Releasing wild rabbits ( Stupid question but still)

[CuppaT]

I agree, what kind of PR for airgunners would that be, releasing live animals so someone can have fun killing them

Its OK for shotgun though? They release pheasants on selected land and have a blast at them. They call it sport.

I dont agree with what the OP suggested / asked. Im just putting a differrent perspective on your reply.

[Muskett]

Because it is sport, quite an expensive one as it has to pay for all the bird food, pest control, land management and habitat conservation. Bonus there is a tasty wild crop of pheasant to eat.

Do tell of an equivalent better conservation system that is run? One that is self financing, on an equivalent scale, and as long term sustainable. RSPB efforts are tiny, and industrial farming doesn't do much. Its individual sportsmen that do most, plus a few who would do it anyway. Metropolitans do scant little but demand cheep food and a pub to go to as a tourist attraction when visiting the countryside.
I'm a huge fan of Sporting Estates be they one acre or 5000. Heck my garden I get both rabbit and pigeon to eat.

[angrybear]

Gonads, they will make their homes in wide open fields, they don't get much bloody choice in Norfolk, Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire!

But I bet the burrows are close to hedges or what little cover the field provides.
I obviously should have said they prefer overgrown cover.

[GoodWILLHunting]

Because it is sport, quite an expensive one as it has to pay for all the bird food, pest control, land management and habitat conservation. Bonus there is a tasty wild crop of pheasant to eat.

Do tell of an equivalent better conservation system that is run? One that is self financing, on an equivalent scale, and as long term sustainable. RSPB efforts are tiny, and industrial farming doesn't do much. Its individual sportsmen that do most, plus a few who would do it anyway. Metropolitans do scant little but demand cheep food and a pub to go to as a tourist attraction when visiting the countryside.
I'm a huge fan of Sporting Estates be they one acre or 5000. Heck my garden I get both rabbit and pigeon to eat.

It's still put and take. Like fishing for stockies in a stank, we can dress it up anyway we want but thats what it is, a man made artificial construct.

I'm not against that in the right place, but lets not dress it up into something that it's not. As you mention in another post most of the country is a "managed" environment, so if some land is given over to put and take shooting I don't have a problem with it if it pays those doing it (just don't ask me to wear the clobber, ).

[bozzer]

This has sort of already been said ... but just another example ...

A local estate where I help out has a cricket ground. The ground has a fence all around ( rabbits can get through that easily ), and is probably 70 yards from a wood down one side. The other three sides lead onto undulating land with some trees and are surrounded by thicker areas of woodland. Drive through the estate at night with your lights on and there are rabbits everywhere, but you never see them on the cricket ground. You do find the odd area on the square where the fresh rye grass has come through where a rabbit has been munching and left the evidence.

A local lad asked if he could come onto the land and shoot some rabbits. There are sheep all over the fields, apart from the cricket ground and a very boggy area, that is those 70 yards between the ground and that wood on one side. The lad has been told he can shoot them only on the cricket ground and also on that boggy area.

I thought ... good luck finding rabbits there. He's been and so far, on the cricket ground and boggy area has seen ... zero rabbits. He's seen hundreds on the open land feeding near to shelter of hedgerows and trees. You can see the burrows under some trees quite obviously.

They won't be burrowing on the cricket ground because it's busy with human traffic, and has no shelter. They have the odd dig on the outfield but never the square as it's very heavy clay based.

They are very opportunist. If the OP's land was suitable ... they'd already be on it. If you try and force them on it ... they'll go elsewhere.

[Inspector 71]

It's still put and take. Like fishing for stockies in a stank, we can dress it up anyway we want but thats what it is, a man made artificial construct.

I'm not against that in the right place, but lets not dress it up into something that it's not. As you mention in another post most of the country is a "managed" environment, so if some land is given over to put and take shooting I don't have a problem with it if it pays those doing it (just don't ask me to wear the clobber, ).

Pheasants are not a vermin species.

And the land management associated with pheasant shoots benefits both Flora and fauna so your argument is meh.

[GoodWILLHunting]

Pheasants are not a vermin species.

And the land management associated with pheasant shoots benefits both Flora and fauna so your argument is meh.

Says who?

Besides it wasn't an argument, simply stating the bleeding obvious.

[angrybear]

It's still put and take. Like fishing for stockies in a stank, we can dress it up anyway we want but thats what it is, a man made artificial construct.

I'm not against that in the right place, but lets not dress it up into something that it's not. As you mention in another post most of the country is a "managed" environment, so if some land is given over to put and take shooting I don't have a problem with it if it pays those doing it (just don't ask me to wear the clobber, ).

The difference is that there are strict rules/laws about the transport/transfer of species from one place to another. Stock fish & game birds are specifically bred to be stocked & will be disease free, that is not true of "wild" animals/birds/fish.
It is strictly prohibited to transfer live wild fish from one water-course to another, & even introducing stock bred fish requires DEFRA approval.

Ignorance of a law is no defence if found breaking it.

[Muskett]

Goodwillhunting, certainly doesn't have to partake in game shooting which in terms of the bigger bag sport reliability means breeding large numbers and releasing them into the wild. That side there is a long list of "best practices" and well established. He doesn't have to wholly agree with it either, but when the crop is taken then the game is pretty wild and the process of getting birds for sport benefits a wider variety of wildlife. The most common: Partridges, ducks, pheasants, their husbandry for sport does a lot of good, and they taste good too.
A discusion for another day.
He wouldn't dress up in tweeds, but then its no different to any uniform; as are safety pins and spiked hair for a punk rocker. Actually tweeds are pretty practical, and can look very smart.
If you look at BASC membership then there are members from every corner of society, that reflects society. Shooting sports in all its guises is for everyone.

Back to Rabbits.
At night rabbits will travel to graze two three hundred metres from their burrows for their grub.
They like burrowing in hedge lines because the root systems hold the burrows together in tricky soil and the trees roots draw out water so keeping the soil a little drier. A burrow system can be in the middle of a field if soil conditions are correct and the ground not ploughed regularly.
Rabbits have eyes on the side f their heads, like deer, so can see 360 degrees and prefer open area to enclosed thicket. They have powerful back legs to get them home. They might like bramble or bracken but thats more to do with the soil than the vegetation cover, and just happen to be in the same place as bramble likes the same conditions.

Again if you want to know your rabbit population try late at night, 2 or 3 pm. Some nights they are all out and some nights on the sofa doing Gogglebox. For them its energy conservation, and eating to get that energy. Near on a full time job.

[Barryg]

Its OK for shotgun though? They release pheasants on selected land and have a blast at them. They call it sport.

I dont agree with what the OP suggested / asked. Im just putting a differrent perspective on your reply.

This is how most of the public see pheasant shoots
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u80ou6-ZqQk

[piggy589]

This is how most of the public see pheasant shoots
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u80ou6-ZqQk

I was thinking more along the lines of that old Monty Python Upper Class Twit Hunt.

I've no idea how to pull it up though.

[Muskett]

Those old jokes are just so dated now. It always amuses me how film and film makers do Game Shooting so badly, and have portrayed it in such an incorrect way for so long. The Thespian 70's Hippy prejudices are just so far removed from the facts. Stoneage in their attitudes.
Heck, even pheasant shooting has moved on since Edwardian times.

[Beretta303]

Hi all.
I know is may seen like a very stupid question but I you don't ask you don't get haha
I am a keen air gunner and I was wondering if I could release some wild rabbits on my own land as I don't have any at the moment. I know it may be illegal but how would I do it and where could I buy them from.
Many Thanks
Kez

My penny’s worth …

The notes below are simplistic, and are meant as an overview of how I understand the law.

A few points to note:

Rabbits are non-native.
Are classed as vermin/pest.
Are covered by a requirement in law to be controlled.

So, I doubt very much you will be able to “buy some” to relocate, at least not legally. All wild animals in the UK are ‘generally’ protected by law, with exemptions and licenses being offered by specific law for specific incidence, i.e. vermin/predator control, which means on the whole that anything classed as wild, even if classed as vermin, can’t simply be removed from its natural habitat and then offered for sale, let alone any subsequent re-release. There are legal requirements that must be met in order for any of this to happen, if it can happen at all.

So, as you can’t buy live wild rabbits in order to relocate them, you would first need to catch them, which I presume means the use of either traps or nets...

My understanding is that under the Pests Act 1954, the use of traps comes with a requirement that “you must … humanely despatch any rabbits you catch” whilst using an approved spring trap. So later releasing any caught or trapped rabbit would be contrary to the Act just by the fact that you didn’t humanely despatch them.

Or, if you are using nets to capture I’m pretty sure they will be seen in the same light as traps from a legal standpoint as the law presumes you are taking for control, i.e., you shoot or despatch immediately the rabbits that are caught.

So, I think its pretty safe to assume you’d be breaking the law by relocating wild rabbits in this way.

However, I think its also fair to say that most of the information and advice given to date on this thread is either opinion or personal understanding of what the law requires, and that includes that given by myself, my advice would be to get in touch with Natural England to ask for guidance, I’m sure an email request would allow them to provide all the information that you need and keep you on the right side of the law.

[Barryg]

I was thinking more along the lines of that old Monty Python Upper Class Twit Hunt.

I've no idea how to pull it up though.

I guess you mean this
https://youtu.be/flj3SvahA3I

[snock]

Hi all.
I know is may seen like a very stupid question but I you don't ask you don't get haha
I am a keen air gunner and I was wondering if I could release some wild rabbits on my own land as I don't have any at the moment. I know it may be illegal but how would I do it and where could I buy them from.
Many Thanks
Kez

I suspect you're not in the least bit serious, as I reckon you're aware of the legality issues.

Landowners with rabbits are legally obliged to make efforts to reduce their numbers, while it also being illegal to introduce vermin, even if it's from where you just caught it.

I smell a rat.