Hello, i just wanted to show people what i found on facebook, canada goose shot for food in leicester.

www.facebook.com/photo.php

Hi John,

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. Whilst it is indeed very upsetting and inappropriate, Canada geese can be shot from the 1st of September to 31 January. The goose looks freshly dead and as the image was posted on the 26th September this is within this time frame. As long as this individual is keeping this bird for himself and not selling it on, then this would be legal.

Canada Geese are also listed on Natural England General Licences (www.naturalengland.org.uk/.../generallicences.aspx) which means they can also be killed or taken outside the close season (Feb 1st to Aug 31st) - as long as the person shooting them complies to the rules listed in the licence guidelines.

Claire

Claire has addressed the legality issue and it's pretty clear that nobody is going to jail here. I'd now like to don my Jedi robe and cover issues of sustainability and morality in that order.

Canada Geese are so far off the conservation concern radar screen that they warrant a traffic light grading all of their own - "ultra green" perhaps. They are an introduced species and many would argue that there are way too many of them. They could usefully feature on a fantasy ultimately environmentally sound banqueting menu along with signal crayfish, mitten crabs, grey squirrel and wood pigeon. On sustainability grounds I find the defendant innocent.

Turning to morality, I am known for my robust views on industrial scale game shooting. I'd ban it all tomorrow if I could - not least because of collateral damage to non-target species particularly illegally persecuted birds of prey. Here, however, the defendant has simply shot for the pot. It's pretty clear from the available evidence that that goose is going to be dinner and, personally, I see no moral problem with that at all. We're all evolved to be omnivores so other species are sometimes going to end up inside us. I hope that the defendant used non-toxic shot. If so I judge him cleared of all charges.

If he used a crossbow then he's fit only for Red Kite food...