Packham gets General License revoked!!!!

[223AI]

That's a long stretch from you stating how corvids in the garden are a problem, which was your first response.

I'll leave it to Portzy's response which seems like the thing worth doing.

Corvids in a garden are a problem, they prey on the local nesting birds, it’s no different!

[Dagwood]

Perhaps those who shoot corvids and pigeons have shot themselves in the foot by the constant stream of photos that many of them post in various forums. All they do is supply grounds for those antis who would stop any shooting of game and vermin.
I'm sure that all law abiding members will adhere to the new legislation and that nothing will be shot from now on, or if it is that forum members will realise that trying to post photos on websites will do nothing more than make antis try and tighten up whatever the new legislation allows.
Of course the moderators would delete such photos asap otherwise they could be accused of aiding and abetting lawbreakers.
Time will show whether this change in the law is a good thing or needs repealing and no doubt the RSPB , who seem to have been quiet for now, will publish data to show the effect on songbirds. They seem to have been sitting on the fence when it comes to magpie numbers being controlled but perhaps if and when songbird populations start declining they will change their position on this.
Time will tell.
Jim

[Muskett]

I don't post photos but think everyone should. Every chicken slaughtered. Every Lamb. Every fish caught. Then people will realises that taking the bounty given us is normal.

Hunting is normal.

Not hunting, and expecting your supermarket shelves full of great food stuffs is abnormal. Detached from what it takes. The zillions of slugs killed to ensure cereal crops, and all that insect life just wiped out so food prices are low.

KFC Conservationists make me sick. They want it all and stuff themselves with utter junk from TV personalities that have never got their hands dirty.
What is weird is this alienation of the natural world. Domestdos'd sanitised uselessness. Yes there are issued like the plasticised wet wipes that they wipe their arses with.

On the subject of "professionals" when wildlife management just becomes an industry and all the love and care lost. Respect goes out of the window and it becomes just another job. Eventually it just ends up as the cheapest option with little thought given. Nothing put back.
£1,000 for each Badger culled! Why? Just stick them on an open license for a few years and it would be free. Only those that felt the need would get involved.

Corvids in numbers can trash an arable field fast.
(Funny I don't shoot the Jackdoors in my garden that are presently pecking up my lawn. I have a good twenty or so, watched and been entertained by them for years. But in the fields they get whacked.
Magpies always, anywhere, get clobbered. I don't shoot hares anymore because the numbers aren't there. We need more people stalking deer as numbers in some parts are far too high. There is a lot to be done and all this political bureaucracy is stopping good management; stopping people getting involved and interested in what is happening in the countryside.)

Lastly, taking a rat, rabbit, magpie, deer, wild boar, or even a pigeon are all the same. No difference. If you are the one to do it do it with thought and respect. The vast majority of Hunters give and have that.

[223AI]

I don't post photos but think everyone should. Every chicken slaughtered. Every Lamb. Every fish caught. Then people will realises that taking the bounty given us is normal.

Hunting is normal.

Not hunting, and expecting your supermarket shelves full of great food stuffs is abnormal. Detached from what it takes. The zillions of slugs killed to ensure cereal crops, and all that insect life just wiped out so food prices are low.

KFC Conservationists make me sick. They want it all and stuff themselves with utter junk from TV personalities that have never got their hands dirty.
What is weird is this alienation of the natural world. Domestdos'd sanitised uselessness. Yes there are issued like the plasticised wet wipes that they wipe their arses with.

On the subject of "professionals" when wildlife management just becomes an industry and all the love and care lost. Respect goes out of the window and it becomes just another job. Eventually it just ends up as the cheapest option with little thought given. Nothing put back.
£1,000 for each Badger culled! Why? Just stick them on an open license for a few years and it would be free. Only those that felt the need would get involved.

Corvids in numbers can trash an arable field fast.
(Funny I don't shoot the Jackdoors in my garden that are presently pecking up my lawn. I have a good twenty or so, watched and been entertained by them for years. But in the fields they get whacked.
Magpies always, anywhere, get clobbered. I don't shoot hares anymore because the numbers aren't there. We need more people stalking deer as numbers in some parts are far too high. There is a lot to be done and all this political bureaucracy is stopping good management.)

Lastly, taking a rat, rabbit, magpie, deer, wild boar, or even a pigeon are all the same. No difference. If you are the one to do it do it with thought and respect. The vast majority of Hunters give and have that.

Amen Brother!!

Rings landed

[Geezer]

I don't post photos but think everyone should. Every chicken slaughtered. Every Lamb. Every fish caught. Then people will realises that taking the bounty given us is normal.

Hunting is normal.

Not hunting, and expecting your supermarket shelves full of great food stuffs is abnormal.

......

Lastly, taking a rat, rabbit, magpie, deer, wild boar, or even a pigeon are all the same. No difference. If you are the one to do it do it with thought and respect. The vast majority of Hunters give and have that.

With you on all of that, including the bit in the middle that i’ve taken out to help readability.

Everyone should read “meditations on hunting” by Ortega y Gasset. He was a bit of a weird Spanish philosopher dude with some slightly odd views on other things. But he nailed hunting. “One does not hunt in order to kill. One kills in order to have hunted”.

Almost all hunting traditions stress respect for quarry.

[angrybear]

Corvids in a garden are a problem, they prey on the local nesting birds, it’s no different!

Yes it is very different because that is nature doing what nature does.

The General licence should not apply to a private garden, they should not be able to be used as a cover-all excuse to shoot birds at a purely domestic residence just because they happen to be on it.

Mason post #15 & Steve Valentine post #16 were both absolutely spot on

Like it or not there are a lot of tw*ts with air guns out there who are more than happy to shoot anything that flies & like it or not that is what opens the door to Pakham et al to put in this challenge.

If you think you have a genuine case to shoot bird X in your private garden because it causes Z damage then apply for a licence on those grounds & see if gets granted, if you keep chickens it might be, if you have a large Veg patch it might be, pretty sure your Cherry tree is on it's own mind

I'd expect a revised General Licence in very short order, simply revised so as only to apply to Farms & commercial properties not to a domestic address.

[223AI]

Yes it is very different because that is nature doing what nature does.

The General licence should not apply to a private garden, they should not be able to be used as a cover-all excuse to shoot birds at a purely domestic residence just because they happen to be on it.

Mason post #15 & Steve Valentine post #16 were both absolutely spot on

Like it or not there are a lot of tw*ts with air guns out there who are more than happy to shoot anything that flies & like it or not that is what opens the door to Pakham et al to put in this challenge.

If you think you have a genuine case to shoot bird X in your private garden because it causes Z damage then apply for a licence on those grounds & see if gets granted, if you keep chickens it might be, if you have a large Veg patch it might be, pretty sure your Cherry tree is on it's own mind

I'd expect a revised General Licence in very short order, simply revised so as only to apply to Farms & commercial properties not to a domestic address.

Nature doing what nature does, no difference to deer feeding on crops or trees or pigeons destroying crops or foxes killing chickens then!? Nature doing what nature does...

So what about the market gardener, or small holder? And I’m not talking crop protective I’m talking killing corvids to protect wildlife.

Killing a bird in a private garden to protect a blackbird nest is no different to killing a bird in a field to protect a blackbird’s nest!

Most of the oiks that shoot birds in their garden for no real reason don’t know about the general licences, will this stop them? The £3-400 fines the hare courses we catch regularly on the farms around here don’t stop them, how will making it easier to prosecute a few people really make a difference?