The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

General Licences – important information for controlling avian pest species


If you control pest species under the general licence, you need to be aware of the following:

In England, the interim general licences issued by Defra are due to expire on 29 February.

• Legally robust general licences are essential for protecting biodiversity, agriculture and human health. This is a key priority and BASC will continue to fight for a workable system.

• BASC has held meetings at Cabinet level, with Defra and written to the government pressing them to get their act together and ensure the protection of human health, agriculture, flora and fauna can continue. Letters to the government can be read here.

• It is simply not acceptable that a second breeding season should be left unprotected because of legal wrangles between Wild Justice and Defra.

• BASC has given notice that, should this matter come to court, we will register as an interested party to put our case before the judge.

• We have urged Defra to extend the current licences to allow their review to be completed while ensuring that necessary control continues to take place.

What you need to know

• Check the BASC website for regular updates.

• If you are operating under an individual licence or in or within 300m of an EU-designated site you should apply for an individual licence here.

• Boundaries of EU designated sites can be found here.

• If you live in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland details of general licences issued by their governments can be found here:

– Click here for Scotland –

– Click here for Wales –

– Click here for Northern Ireland –

(PLEASE NOTE LINKS ARE NOT WORKING AS I COPIED AND PASTED)

For further information please contact:

England: 01244 573 019

Scotland: 01350 723 226

Wales: 01244 573 029

Northern Ireland: 02892 605 050

The General Licences have been extended to the end of July 2020.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/six- ... wild-birds

Polchraine, thanks for posting.

We are working intensively on delivering a robust licensing system for the future which balances the different interests at stake in a fair way.

In other words, Wild Justice.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/0 ... am-backed/

I can't quite get my head around what Wild Justice is trying to achieve apart from making life difficult for many...is that really it...just to make life difficult.

Little children springs to mind.

We were out on National Pigeon Saturday last weekend and the crop damage this year is staggering. Worst I have ever seen.

Ovenpaa wrote:We were out on National Pigeon Saturday last weekend and the crop damage this year is staggering. Worst I have ever seen.

Stems from last years "ban". Way fewer were shot then, leaving massive hordes to destroy crops. I was reading recently how much damage they casue and it is ten of millions if not more.

It is ever so simple, if the food is there the birds will thrive, multiply, create more damage until there is no more food and then the population will dwindle.

So as long as the farms are growing food for humans or trying to, I saw two fields emptied by pigeons Saturday, just levelled, we will see an increase in pigeons and the like, they need to be managed.

Simplified but in a nut shell.

So what exactly is the point of Wild Justice? Both to do with this situation and in general.

I think it is on par with the terrorist group Extinction Rebellion...create havoc for the sake of it, make a name for yourself, never mind the damage that is being done in the process or how much money it costs society. The louder they shout they better they feel. Children

Unfortunately, no one in government has the cajounes to tell Packam et al, to STFU!

Food supply is a matter of National Security. Snowflakes had far too much Disney as kids....

christel wrote:So what exactly is the point of Wild Justice? Both to do with this situation and in general.

To put the other point of view which is to question whether we have the right, or to what extent we have the right, to kill wildlife for our own convenience.

Disclaimer - I don't know how "extreme" the views/actions/proposals of them are, but I do support the principle of having campaigners against the accepted, the status quo, in all areas.

Clarification - I'm (clearly) not opposed to shooting, I like eating meat, and I think that others who do also but bang on about how it's wrong to pick up a gun and kill animals are hypocrites. But that doesn't mean that I am not, or think nobody should be, questioning of some of the practices and policies involved. Are there alternatives to mass killing of badgers to deal with the problem of bovine TB transmission? Even if they cost more, do we have the moral right to kill animals instead? Are the ways that grouse moors are managed really beneficial to the environment, and other wildlife? There is at least some evidence which says that flooding downstream of them is exacerbated by current practices, and flooding takes human lives.

I think it is on par with the terrorist group Extinction Rebellion

Really?

Either you don't know anything about ER, or you have no idea what the word "terrorist" means.

So on the one hand you object to "extremist" groups, and then you come out with something extremely distorted like that?

never mind the damage that is being done in the process or how much money it costs society.

How much money will unchecked global heating and climate change cost society?

And how much society will it cost the human race?

The louder they shout they better they feel.

Maybe they shout so that those who will not listen find it harder to not hear?

Children

Can you justify your stance of classing those who campaign against doing nothing about anthropogenic climate change as terrorists to children who will have to live with the problem long after you are dead? Can you look them in the eye as you do so, and assure them that you are fulfilling one of the roles of an adult, which is to keep them safe?


You may well think that ER are going about it in the wrong way, and have proposals for better ways of campaigning, but we aren't going to get anywhere if people polarise the discussion by calling the people they disagree with terrorists and children.

Sim G wrote:Unfortunately, no one in government has the cajounes to tell Packam et al, to STFU!

Food supply is a matter of National Security. Snowflakes had far too much Disney as kids....

For heavens sake.

I'm sure there isn't a single person here who isn't critical of the irrational and evidence-free way the government went about, and has gone about, gun control laws, and how they didn't and don't listen to calmly made, factual arguments, and yet here you are denigrating those whose opinions you disagree with and telling them to STFU.

That sort of thing is not likely to bring about any rapprochements.