Raptor Persecution UK will be represented at a public demo outside DEFRA HQ in London tomorrow (Thurs 28 Sept 2023) where many individuals and organisations will gather to tell the Government it needs to put nature at the front of policy decisions, not shoved in a bag inside a cupboard in a locked room and forgotten about.
The demo has been organised by the indefatigable Chris Packham and his team, in response to the latest State of Nature Report which has been published this evening.
The demo will be peaceful, there won’t be any glue, or paint or illegality, just lots of voices from a broad array of organisations whose members want to send a message to DEFRA and the Westminster Government that we’ve all had enough.
The demo in London will take place from 8am-2pm (details here) and there are other demos taking place in Bristol, Reading, York and Newcastle (details here).
Hope to see some of you in London. If you can’t make any of the locations, please follow on social media and help amplify the message using #RestoreNatureNow
Thanks
Raptor Persecution UK 
And this unfortunately will make absolutely no difference at all this government will laugh behind closed doors and carry on regardless the sooner we have a genuine disaster caused by this government’s policies a disaster that has a disastrous effect on finances and the general population the better.It’s ok saying this government has too much on it’s plate to be bothered about nature and climate change but what are all these different departments for ? ?It is also time the police enforced the laws on hunting and such they should NOT be choosing which laws it suits them to enforce if they want the respect and co operation of the general public.
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No BASC? No GWCT? No NGO? No SGA?
I thought that the shooting industry was all about conservation!?
Clearly not!
They farm. they burn, they drug, they kill…. truly great conservationists.
Having scanned this comprehensive State of Nature Report, which mentions habitat loss and habitat degradation many scores (possibly, hundreds) of times as being a key driver in the loss of biodiversity and bioabundance (along with climate change) there is almost *no mention* of the most important driver of the lot: human population growth.
There is a single mention – within Nature, climate and people – concerning shifts in land and sea usage being “in the context of a UK human population predicted to grow by four million by 2050”
In the Summary there is a brief reference: “Nature needs space to live and flourish, but around the globe we humans have decreased and diminished those spaces”, while in the Overseas Territories there is the recognition – concerning cloud forests on St Helena – that “before human habitation this important habitat covered an estimated 600 ha, today just 16 ha of fragmented cloud forest remain.”
It does go on to state that “The global biodiversity crisis is driven by a range of anthropogenic pressures and the UK in particular has experienced significant habitat loss, change and degradation during the last century” and that a “Reduction in anthropogenic pressures and restoration of these habitats would have significant potential benefits for nature and climate (for the UK)”.
Elsewhere it adds “Largely driven by anthropogenic pressures, such as climate change, fisheries and invasive non-native species, we have already seen an average decline of 24% in well-monitored seabird species in the UK”
But in 213 pages that is it! (all I could find).
The ONS say the UK population in 1923 was 44,563,100 and estimate its population in mid-2021 as 67,026,292.
The ONS also say that net (legal) immigration to the UK in 2022 was estimated to be 606,000.
populationdata.org.uk claim that “according to the ONS” the current UK population is estimated to be 68,138,484 (https://populationdata.org.uk/uk-population/)
I think that if anyone wishes to face up to the reality of the causes of UK habitat loss/degradation (and global climate change) they need look no further than those numbers for a BIG clue.
As someone who regularly ventures into the highlands and lowlands of Scotland, it doesn’t take long before I come across evidence of wildlife persecution, be it lawful or unlawful.
In a world in which nature is increasingly facing more challenges than ever before to survive, due to the changes in climate and habitat loss and interference, shouldn’t we be doing all we can to protect, rather than continue to destroy what we have left?
In my mind, from the evidence that I have seen and gathered over the years, there has been, and continues to be, a deliberate and sustained attack on our British wildlife, decimating local populations of native animal species as well as habitat, most which goes un-recorded, but however, is lawful.
Pine Martens, badgers, buzzards, goshawks, peregrines, red kites, owls, ravens, barnacle, pink footed and Canadian geese, foxes, stoats, weasels, field voles, hedgehogs, rabbits, brown and mountain hares, dippers, wrens, ducks, crows, magpies, jays, rooks, pigeons, deer and otters. These are some of the animals that I have come across, many on more than one occasion, that have been the victim of human persecution, either deliberately or as a consequence of deliberate persecution of another species. Collateral damage I suppose the persecutor would call it.
I have found these animals either dead or alive and they have either been snared, poisoned, shot, trapped in cages, crushed, beaten to death or their legs have been broken from spring traps. The injuries and suffering to some of these victims, due to trying to escape the cage or wire snare, can only make one conclude that they would have gone through unimaginable pain before death. However, on more than one occasion, I have found these animals still alive and on the edge of death and have had to call in help to have the animal killed and put out of his or her misery.
It really isn’t an exaggeration to call this a war against wildlife. What else would you call it when men and women, every day, go out of their way to plan and carry out mass slaughter of wildlife, using their large arsenal of devices and weapons to target them. The wildlife has no chance and thousands of our native wildlife die as a consequence every year. The carnage, the death and destruction, not to mention the suffering, is a daily occurrence within our countryside and that is a fact. Whatever excuses or reason anybody gives to carry out such persecution on a grand scale, the fact remains, nature is dying and dying fast.
Saw Chris Packham on BBC News from the protest this morning. He was lucid, to the point and non-sensationalist: just very direct and without excessive emotion. It was an excellent interview: no doubt the haters will be seething that there is nothing for them to hate on.