10/06/2019
On Friday
7 June, Wild Justice launched a legal challenge against Natural England's (NE)
licence GL26, which allows the killing of Carrion
Crows that cause damage to livestock, including reared gamebirds. The
non-profit company, set up by Chris Packham CBE, Dr Ruth Tingay and Dr Mark
Avery, is launching the challenge citing a lack of clarity as to how the
licences are awarded and questioning how Common
Pheasants qualify as livestock.
This
latest objection relates to two aspects of the licence, chiefly NE's approach
to 'alternatives' and 'kept' in relation to the killing of Carrion Crows to
protect Common Pheasants. In short, Wild Justice is questioning the fact that
NE has not specified the circumstances in which there is no alternative to
killing, while also inventing a new and unlawful definition of 'kept' which
greatly expands the conditions under which Common Pheasants could be regarded
as livestock.
News of
this challenge comes following a recent victory for Wild Justice in which Natural
England was forced to revoke general licences to kill certain bird species
without reason. The justifications for this new challenge are similar, with
Wild Justice feeling that England's statutory nature conservation adviser and
regulator is failing to get the law right and protect wildlife from unlawful
killing.
No comments:
Post a Comment