Quote Originally Posted by angrybear View Post
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?