You may have wondered what has happened to our Bird of Prey pledge campaign.  This campaign is to send a strong message to this and future governments that the illegal killing of birds of prey is unnacceptable. Back in the summer and autumn there were frequent mentions of it in this blog and heavy hints that we were getting close to the 200,000 mark.

Big peregrine - big petitionWell, today we handed in the petition to the Defra Biodiversity Minister, Huw Irranca-Davies, at an event in the park next to Parliament.

Volunteers came and held up placards to make the shape of a giant peregrine falcon and as if by magic, when some of the placards were turned over they revealed the logos of some of the 30 organisations supporting the campaign and the magic number 210, 567 - the highest number of signatures that the RSPB has ever gathered for any cause.  Thank you to all of you who signed up. And thank you to those who stood in the cold with aching arms today!

And we got support from many countryside organisations and from the environment Ministers in all four UK parliaments and from the biggest three political parties in England. 

I know that Mr Irranca-Davies is personally committed to this cause.  In one of his first Ministerial days out he visited the Gateshead red kite project and signed the bird of prey pledge on behalf on Defra.  That pledge, I am glad to tell you, is still hanging in his office in Defra.

It would have been great had a real peregrine flown over - one quite often sees them perching on the Houses of Parliament these days, but it is a bit sad to realise that there are more pairs of peregrines nesting in central London than in the Peak District or in many other highly suitable upland areas. 

So is that it?  Of course not!  Watch the RSPB website and this blog for news of our continuing work for birds of prey.  The illegal persecution of these impressive but vulnerable birds is a national disgrace.  Now almost everyone has said that it must stop - let's make sure that it does stop!

 

Parents
  • Hi Mark lets hope as you say almost everyone has said it must stop-lets make sure that it does stop.My observation and in no way a criticism is that sadly it is perhaps 210,567 want it stopped and I know this is terribly negative and really no one feels worse about it but from observations over last two weeks of a lot of sites very few people have any care about raptor persecution including lots of who I would have thought wildlife lovers.So while well done for the petition still a massive way still to go.I might well get caned for this but assure anyone that I hate raptor persecution as much as anyone and as Mark says about Peregrines in Peak District it should have loads of all raptors,that tells its own story.

Comment
  • Hi Mark lets hope as you say almost everyone has said it must stop-lets make sure that it does stop.My observation and in no way a criticism is that sadly it is perhaps 210,567 want it stopped and I know this is terribly negative and really no one feels worse about it but from observations over last two weeks of a lot of sites very few people have any care about raptor persecution including lots of who I would have thought wildlife lovers.So while well done for the petition still a massive way still to go.I might well get caned for this but assure anyone that I hate raptor persecution as much as anyone and as Mark says about Peregrines in Peak District it should have loads of all raptors,that tells its own story.

Children
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