"AMacmil304" wrote in message
...
Published letter:

Dear Sir

Birds at Risk from the RSPB

I agree wholeheartedly with R Shanks' letter last week that birds should
be
protected from developers but would add that they also need protection
from the
RSPB.

Earlier this year, I came across a British Association for Shooting and
Conservation web page, where it was revealed that shooters were "managing"
a
reserve for the RSPB. Within a day of me bringing this to the attention
of an
Internet public forum, the page was removed. Following a lengthy
telephone
call to the RSPB Scottish headquarters voicing my concern, I wrote to them
asking if they would identify the location of this reserve, where wildfowl
were
being shot. They didn't reply.

Consequently, I started to do some research and found that shooting
tenants on
their Abernethy Reserve kill about 400 red grouse each year. The RSPB's
explanation for this is, "it is good for public relations as the reserve
is
then not seen as divorced from normal country pursuits". It seems the
lives of
game birds are expendable unless, as in the case of the capercaillie and
black
grouse, they are relatively rare and attract millions of pounds to the
organisation in government grants, donations and publicity.
More recently, I came across a message from a serving police officer to a
wildfowling forum, which stated; "I shoot over marches owned by the RSPB.
They
lease the Humber wildfowlers the shooting on there and I suppose we sort
of
police them for the RSPB". If this killing is taking place from Abernethy
to
Humberside and beyond, one can only speculate how widespread the shooting
of
birds is on RSPB reserves.

The RSPB also kill and advocate the killing of various species of wildlife
on
their reserves and elsewhere for questionable conservation benefits, yet
when
asked to provide an environmental impact assessment of their overall
effect on
the natural environment, in terms of their own activities, fail to do so.

Reserves for wildlife should be safe havens; not killing fields.

This grist has been ground over and over in this newsgroup to such an extent
that it deserves not to be replied to in terms other than those I am
employing here.

Franz