Nets on birdfood

I went to homebase today as needed a small bag of RSPB peanuts and I noticed that Gardman are still selling suet balls, peanuts and mixed seed with the horrible green and red net round the foods. These had the BTO stamp of authority on them. You would think in this day and age the manufacturers would stop making these nets.. Profit before the well being of birds I think.. If I remember rightly even Homebase's own brand of suet balls had this net on them. The red nets you do not take of the nuts and seeds as you use this as the hanger so is evidently meant to hang in gardens. Sorry this really got my back up today and will be writing to homebase and also Gardman. Many people that start feeding birds do not know how dangerous these things are especially when Gardman shows you on their rot iron bird feeder, that is also for sale in homebase, the suet in the green net hanging beautifully. I am shocked that BTO is allowing them to use their good name on a product that is so faulty. It even says on the packets "recommended by Britain's leading wild bird research organisation". BTO have not done much research in to these nets then in my opinion. The RSPB has such a big voice and could help stop the sale of these nets which will endanger our garden birds. I can and will write letters but I am only one person and there must be millions of these products on our stores shelfs throughout the UK.
  • I too am surprised they still sell them like this, knowing the danger. Good for you for writing in about it. It will be interesting to see their response if you get one

    Sarah

  • Hi there and thanks for sharing your concern over this issue.

    Over the years that I have worked in wildlife enquiries I have spoken to many people concerned about mesh bags and have seen the damage these nets can have on wild birds on a number of occasions. When the RSPB realised that mesh bags were a potential threat to wild birds we stopped selling such products and adjusted our advice to warn other sof the dangers. Thankfully many organisations are now starting to sell products without these potential death traps.

    Unfortunately, many other organisations have not followed suit and are still using these dangerous and uneccessary plastic mesh wrappers. Not only can they cause injury or worse to wild birds but they are just one more hazardous item of plastic to go into landfill.

    Please do write to the manufacturers, retailers and other organisations that are endorsing the products. If you should come across any birds that are entangled in mesh bags, before saving them, if it is possible take a picture and send it to us as this will help us highlight the issue at hand to those that still need to be persuaded.

  • Hi Lolly

    That's fine by me. For your information I have linked below our online shop page where it explains why we do not sell suet balls in mesh bags.

    http://shopping.rspb.org.uk/p/Birdfood/Buggy_suet_balls.htm

     

  • Well done Lolly,  and let us know how you get on.

  • Thanks for what you are doing Lolly, I wonder if you could post one of your letters and we could all "sign" it as replies? you could then print that out.

    Jenni

  • Nice that someone has taken this up Lolly,I know many folk remove the nets but ethers do not realise the problem exists.Keep us informed on progress and good luck.

  • Hi Lolly, sorry for not replying sooner, I missed your comments about the poster idea. This is a really good suggestion and one that I can see has potential, I have suggested it to some other departments across the organisation to see if it is something we could look into doing, I can't promise anything more at this stage.

    However, keep an eye out in the media over the next week or two as we are going to issue a press release warning of the potential hazards mesh bags can have. If anyone out there has any pictures of birds caught up in mesh bags please send them in so we can use them to help illustrate the dangers.

    Best wishes

  • Well done Lolly, you deserve a medal - or at least a Good Egg.

  • Well done from me as well Lolly.

    I think what you are doing is excellent and I'm sure if something comes of it we will all be thanking you again.

    Viv.