[Isurus]

Originally Posted by birdboybowley

Wouldn't get me out of bed for that....!!!!

lucky you.

[scfmerlin]

Malcolm

I think the poisoning would still carry on regardless of any 'legal' shooting.

Originally Posted by malgos

Hi
Pheasant rearing and shooting is really big buisness in rural ares and injects huge sums of money into the local economies in all manner of diverse wayssand in many instances is the major source of income for many landowners particularly the big Scottish estates.
Whatever anyone thinks raptors are going to be killed if the gamekeepers wish to do so,there are too many cases of illegal poisoning carried out on almost a daily basis.
The vast tracts of some of these estates are too big to police and so it is impossible to monitor the situation The only way forward is to try and educate people,we have 8-10 year old children whose fathers work on these estates thinking it is perfectly acceptable to poison raptors. It is very difficult to eradicate this ingrained viewpoint.
Would not issuing licenses to shoot Buzzards under very strict controls save them from a horrible death due to poisoning?
Malcolm

[llendorin]

Why not just wait until the guidelines come out, before jumping on the bandwagon?

SNH are still pretty adamant that licenses will only be granted once all other options have been explored, so don't be expecting every person who applies for a license to kill buzzards to be granted one.

You know, strictly speaking, this isn't news. It has always been the case that you can apply for a license to shoot buzzards... they have always been refused in the past. The only real news is that they are releasing guidelines (next year, for those who just had a rant without reading the article or following it up elsewhere) on what circumstances they may allow the issue of a license. Sure, they may be relaxing the rules a little... but I'll wager that the number of licenses granted is tiny.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not a fan of the idea... i just think its a bit premature to be making any decisions on what a catastrophe it would be until the guidelines have been released.

[birdboybowley]

Originally Posted by Isurus

lucky you.

What for £30 A DAY...really???????!!!

[jacana]

Originally Posted by birdboybowley

What for £30 A DAY...really???????!!!

When you’re a student in a very rural area, such as North Shropshire, £30 a day is quite handy holiday money, when you can't get into a town on a regular basis to find other work.

Maybe I have (or you have) a skewed idea of the number of buzzards in Scotland. Round here every wood and copse has at least one pair and buzzards are by far the most frequently seen raptors, I was under the impression there were similar numbers in Scotland. I believe you live in Sussex? I gather buzzards less frequent all together the further east you go, certainly when I visit Norfolk I see far more Marsh Harriers than Buzzards.

I am also very much aware of the fact that pheasants are not usually the main prey item of buzzards, but that doesn't stop populations or individuals from changing their diet to an easier food source.

[Farnboro John]

So here comes another victim of devolution. Seals, sand dunes, Buzzards.... where will it stop? Doesn't seem to me likely that it will. Much more likely that Scottish cronyism courtesy of oily politician will see the undoing of many years of heading in the right direction.

Those cruel to domestic animals can be banned from keeping them. It seems to me only right that gamekeepers convicted of breaches of laws that they must be aware of (is the legal side compulsory in modern gamekeeper training? If not why not?) should be banned from further employment in the game business, not to mention having their firearms certificates removed. Thus laughable fines paid by employers would be replaced with the dole or retraining as call centre workers.

John