. Then the game keeper comes along and kills the lot. Because of high food production efficency there is no food left in the fields for wildlife so no wonder they come into the death zone woods looking for food. It’s criminal to wildlife that these places are not protected under law. Don’t believe the lies about loads of raptors. All bird life has decreased dramatically, and thanks to our shooting friends many are extinct. I have been through a pheasant rearing wood and come across the most discussing cruelty imaginable. The Larson or Covid trap, here a live crow or magpie, is caged to attract another to capture. Most of the live ones die in the most wretched way imaginable. I actually killed one it was in such a pitiful agonising state. Others were either panic stricken (released those) or dead in the cage. Just go to to excellent wild life trust nature reserves, here you will see raptors, covid and “songbirds” all thriving together. Anyone that uses the term songbirds are in the shooting lobby. People who know about birds never use that term. All birds sing to some extent. I live in London and to be quite honest there is far more wildlife here than you will see in the countryside. Thanks shooters for this ridiculous scenario.