8 AUGUST 2018 • 5:55PM
RSPB members
have quit the organisation and accused it of behaving like bloodsport
enthusiasts over a controversial crow culling programme intended to protect
threatened birds.
Members have complained they
signed up to the charity without being told it was actively killing certain
species.
Tensions have spilled over in
recent days resulting in one RSPB warden apologising for telling critics they
were “knuckleheads and nimbies”.
The disquiet focuses principally
on a cull of crows which has been undertaken to protect the Eurasian
curlew, whose breeding population in the UK has halved since the
mid-1990s.
The RSPB said it goes to great
lengths to avoid “predator control” but that it saw “no other viable
conservation alternatives”.
The five-year recovery programme
is being undertaken across two areas in Northern England, two in Scotland, one
in Wales and one in Northern Ireland.
How can an organisation enact
long term change through lobbying and speaking up for nature when those
supposedly wanting a change turn their backs and withdraw their support? Unless
you're going to do it on your own, get over yourselves and see the bigger picture #ImNaturesVoice https://t.co/hRT0CnwEK7
The measures have included
shooting and the use of larsen traps, a device which traps birds alive
The organisation said it killed
528 hooded crows in 2016-17, up from 475 the year before, as well as 414 foxes,
an increase of 390 in the previous year.
However, a row has broken out
among members, with some expressing distress that that the RSPB has hired
gamekeepers from shooting estates to help with the cull.
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