Some friendly advice

The dust has barely settled over Buzzardgate, but here we are again: another call on the Government to permit the widespread destruction of not just one this time, but two of our native bird species. 

It’s not pheasant shoots this time, but angling.  The Angling Trust has got together with its friends at the Countryside Alliance, the British Association for Shooting and Conservation, the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust and a few others to urge the Minister, Richard Benyon, to add cormorants and goosanders to the general licence (which would allow unlimited killing of these birds). They say this is necessary to protect fish stocks.

I’ve blogged previously on the many reasons why this proposal – like that on buzzards – is…well…just plain wrong (read it here) so I won’t repeat myself.  But it surprises me that this band of organisations is apparently so unconcerned about landing the Minister in hot water again.

I’d like to think that, within Defra, lessons have been learned from buzzards – if not, I would certainly advise that they are, and quickly.  Cormorants and goosanders may not be as familiar to people as buzzards, but that doesn’t mean that they are any less valued as part of our native wildlife. 

It is remarkable that this debate appears to have reopened at a time when political leaders have converged in Rio to determine how to save the planet and help us live within our environmental means.  I am not sure Defra ministers will want the first post-Rio action to involve sanctioning unlimited killing of two native species. The public won’t stand for their unrestricted destruction, and neither will we.