Wednesday, February 16

Stop the Corvid Cull

I was horrified to learn of this proposed cull from http://www.thecorvidjournal.blogspot.com. Corvids are a particular favourite of mine and the more I learn about them and study them in action, the more I realise they are totally undeserving of the reputation they have wrongly been given. They are intelligent, beautiful creatures. This does not mean however that I value them over songbirds – I see past the hype and value them equally, who are we to decide which species should live and which should die – isn’t that what nature is supposed to do?!

Plus, I’m really uncomfortable about the level of hypocrisy over matters like this – there are stats from the Mammal Society, which estimate that UK cats catch up to 275 million prey items a year, of which 55 million are birds, and I don’t see anyone calling for a cull of domestic cats! Please don’t get me wrong, I’m certainly not advocating a moggy-cull, merely using this as an example.

And then, when you look further into it, you learn that the group calling for the cull has strong connections with the shooting ‘industry’, and the group backing the cull also has connections with the same.

Anyway, enough ranting from me, you can find more information, from animalaid with details of how you can help oppose this senseless cull.

“The Songbird Survival Trust - several of whose most prominent figures own shoots or have strong shooting connections - has called for a cull on corvids (magpies, crows, jackdaws etc). This is despite there being evidence that these birds do not cause the deaths of songbirds as the Trust claims. It is reasonable to conclude that the group’s close connection to the shooting industry lies behind its cull plans given that shooters blame corvids for eating pheasant chicks and the feed intended for ‘game’ birds.

The group’s dubious motives were exposed in The Sunday Times on February 6th. Nick Forde, the Trust’s principle spokesman could not identify any of the three most endangered songbirds, despite claiming to be passionate about them. He had no trouble, however, identifying a pheasant.

The corvid cull is backed by the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT), which also boasts a number of leading figures who shoot or profit from shooting. Read the article in The Telegraph.

How can I help?
= Sign this: petition
= Write to Defra to oppose the cull:
Caroline Spelman, Secretary of State for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Nobel House, 17 Smith Square, London SW1P 3JR
= Contact the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust on 020 7290 0110
 or email (london@gwct.org.uk) to politely voice your objection.
= Attend the demonstration outside the GWCT’s office in London:
Meet: 12pm, Saturday 19th February
Contact on the day: Paul
Tel number on the day: 0799 981 2994
Address: 26 Mortimer St, W1W 7RB

8 comments:

FeltersJourney said...

OMG Im totally horrified too - very strongly agree with EVERYthing you said there. I shall have to go follow your link & look into this some more. Thanks for blogging about this

krex said...

One of the few great pieces of info I learned in College, you mention here...."when in doubt about motives, (they were talking specifically about research but applies to most propaganda)....follow the money .

I am strongly for the culling of people who hunt for the shear pleasure of killing things . Even if they use the excuse that they are going to eat it . If someone actually derives pleasure from watching the life blood ooze from an animal or seeing the light go out of the victims eyes ...they are most likely sociopaths and likely to do other acts of cruelty like selling innocent people defective toasters, stealing their retirement funds.

Cull them now and save the world further suffering .

krex said...

I did try and sign the petition and got the message that..."Sorry, someone has already attempted to sign the petition using this e-mail address"....I used a new email and got the same message, so am wondering if their site was hacked and it's blocking people from signing the petition . I know that sounds paranoid but...I know to much history NOT to be paranoid ...(just saying) .

Tracy Markey said...

hi feltersjourney, thanks for your support, i wasn't sure about posting this but now i'm glad i did.

Tracy Markey said...

hi krex, yep, unfortunately we live in a world where following the money will lead you to the motive too often.

i admire your passion and do agree with you on the senselessness of killing but if we were to cull those people, in my eyes, it would make us just as bad ...

thanks for trying to sign the petition and sorry you're having trouble with it, i'll see if i can find a 'contact' section to let them know it looks like they have been hacked.

Angela said...

I agree with you, I'll go sign now. I'm turning out to be quite an internet protestor! This will be ,y 4th petition this year.

Tracy Markey said...

thanks angela, every signature counts to hopefully stopping this going ahead :)

Anonymous said...

It's not that someone hacked it. It's a problem with the Wordpress Petition plugin that many people are having (including me!)