Sod the Pheasants !

Update 30.5.2012 DEFRA have dropped their plans following a public uproar ! read more here http://www.rspb.org.uk/news/315871-the-public-steps-up-for-buzzards


News this week that DEFRA (a Government Department) are proposing to spend up to £375,000 of our money netting buzzards and destroying their nests.


Buzzards can regularly be seen soaring majestically in the skies or occasionally perched on telegraph poles in country lanes. You might wonder what have these birds of prey, that have come back from the brink over the last 20 years, done to cause such offence.  

Image courtesy of the RSPB

Killing pheasant chicks is the answer. If you not up with the country scene pheasants are born, fed and released to provide shooting for the "country set" and those who aspire to such status. Never mind that they are such a slow flying birds that they can barely take off the ground and hardly pose a challenging target.

Not surprisingly the Countryside Alliance welcomed the Government's "study", saying it showed the issue of predation by buzzards was being taken seriously. A spokesperson is quoted as saying "It is a shame the government have had to commission this expensive exercise simply to appease a group of people who believe that raptors have a greater significance than any other bird."

The RSPB has described the idea of taking wild buzzards into captivity or destroying their nests was "totally unacceptable". Their conservation director, Martin Harper, said: "We are shocked by Defra's plans to destroy buzzard nests and to take buzzards into captivity to protect a non-native game bird released in its millions.


So just to sum this up - at a time when cuts are being made services like health and social care, the Government can find £375,000 to safeguard the shooting fraternity's "sport" and break the wildlife and countryside laws into the bargain (that's unless they change them first). 


Find out more 


Press association article
RSPB information on Buzzards

What can you do ?

You can email DEFRA Minister Richard Benyon MP  and tell him what you think about this illegal, scientifically-illiterate and unethical trial. You might want to ask him what scientific evidence was used to justify the proposal and ask him whether there was any consultation on the issue, and if there was, which organisations were consulted?