PC madness in the UK

[English Mike]

Field Sports in the UK?
Not for much longer:

Only shoot woodpigeon if you can't scare it off
By Charles Clover
(Filed: 01/03/2005)

The shooting of woodpigeons and crows may only take place in future only if scaring them has been shown not to work, the Government said yesterday.

Under new rules which came into force yesterday, woodpigeons, magpies and other pest bird species may be shot only if other, non-lethal forms of pest control, including gas guns and scarecrows, have first been demonstrated not to protect crops or game birds.

Landowners and field sports bodies were astonished at changes which they said came without any consultation, announcement or even being posted on the website of the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) on the day they came into force.

The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) said the changes effectively outlawed the shooting of woodpigeons, a pursuit traditionally followed by hundreds of thousands of camouflage-clad shooters at this time of year.

What came into force yesterday and unannounced was a change to the wording of general licences issued to kill pest species including woodpigeons, rooks, crows, magpies, jays, collared doves, Canada geese, greater and lesser black-backed gulls.

Countryside organisations were informed by Defra that the wording of the latest general licences, which apply to all shooters, was being changed to read: “This licence can only be relied upon in circumstances where the authorised person can demonstrate that appropriate non-lethal methods of control such as scaring are either ineffective or impracticable.”

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