The RSPB has killed more than 8000 animals* in the name of conservation over a five year period.
1715 Crows, 1760 Foxes, 508 Fallow Deer, 160 Muntjac Deer, 2008 Red Deer, 1734 Roe Deer, 906 Sika Deer....... RSPB "working with Natural England" After I broke the news of the Natural England bird killing licences, many of my readers contacted the RSPB for reassurance and advice. To my surprise, and theirs, it wasn't forthcoming. The Society issued a monotone acknowledgement without offering any opinion. They said at the time "we are aware of this matter and are trying to find out further detail. The RSPB is currently in the process of working with Natural England on the licensing process to make sure it is fit for purpose." And that was about it. No opinion, no condemnation or disapproval. I wondered why. It didn't take long to realise that the RSPB could hardly criticise their friends at Natural England when they themselves were killing our wildlife - including birds - for, in their words, "both conservation and other reasons". More than 8000 animals killed by RSPB in five years The RSPB are, at least, more forthcoming with their figures - unlike Natural England who seem very unwilling to release theirs - and the statistics are shocking. Between 2012 and 2017 the RSPB, and their contractors, killed approximately*:- 1715 Crows - (this figure includes those killed using Larsen traps, a system described by Animal Aid as 'particularly brutal'.) 1760 Foxes 508 Fallow Deer 160 Muntjac Deer 2008 Red Deer 1734 Roe Deer 906 Sika Deer 'Unrecorded' number Rabbits Some of the numbers appear to be a little vague, even using the RSPB's own figures. In their 2015/16 report they say that 28 foxes (out of several hundred foxes they killed at the time) were exterminated 'to protect neighbours' interests' (whatever that means) but these figures appear to be omitted entirely from the following year's statistics. They also killed an unspecified number of rabbits. Other wildlife on the list of animals the RSPB and their contractors killed include feral goats and 'large gulls' though I couldn't find anywhere details of which species the gulls were, which suggests, worryingly, that perhaps the RSPB themselves didn't know..... RSPB approach to conservation has made people uncomfortable... The RSPB earnestly maintain that they will try to implement a non-lethal solution to deal with animals that they classify as 'predators'. The RSPB's Conservation Director Martin Harper states that "The RSPB’s approach to any type of predator control means that we first seek evidence of a problem, check whether there is a non-lethal solution and if so implement that. In many cases this does the job needed." The fact that they couldn't catch a few feral goats for relocation, or find a 'non-lethal solution' to dealing with the thousands of crows and foxes that they exterminated, suggests to me that the RSPB need to take another look at their methods of 'predator control'. It all appears to be a bit Laurel and Hardy. The RSPB's practice of killing one species to protect another seems to have made many people uncomfortable; even among their members there has been concern, some have apparently been quitting the Society over what they see as a clumsy and unkind approach to 'conservation'. All of which might explain why they were less than critical of Natural England over the licences to kill wild birds. The good news is that no badgers appear on the RSPB kill list and very few squirrels. Oh but then again, Natural England are handling those particular culls very enthusiastically.... It's only human intervention that created imbalance in our countryside. If we don't start treating all of our remaining wildlife with compassion and respect then we will doubtless lose some of our most iconic species. Foxes, Crows, Rabbits - they are not pests, they are our natural heritage. Native or introduced, they belong to all of us and we don't necessarily want their survival decided by the RSPB, Natural England or anyone else. * statistics have been collated from RSPB published figures. The author has attempted to reference them as accurately as possible from the source material.
56 Comments
Marcus
30/1/2019 08:42:50 pm
I thought this was going to be a good education piece for the unaware. However, it’s just another deluded townie who happens to have a pen.
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Ria
2/2/2019 12:52:17 pm
I have no words for that attitude.
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Paul Fox
2/2/2019 12:55:21 pm
Deluded townie? You don't say what, in your opinion, is wrong with it. That's not surprising from the hunting and shooting fraternity.
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Cookie
2/2/2019 07:49:16 pm
A deluded townie?
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David Guy Johnson
3/2/2019 03:40:07 pm
You clearly have no idea about the subject . Culling is necessary as mankind has removed many of the natural predators of these creatures. What would you suggest as the alternative? Let them breed until starvation and disease gives them a horrible eeath
Paul
2/2/2019 09:00:59 pm
I live in the country I am no townie and your comment disgusts me .
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Andrijana
3/2/2019 07:19:19 am
How rude and ignorant ! The facts speak for themselves! Townie? What is the meaning of that word? We are all part of this world regardless of our place of living. You never come to town? You just sit in your little burrow in the field? I don’t think so. This kind of killing is brutal and unnecessary . Oh so frustrating!
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Ed
3/2/2019 11:00:39 am
The fact that you call someone a townie immediately renders whatever opinion you might have worthless. You can shove your "cunnery wayz" where the sun doesn't shine - wildlife belongs to everyone.
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roaminallanski
21/5/2019 12:37:29 pm
Marcus - you eedjit
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Joe Le boutillier
12/12/2019 08:24:51 pm
People in the country side are abit stupid tbh no offence its just all that inbreeding
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Audrey
8/2/2020 02:22:07 pm
So Marcus thinks the information re RSPB killing huge amoounts of wildlife is a 'de;uded townie'. no why is it that when anyone speaks out against cruelty they get called a 'townie' Such comments show an ignorant person making a deluded comment to me. Probably hunt scum himself!
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bailey
20/9/2021 04:39:43 pm
me
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Steve MacSweeney
16/2/2023 07:39:44 pm
Interesting observation.What is deluded about reporting a wildlife charities list of bird and animal kills?
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Mike Anderson
30/1/2019 08:59:30 pm
Very well researched and written, raising many interesting points. people need to be very careful when thinking of which "conservation" charities to support.
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christine reed
4/2/2019 05:04:14 pm
Mike Anderson well said.
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Brian Cotgrove
31/1/2019 07:38:46 am
There is always a fine line between what some people see as conservation and others destruction, especially when or where it comes to Cute Cuddly Looking Animals. Unfortunately it is Human Intervention that causes imbalance, "HOMO SAPIEN" is and has been acknowledged as the dirtiest band most destructive inhabitant on the planet and is the direct cause of most of the problems that beset our world. One upon a time Wolves roamed most of Britain, but were feared by "The Humans" and eventually "Killed Off" as were "Bears" to make it safe for themselves and this was the beginning of the problem faced to day with "The Perceived Imbalance" and the necessity to cull all of the creatures mentioned above. It is a known and proven fact that if you take out "The Apex Predators" you get Imbalance.
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Jenny
2/2/2019 07:07:48 pm
I agree with your reasoning but I fear it’s too late to reintroduce wolves into our small and overpopulated island. Wild have been reintroduced into the new forest and the are persecuted as dangerous pests. Maybe some time in the future when we have done our worst, just maybe nature will take control and return things to how they should be
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Cookie
2/2/2019 07:51:59 pm
Thank you Brian. Totally correct.
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Norman Murray
17/6/2019 02:45:44 am
Totally wrong I'm afraid!!!
Nim
2/2/2019 11:04:50 pm
I believe it was Yellowstone National Park this happened in. There is a video somewhere online, probably YouTube. It's absolutely incredible.
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Keith
4/2/2019 08:50:03 am
The BBC did a series on the reintroduction of wolves into yellowstone
Dale Glen
4/2/2019 05:44:21 pm
But it wasn't just the reintroduction of wolves that caused that shift at Yellowstone. It was a more complex set of reasons that led to the decrease in the elk population over a couple of decades: hunting by mankind, hunting by predators (wolves, bears, cougars...), and drought.
Dale
4/2/2019 05:53:35 pm
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/10/opinion/is-the-wolf-a-real-american-hero.html?_r=0
Norman Murray
17/6/2019 02:56:02 am
It is absolute nonsense!!!
EDWARD CARLILE
3/2/2019 08:10:10 pm
Nicely portrayed, and accurate for the most part. Yellow Stone is one experimental area and the 14 wolves released reduced the deer population and coyote right down which like you said let diverse smaller species of trees, shrubs and grassland to return, which in turn made flora habit for dozens of other creatures and insects, which in turn fed another load of beasties!
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Norman Murray
17/6/2019 02:48:31 am
Very little if anything to do with the wolves that were introduced,Sorry
Norman Murray
17/6/2019 02:54:52 am
Go and read up on the true story of Yellowstone National Park, the rewilders story left out vital information of the two killing winters and the numbers of buffalo that were culled after the two winters and how they had to increase the number of cull animals to hunters!!!
Norman Murray
17/6/2019 02:34:37 am
The wolves in Yellowstone National Park is a myth brought about by rewilders fairy tales.
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Norman Murray
17/6/2019 02:58:22 am
Nice story but a rewilders myth!!!
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Lynda My
7/9/2019 06:42:10 pm
I couldn’t have put it better, Brian. Absolutely right!!
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Wayne
8/4/2021 07:50:57 pm
Yellowstone. The reintroduction of wolves regenerated the natural flow of the river by keeping grazers away from the banks, allowing healthy root growth. Predators are essential for pretty much every aspect of the natural order.
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Sonja
8/4/2021 08:05:42 pm
Just playing devil's advocate here; is there any difference, from the deer's perspective, between being killed by a wolf or killed by a conservationist?
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Norman Murray
11/4/2021 04:08:53 am
Big difference, the deer it not being eaten alive by a hunter/ conservationist.
Steve
16/2/2023 07:46:14 pm
That exercise simply changed the landscape of Yellowstone, wasnt a definitive lesson.
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Liam Meekins
31/1/2019 12:00:32 pm
Good article . I was a member of the RSPB for years .
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christine reed
4/2/2019 05:05:29 pm
Liam Meekins I couldn't agree with you more
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2/2/2019 07:31:29 am
They are right. Having worked in conservation for 20 years, it is the conservationists dilemma. Conservation isn't fluffy, it's about doing what we must if we are to conserve our target organisms or habitats and frequently that means manipulating the populations of animals and plants present. No one is screaming that we also bashed and killed acres of bracken and millions of hogweed plants... But it's the same thing.
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2/2/2019 12:49:04 pm
Jenny, you are of course entitled to your opinion but to use the term 'target organisms' in reference to sentient creatures is so very clinical and detached.
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Jan Smith
2/2/2019 05:49:36 pm
Who is the 'we' and what or who gives you the right to decide on a 'target organism or habitat'?
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Barbara Garwood
2/2/2019 05:33:56 pm
More money than they know what to do with, one of the richest so they just don't care, STOP SUPPORTING THIS CARNAGE OF OUR WILDLIFE!!!
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Mike Webb
2/2/2019 07:19:37 pm
Townies or yokels does it matter. Surely the point is conservation and preservation. With the goal to reintroduce apex predators at a later unspecified date.
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For me Jason this blog is counter intuitive and those that do not understand how to preserve a species or work in conservation (your target audience) will stop supporting charities like the RSPB because of this clickbait headlines like this and still wont understand! Those with a lack of understanding of trying to keep an ecological balance, will be hysterical. In short all conservation charities have a Biodiversity Action Plan and this means managing one species to preserve another depending on species present and habitat area. Cannot speak individually for each case but keeping numbers down to a manageable level so that another species can survive or is not in a threatened state is the dilemma and is a really tough decision to make and is not taken lightly thankfully, or we would have more extinct species in the UK. Doing nothing is sometimes a conscious conservation choice ( see: Oostvaardersplasse) but wildlife is not looking after itself now days is it, so maybe the unseen should be explained.
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Kenny
3/2/2019 06:08:01 pm
And look how Oostvaardersplasse worked out....
Ian Somerville
3/2/2019 11:22:20 am
I don't believe the RSPB and the majority of its members really have the interests of birds at heart. I do think they have this notion of an idyllic lanscape untouched by humans - from the distant past which they'd like to recreate. Most I've spoken to actually eat birds and/or their cholesterol-laden reproductive waste - not something you'd do if you cared.
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Rachel Hilton
11/2/2019 12:03:54 am
I have cancelled my membership with the RSPB after reading this article. I completely disagree with what they are doing and feel my membership fees would be better spent elsewhere.
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Norman Murray
11/4/2021 04:11:41 am
The RSPB are only interested in funding, they don't care about anything only where the next lot of money is coming from.
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Steve
16/2/2023 07:51:19 pm
RSPB.....Really Selective Protection of Birds
Bex
3/2/2019 02:38:39 pm
This blog almost gets there when the author says, 'It's only human intervention that created imbalance in our countryside.' Well, yes: that's the problem: we have a serious imbalance, which does very little harm to certain species (even benefits some of them, in fact ) but which is damaging to others to the extent that they risk becoming locally, if not internationally, extinct. There are no top predators to limit foxes and deer: their two main enemies now (in the UK at least) are the car and the gun. Foxes will destroy the nests of ground-nesting birds (Red List ones like curlews, for example). Deer will breed and multiply until they wreck their own environment, to their ultimate disbenefit and that of many other species. Non-lethal control essentially means moving them somewhere else, so that they become someone else's concern. Somehow push those excess deer out of the reserve and onto farmland, and the farmer will bring in someone with a rifle. I don't think the RSPB really has very much choice.
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James Thonas
3/2/2019 05:02:40 pm
Bex
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Ruth Kerr
4/2/2019 06:14:45 pm
Reactions to this are interesting.I've known since I was about 10 that the RSPB kill things (c30 years); or work with other local land managers to. Is it really a surprise to people? Or is it just an unpalatable truth?
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Davy Johnstone
19/4/2019 03:16:31 am
There are two guys who are hired contract killers for the RSPB operating in my local area. They are working continuous shifts day and night in this one large area killing foxes using high tech night vision equipment and trapping crows using traps and decoys. From what I gather they have been doing it in this location continuously for more than two years that I'm aware of.
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Neil
2/3/2020 10:59:45 am
Having read your article, I note that you
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Twitcher
10/5/2020 12:50:56 pm
You criticise, but you offer no solutions on how to save species. The RSPB and others, are not on some blood lust, they take the difficult decisions as a last resort, which are required to save vulnerable and threatened species, some heading towards UK extinction.
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bailey
20/9/2021 04:41:15 pm
no i cant look at the picture
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John chapman
8/6/2022 11:27:14 am
Crows are a menace to ground nesting birds during the breeding season and crows have no control over them except by keepers the keepers kill goshawks and goshawks diet is at least 70 percent corvids I don’t see the harm in culling crows if they are eating the eggs and chicks of certain endangered ground nesting birds
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