Hi folks,
I was hoping to have some news for you, as to when Natural England plan to publish the annual declaration of bird control licences (it's due next month). I've also asked for more on the 'teaser' I was given before Christmas by Natural England's director for wildlife licensing, David Slater, about the controversial licences that enable eggs of Black-headed gulls to be collected from nesting colonies for the 'fine dining' trade. Mr Slater told me there would be "something public on this in the new year," which suggested to me that changes might be in the pipeline. Wall of Silence I've been politely asking for a conversation about both of these matters for the past two weeks and I'm afraid I've been met with a wall of silence. It's not entirely surprising - I have a battle every year to get the licence data released - but it is irritating and, frankly, just really bad manners to ignore my requests. I have worked hard to establish useful dialogue with Natural England and through this have managed to successfully bring about changes in the way they operate the licensing system. I think this is mutually beneficial - and moreover has strengthened protection for our wild birds. I believe that the achievements of our campaign (so far) have saved the lives of countless birds. So it's hugely disappointing when Natural England go quiet on me like this. "We have nothing to hide" If Natural England are proud of the work they do (and they do blow their own trumpet frequently), then we might expect that they would freely share the data with us. Indeed three years ago I was promised that they would happily declare the complete licence information every year going forward. "We have nothing to hide" they kept telling me. Yes, well..... every year since then I have had to 'persuade' them to release the data. And it looks like this year may be no exception. So, to the 390,253+ amazing people who support and follow our campaign, please be assured I will not give up. I'll keep putting pressure on Natural England, in the knowledge that I have your support. In addition I will be looking closely at some of their plans for 2022, including the rolling out of their new 'organisational licences' which could potentially make it easier for local councils to control gulls. We're not going to go away, so it might just be better for them to communicate more efficiently and show some respect. As soon as I have an update I'll let you know. Please keep sharing the petition: HERE Thanks, Jase
39 Comments
Martin Webber
4/2/2022 07:45:22 pm
Thank you for the work that you do. As a species, we seem to think that we have a right to destroy as we please. We are only slowly destroying ourselves.
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Ronald Teague
5/2/2022 10:52:23 am
Well said mate
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Neil
5/2/2022 11:26:20 am
Spot on!!
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Karen
4/2/2022 07:49:49 pm
Keep up the good work Jason. I am really glad you keep going and dont give in. Thank you.
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David Mann
4/2/2022 07:57:55 pm
live in sw Scotland in the countryside,Ifeel we need control of birds of prey,When we can teach sparrow hawks not to attack small birds Ill be happy,
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Keith Dancey
4/2/2022 09:07:49 pm
"I feel we need control of birds of prey"
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John Crispin
4/2/2022 11:50:37 pm
perfect reply to a nonsensical comment
Dianne Wylde
5/2/2022 08:14:18 am
It's part of the food ladder. Birds of prey hunt anything they can eat. Just because it offends your sensibilities doesn't mean you should stop them. You would like them just to eat mice and rats but not birds eh?, Really!!!
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J Ham
5/2/2022 08:58:39 am
When you see raptors in your garden it’s an indication that you have a healthy small bird population in the locality. Nothing to worry about. Starlings drive me mad they bully the small birds off my feeders and gobble up all the food. However, they are in decline so live and let live I say.
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John Boulton
5/2/2022 09:02:22 am
To David Mann,
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Barbara maude
5/2/2022 11:42:28 am
What we need is for idiot humans to stop killing for fun. Animals only kill for food. It is humans that are destroying this planet not sparrow hawks.
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R Third
5/2/2022 01:32:13 pm
With respect, please take a close look at factory farming of meat and dairy animals and you will understand how we are completely destroying the natural order. It could not be any more cruel, unsustainable, water consuming, land consuming, forest destroying or polluting. The state of nature is in crisis because of the complete mess humans are making of it. Please also consider the ecological impact of releasing millons of intensively reared non native birds into our UK countryside annually only to be maimed and killed (using lead shot) for fun. The pheasants here eat everything they can find. Plant shoots, seeds, insects, lizards, frogs, ground nesting bird eggs and fledglings... Oyster catcher, Lapwing...We have turned everything up side down even to the point where we are breeding big cat predators in Africa in cages for the sole purpose of someone ..often from the UK..to pay to shoot them for fun and hang them on their wall ( canned hunting). So, to go back to our Birds of Prey, they are a crucial part of a healthy ecosystem and have been for a very very long time..before we came along.
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Andrew Berry
6/2/2022 05:59:26 am
Absolutely agree with you R Third - the red meat industry has destroyed an immensity of nature across the whole world and especially here in the UK where sheep grazing and silage fields, grown to feed beef cattle, have entirely displaced nature and the associated pollution of air, soil and water is likewise gargantuan. Red meat farming alone has caused over a third of all historical CO2e emissions and as long as it continues at its current scale will remain the single biggest driver of climate catastrophe.
Simon Tucker
5/2/2022 07:21:24 pm
Ignorance is no defence: and you are very ignorant. Firstly, it is Sparrowhawk, not sparrow hawk. Secondly, numbers in the UK are falling and the species is amber listed in the latest list of birds of conservation concern - but I doubt that means anything to you because I bet "you know better"
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4/2/2022 08:09:35 pm
And Still My Favourite Brutus the Bullfinch Is on Their Lists !
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Graham
4/2/2022 09:02:52 pm
Excellent work Jason.
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R Third
5/2/2022 02:57:22 pm
Love watching Corvids spectacular acrobatics on a windy day...masters of flight..they keep the countryside clean, they are a farmers friend..eating leatherjackets in the fields, and so so clever.
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Andrea Bygate
4/2/2022 09:20:00 pm
Is it really about the 🦅
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Sophia Hale-Sutton
4/2/2022 09:23:47 pm
Thank you Jason for your tenacity in attempting to hold Natural England to account. I support Wild Justice who are also campaigning to halt the slaughter of our wild birds. I wondered if you are in contact with Wild Justice or collaborate with them?
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Judith Lucas
4/2/2022 10:29:31 pm
This government and all its departments are too fond of not giving out information. They seem to think they are above the law. We have to find some way of regaining control of what goes on in Britain, before we have no civil rights left.
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Christine Mary Burden
5/2/2022 07:29:15 am
Here, here
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Ellen
4/2/2022 10:42:08 pm
Well done Jason, keep fighting on behalf of the threatened birds. Just because they are birds of prey does not mean humans should prey on them. We all have lives to live. Live and let live - meaning we all have to eat - but must not enjoy the killing, as some humans appear to.
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Frank Courtney
4/2/2022 11:00:10 pm
Thanks for the update Jason. Much appreciate your efforts. Thank you.
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Carole Rogers
5/2/2022 12:58:35 am
Well done Jason for all you've achieved so far. Keep up the momentum, good luck in going forward.
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Stacey Boyd
5/2/2022 08:39:11 am
Thank you so much for everything that you do and all the time and effort and money put into this
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Simon George Spratt
5/2/2022 09:28:09 am
This isn’t great news, but what do you expect from a bloody Tory Government? They have the moral fibre of only God knows what creatures!!
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Bruce
5/2/2022 11:48:11 am
The Tory government has no moral fibre whatsoever. They are far too busy lining their own pockets.
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Christine Bates
5/2/2022 11:50:55 am
Ive spoken to Natural England in the past having avidly read your emails they ofcourse promote their own agenda . I REALLY admire your persistance , & will contniue to support where I can . If you need more people to ting Natural England, just shout I am more than willing
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R Third
5/2/2022 01:43:02 pm
Another consideration re Birds of Prey that feed on smaller birds (the surival of the fittest) ..think of the numbers of song birds and small migrating birds indiscriminately trapped and shot across Europe every year...millions. Perhaps we should be tackling the billions of song birds and other birds killed by people and do something to address this. Next time you have your roast chicken, chicken drumsticks etc...you might have a look at the life and suffering of the factory farmed poulet.
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Tany
5/2/2022 04:06:45 pm
It’s shameful how they behave. They won’t beat you/us though Jase! Good on you 👍
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richard
5/2/2022 05:37:19 pm
Its thanks to the unpaid efforts of people like you Jason that the paid members of quangos like Natural England actually do their job however unwillingly. It should not be like this. But it is. So all power to you and your work. Maybe everyone who supports this could also write to their MP directing them to the site and the issue. Even better would be if BBC Countryfile got involved but in their world everything is rosy... and taking gulls eggs for "fine dining" just would not happen. Unfortuantely it does and thanks again for highlighting it
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Frank62
6/2/2022 04:10:01 am
Permitting the genocide of our native birds should be more widely publicised. It'd neither natural nor English.
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Josephine Smith
6/2/2022 05:12:00 pm
Imagine a world with no song birds. When you are down in the dumps and suffer bouts of depression song birds can pull that black cloud away from us. As you walk in woodlands and hear birds singing it takes you to another wonderful place and in this troubled world we need our birds and wild life to change our moods and mind sets. Birds are good medicine and we need them to keep our sanity through all of the bad things. This is the reason it is illegal to kill birds or wild animals they are great medicine and they can give us something no one else can. They can do what a doctor can't. Why do we pay people at the top for protection of our wild life and environmental issues when they are not doing their job?
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Christine Wardlow-Kaye
6/2/2022 08:14:22 pm
Thank you so much for all you do to support wild birds. Those of us who love to watch and listen to birds are so grateful for,what you do to protect our wild birds from the likes of ruthless property developers etc.
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Colin West
6/2/2022 08:59:43 pm
Recruit Lord Ian BOTHAM.... And he'll take notice!!
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Josh Quinn
8/2/2022 10:17:30 am
The control of wild birds (and other species) is not only an entirely natural part of nature but essential for it's balance. Nature will naturally cause this control through predatory species, and disease which is designed to spread when there is a compact population, caused by overpopulation. I am not saying we should kill birds for the sake of it, but it's legalised, tested, reviewed and supported because that is the reason why so many of our species are still here. The same goes for mammals such as our red stags, which only made such a high comeback because of the shooting industry that boosted their numbers. The birds shot provide entirely natural zero-mileage food that lived the ultimate free-range life in the wild, and their meat is a huge by product from the most effective methods of confirmation. there is more to add, and if you're just going to deny this or call me wrong or cruel, I hope you base that off the way nature works, and not purely over the fact that you dislike it because you cannot accept the way that nature works. Above all, I'm not looking for an argument guys :)
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Irene Leggett
9/2/2022 10:55:03 pm
Its no wonder that the shooting of birds of prey and corvids still carry on as the 'game-keepers and hunters' want to protect the 50 MILLION NON-NATIVE pheasants and partridges that DEFRA allow to be hand-reared and released every autumn for the 'hunters' to enjoy blasting to death. Where I live, when these birds are released its quite common to see flocks wandering aimlessly on the country roads as most cannot even fly. In fact, they don't even fly away from the beaters and hunters, they are LITERALLY sitting targets and after a day's shooting, many of these birds are just dumped in pits and left to rot. Anything to keep the 'hunters' happy.
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Peter Edwards
12/2/2022 10:50:19 am
Bird control licences, I do not understand Natural England regarding this. There have to be powerful vested-interest influential pressures on them to take this stance.
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John Repsch
20/2/2022 09:34:14 pm
I always got on well with Tony Juniper when he was Executive Director of Friends of the Earth. But that all came to a shuddering halt when he was interviewed for BBC Radio 4's 'Today' programme about eight years ago. He was praising cats and saying that, like his own, they did no harm whatsoever to birds or mammals.
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