The conservation campaign group Wild Justice is seeking the public’s help to uncover information about the release of pheasants and red-legged partridges on or close to protected sites in Norfolk and Suffolk, apparently against the official advice of Natural England but potentially sanctioned by DEFRA Ministers.
Wild Justice has been informed by several anonymous sources that the licensing process for the release of non-native gamebirds on or near to Special Protection Areas (SPAs) isn’t quite as we expect it to be (see Wild Justice blog, here).
It’s alleged that DEFRA Ministers may, in some cases, be either ignoring and/or over-ruling the official advice of the statutory conservation agency, Natural England, not to release gamebirds in specific areas, and instead they may be taking advice from a mystery committee in DEFRA, which probably includes members of the game shooting industry, to override Natural England’s advice and permit the release of gamebirds in these areas.
According to Wild Justice, the licensing process may look something like this:
Wild Justice is attempting to get to the bottom of what’s going on via a series of Environmental Information Requests to Natural England and DEFRA but predictably these have been met with the usual delaying tactics and in some cases, refusals. It will clearly take time to get the information required to fully evaluate what’s going on.
So in the meantime, Wild Justice is asking the public for help with information about potential gamebird releases in two specific areas in Norfolk and Suffolk – the Deben Estuary Special Protection Area, where Natural England refused permission for gamebird releases (see here for information requested by Wild Justice about this site) and the Breckland Special Protection Area, where Natural England permitted gamebird releases but delayed the permitted release dates (see here for information requested by Wild Justice about this site).
If you live locally to these two SPAs and know of any pheasant or red-legged partridge releases there, this season, in or very close to the SPAs (as shown on the maps in the WJ blog links, above), or if you know that gamebird shooting is occurring on these sites this year, then please let Wild Justice know.
Wild Justice can be contacted at: admin@wildjustice.org.uk and all correspondence will be treated in strict confidence.
Thank you.
Raptor Persecution UK 
More good stuff from the steely resolve of Wild Justice and RPUK
As we used to say in times gone bye “the process seems as bent as a ten bob note.”
I think you will find it was a nine Bob note, at least that is what we used to say in the sixties. Sorry to be flippant on a serious website.
Nine bob note George! Ten bob notes were fine.
I still own a ten bob note.
Age, I am afraid. However, I’ll struggle on hehe
George, a ten bob note was legal tender. The expression was “as bent as nine bob note” For younger readers a “bob” was slang for a shilling (now five pence).
I remember all the ‘we don’t disagree with shooting, just raptor persecution’ comments lol
Your just anti fieldsports full stop.
If shooting went you would just start on fishing.
Bunch of Karen’s with no lives of your own
[Ed: Thanks, Iain, a fascinating but total misrepresentation of the views of Wild Justice’s Directors. And who’s Karen? If you’re going to leave insults at least make them intelligible]
I think you are Spot on if there was no shooting who would look after the ground for the wild life
Imagine how the ‘wild life’ got on before shooting was invented? Did it all die out?
Perhaps a spectrum of people (groups and individuals) which may or may not include people with shooting interests -who follow the law and also embrace the spirit of the law and the reasons they were made.
I remember all the ‘I condemn raptor persecution but this is just anti-gamekeeper speculation’ indignant types of comments, made by people on the regular suspected cases on this site. Those same people never turn up in the comments section when there is a 100% proven case or a court conviction reported on this site. You can’t have it both ways, that is one example of why many neutral people – totally understandably, but perhaps erroneously – end up becoming against the shooting world in general.