Defra Licence:

[Greylag]

Thought the JAY was now off the licence.........any comments

Hello Johnny,

Not as far as I'm aware. Jays are still a legal quarry species but many same as myself tend not to shoot them. They are a member of the Corvid family rooks, crows, jackdaws, magpies etc probably why they're included but I'm not sure. If you look under WML Gen- L05 on the Natural England website it says the following :-

1. The purposes for which this licence is granted are preventing the spread of disease and preventing
serious damage to livestock, foodstuffs for livestock, crops, vegetables, fruit, growing timber, fisheries
or inland waters.

2. Subject to the terms and conditions below, and for the purposes set out in paragraph (1) above, this
licence permits:

(i) any authorised person to kill or take any of the wild birds listed in this subparagraph, to take,
damage or destroy their nests or to take or destroy their eggs:

Greater Canada Goose Branta canadensis
Crow Corvus corone
Dove, Collared Streptopelia decaocto
Gull, Great Black-backed Larus marinus
Gull, Lesser Black-backed Larus fuscus
Gull, Herring Larus argentatus
Jackdaw Corvus monedula
Jay Garrulus glandarius
Magpie Pica pica
Pigeon, Feral Columba livia
Rook Corvus frugilegus
Woodpigeon Columba palumbus

Hope this helps
Regards

[Spanner.]

Which one of them damages growing timber

[Greylag]

Which one of them damages growing timber

Hello JRDS,

I think it's more to do with damaging the fruit trees by eating the buds rather than physically damaging the structure. I suppose them eating the buds would make the tree less prolific in it's growth cycle but as I'm no botanist I can't say.

Hope this helps
Regards

[craggrat]

Never been asked for a license, i have worked on airports, landfill sites, killed many birds with my falcons and hawks. mainly Gull's crows, pigeon,
craggrat

[delta1946]

Never been asked for a license, i have worked on airports, landfill sites, killed many birds with my falcons and hawks. mainly Gull's crows, pigeon,
craggrat

can you kill sea gulls?

[Luke Skywalker]

Does protection of crops include protection of personal crops?

[termin8R]

There are four different licences under which we might operate... the quarry species are not necessarily the same on each one.

Doug

:: Licence to kill or take certain birds to prevent serious damage or disease WML Gen-L05 PDF
:: Licence to kill or take certain birds to preserve air safety WML Gen-L06 PDF
:: Licence to kill or take certain birds to preserve public health or public safety WML Gen-L07 PDF
:: Licence to kill or take certain birds to conserve wild birds WML Gen-L08 PDF

[450lewis]

is this like a licence you have to apply for or a code to abide by when hunting?

is it saying that any semiauto used for hunting must have a mag capacity of no more than two rounds? whats all that about?

forgiv my ignorance and any help would be greatly recieved..

lewis

[willy]

Still on the welsh office list.

[BigAl]

Seems they have moved the licences again. The list of General Licences can now be found here.

Alan

[SNIPER1]

Thanks for this invaluable link, first I did not realise it ran out I did not realise the authority on this license had changed + would have had difficulty finding it as there is no link on defras website,

Thanks again,

SNIPER1

[Geoffc]

Just out of interest, I'm a member of Scottish Association of Country Sports.

As I take Woodpigeon for the pot then I thought I would get legal clarification.
I do kill them to prevent crop damage but, as we are a hunter-gatherer species then I did ask, what is the legal position for 'hunting' Pigeons.
In the SACS magazine they had printed an article about a chap being prosecuted by the RSPCA for allowing his son to shoot a pigeon in his own garden. SACS said this was not illegal so, again I wanted clarification.
I have cut and pasted his reply here.

Hi Geoff - thanks for the email.
I’m a bit pushed for time, so I will be brief - please excuse!
The public general licenses allow authorised persons to kill or take the species listed only for the reasons specified in the licenses - this is carefully worded to comply with EU law. The two we use most commonly as shooters are for the protection of crops and the protection of ground nesting birds.
It has been accepted that these species can be killed for these purposes at any time or in any place - it is not restricted to the protection of a specific bird nest or a specific field or crop - in other words it is fine in the legal sense to kill them at any time in any place, on the basis that they would be damaging crops or nests at some point in their lives.
The point is that although these are the only legal reasons for killing them, there is no restriction on what you do with them once you have killed them, so it’s perfectly ok to take them home and eat them (although I wouldn’t recommend it with crows!) or dispose of them in any way you see fit, including selling them to a game dealer if you have enough to make that worthwhile.
In practice, it is entirely academic until some member of the public or RSPB clown tries it on as in the case you mention, and to be safe, if anyone asks you why you shot a bird, you simply say for the protection of……. and that’s the end of it.

That'll do for me

[Airholic]

Thanks Geoff for the good post.

.....in other words it is fine in the legal sense to kill them at any time in any place, on the basis that they would be damaging crops or nests at some point in their lives........

So you CAN shoot woodpigeon for the pot.

It would appear then that when questioned by a person of authority you answer ' I did this for the pot' = court appearance. 'I did this for the protection of crops' = no case to answer.

Sometimes we don't always say the right things at the right time and end up in the proverbial when no malice was intended.

[chippy]

i see they have removed greater black back gull and herring gull but added parakeets but the lesser black back is still on the list

perhaps these gulls are becoming rare like starlings, well in front of the countryside alliance HQ office window anyway
chippy

[Zimbabwe Boy]

I've been downloading and reading the general licenses and they all seem to be for birds. Nowhere does it mention and mammals such as Rats, Rabbits or Squirrels.

Is there another General License covering these? Does anyone have a link?

Cheers,
Shaun