Hundreds of birds of
prey are deliberately killed each year with poisons that have no legal use,
according to MPs.
The Environmental Audit
Committee says confusion over wildlife laws means criminals often escape unpunished.
It is particularly
worried about carbofuran, a chemical used by rogue gamekeepers to kill raptors.
A Defra spokesman said
it had banned possession of the chemical, but the MPs insist that it has not.
The chemical is
devastatingly toxic to birds. A gamekeeper in Skibo, Scotland, convicted of
poisoning birds in 2011, was found to have possessed 10kg of the chemical -
enough to kill every raptor in the UK by breaking down its nervous system.
The committee learned
that there had been 633 reported cases of poisoning of birds of prey, of which
half involved carbofuran.
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