Wild Justice raises funds to fight Welsh shooting licences

Conservation group Wild Justice has launched a legal challenge to the general licences issued by Natural Resources Wales (NRW), which sanction the shooting of pest bird species.

To pay for the challenge, which the group says will cost about £42,000, Wild Justice has launched a crowdfunding page.

Within a few hours of doing so, more than £4,000 had been collected towards an initial target of £6,000.

“This is the latest in our challenges of the legality of the general licences which allow the casual killing of millions of birds across the UK,” Wild Justice said in a statement.

“Although NRW identify the purposes of their general licences, for example nature conservation, protecting crops from serious damage and human health, they do not identify the circumstances under which there is no non-lethal alternative to using lethal control.

“This, we argue, is unlawful and amounts to allowing casual killing of otherwise protected birds.”

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Wild Justice challenges DEFRA over mass release of gamebirds

18/07/2019

Wild Justice has launched a new legal challenge, this time of DEFRA and its failure to assess the impacts on sites of conservation interest of releasing 50 million non-native gamebirds into the countryside.

The non-profit company, set up by Chris Packham CBE, Dr Ruth Tingay and Dr Mark Avery, sent a Pre Action Protocol letter to Michael Gove on 10 July. The team is launching a crowdfunder on Thursday 18 July at 10 am to raise £44,500 to cover legal costs. The aim is to force Michael Gove and DEFRA to assess the impacts of non-native gamebirds on native wildlife.

Every year 43 million captive-reared Common Pheasants (and 9 million Red-legged Partridges) are released into the countryside. The numbers released have increased tenfold in the last 45 years and, like most of the rest of the shooting industry's activities, are not regulated by government. More paperwork is needed to reintroduce native UK species into the countryside for conservation purposes than to release non-native omnivorous birds on a vast scale to fuel recreational shooting.

Chris Packham said: "The UK's shooting industry is one of the least regulated in Europe with no centralised collection of any data. No one knows how many birds are released or shot, whether wild or captive bred. So how on earth can that shooting industry claim to be making informed decisions about sustainable harvesting, stocking or conservation?

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Wild Justice mulls fresh legal action over new DEFRA bird kill licences

James Agyepong-Parsons

25 Jun 2019

DEFRA’s new general bird kill licence scheme allows licence holders to return to a business-as-usual approach, according to countryside groups

The department issued the new licences in mid-June, two months after Natural England axed the old regime in the face of legal action from legal outfit Wild Justice, which said the licences were unlawful.

Conservationist and Wild Justice co-founder Mark Avery told ENDS that licence holders will have returned to the methods they were using prior to Natural England’s revocation, and questioned whether DEFRA and Natural England, “have actually got around the legal problems the regulator admitted they had when they revoked the licences in the first place.''

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Wild Justice launches new legal challenge

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.

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Wild Justice wins legal challenge to Natural England’s General Licenses

Wild Justice was set up by Chris Packham, Ruth Tingay and Mark Avery and was launched on 13 February this year. Their first legal challenge was against the General Licences issued by Natural England on 1 January this year, in their own words it was to challenge the "casual killing of some birds"..

Late yesterday afternoon Wild Justice heard that they had won their first legal challenge

Announcing the news Natural England released the follow press release

Natural England is revoking three general licences for controlling certain wild birds as of Thursday 25 April 2019.

These licences (GL 04/05/06) cover 16 species of birds including several members of the crow family, Canada goose, some gulls and pigeons.

The change follows a legal challenge to the way the licences have been issued, which could mean users who rely on them are not acting lawfully.

Natural England is working at pace to put in place over the next few weeks alternative measures to allow lawful control of these bird species to continue where necessary. In the meantime, once the licences have been revoked and until new licences are issued, anyone needing to control one of these 16 bird species where there is no reasonable non-lethal alternative will need to apply for an individual licence.

The action is the first stage of a planned review of general and class licences, which will be completed this year.

Natural England’s interim chief executive Marian Spain said: We recognise this change will cause disruption for some people, but we are working hard to ensure it is kept to a minimum.

We will bring forward interim measures as quickly as possible as the first stage of our planned review of the licences. We want to make sure our licensing system is robust and proportionate, taking into account the needs of wildlife and people.

What to do if you use a general licence
It is expected that, over time, many situations currently covered by the three general licences will be covered by new licences.

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Wild Justice launches first campaign

16/03/2019

Wild Justice, the non-profit company set up by Chris Packham CBE, Dr Ruth TIngay and Dr Mark Avery to fight for wildlife and the environment, has announced its first legal campaign. The enterprise will challenge Natural England's practice of issue General Licences allowing the killing of certain bird species.

By definition, these licences do not have to be applied for; users simply have to abide by the terms of the licence in order to kill unlimited numbers of so-called 'pest birds', despite there being no legal definition of pest. Species that can be killed under the licence include Carrion Crow, Jay, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Ring-necked Parakeet and Rook, among others. The system has been in place for decades and has allowed the casual killing of millions of birds.

Wild Justice believes that this is unlawful and that Natural England has a legal responsibility to show that killing the birds is an appropriate last resort. The company is seeking a judicial review of Natural England's decision to issue General Licences GL04, GL05 and GL06 on 1 January 2019. Similar licences apply to Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and the case will have implications in those countries too.

The organisation stated: "We are not asking for the 2019 General Licences to be withdrawn, but rather that Natural England does not issue further General Licences and instead develops a legal system for regulating and monitoring the killing of birds to establish whether lethal control is absolutely necessary."

In order to challenge Natural England, Wild Justice need to raise £36,000 and have set up a crowdfunding campaign. At time of writing, less than 24 hours after the campaign was set up, £11,669 had been donated.

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