Jaques d'Alltrades wrote:


I believe you are correct - you have to be able to show that you've
tried to discourage them until you're at your wit's end, now you come to
mention it.

The local Head Keeper was commenting on this quite recently.


The wording of the new general licences did give this impression. Of course,
DEFRA said that it was the reader that was at fault, and that was not what
they meant. Despite being in the right, they did change the wording so us
poor old proles could understand:

" Defra has today published changes to its guidance on the control of bird
species under the so-called "general licence" following some
misinterpretation of the new system.

Some landowners and other stakeholders had interpreted new guidance
published to coincide with the recent review of the Wildlife and
Countryside Act to mean that they would have to try non lethal means of
pest control and to demonstrate the fact before resorting to shooting
species on the general licence.

This is not the case and was not the intention of the new guidance. It has
always been the case under the 1981 Act that the killing of birds on the
general licence has only been permitted where there is no other
satisfactory solution for specific purposes, for example, preventing damage
to crops or protecting public health and safety. That is because of legal
obligations under the 1979 EC Birds Directive. In an attempt to clarify
this in the new guidance, the impression was given of a change in how the
general licences may be used. In order to clear up this misunderstanding
the Department has changed, with immediate effect, the wording of paragraph
four of the WLF 18, WLF 100085, WLF 100088 general licences to -

"This Licence can only be relied on in circumstances where the authorised
person is satisfied that appropriate non-lethal methods of control such as
scaring are either ineffective or impracticable."

Nature Conservation Minister, Ben Bradshaw, said:

"I hope that by making this change it is now clear to those who use general
licences that there has been no change in how they may deal with pest
species. Landowners, gamekeepers and others will continue to be able to
shoot species listed on the general licence if they believe that to be the
most sensible course of action. "

British Association of Shooting and Conservation, the UK's largest shooting
organisation representing 122,000 people said " BASC welcomes this
clarification which makes it very plain that lawful pest control can
continue". "

from :http://www.defra.gov.uk/news/2005/050309c.htm

--
"In Christianity neither morality nor religion come into contact with
reality at any point."
-- Friedrich Nietzsche