NEWS: Gamekeepers and people who like to gun down animals have been told that certain species such as carrion crows and jackdaws can now be shot as the government updates its definition of ‘livestock’ to include game birds.

Rather than change the law, the UK government has amended its guidance on what constitutes ‘livestock’ to include any birds that can roam freely but are still somewhat dependent on a keeper for food, water or shelter. This clarifies the apparent confusion surrounding pheasants, partridges and grouse who are fed by gamekeepers for the purposes of hunting.

In other words, game birds that are for the most part wild, apart from taking food or water from humans, can now be thought of as property in the same way as farmed animals, therefore giving keepers the ‘right’ to protect what is theirs (in the eyes of the law) from predatory species. This amounts to an ‘open season’ being called on carrion crows, magpies, jackdaws and rooks if they’re anywhere near managed game birds.

The new wording reads: “‘Livestock’ is as defined in section 27(1) of the 1981 [Wildlife and Countryside] Act. For the purpose of this licence, this expression also includes game birds kept in an enclosure or which are free roaming but remain significantly dependent on the provision of food, water or shelter by a keeper for their survival. This does not include supplementary feeding.” 

The killing of the predatory birds is still subject to the above licensing, but the amendments are part of two-year general licences that don’t have to be applied for, merely followed. This means that anyone can kill a jackdaw without submitting a formal application for permission to do so, giving us a system that is susceptible to abuse by anonymous hunters.

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General licences give the green light to shoot and kill certain species of wild birds to protect livestock, help conservation efforts and protect public health. However, the RSPB and other wildlife groups, including presenter Chris Packham’s Wild Justice, believe the update could increase the bloody toll exacted on Britain’s wildlife so hunters can get their kicks.

“If this update to the livestock general licence goes beyond a reclassification of terminology and implies that it will lead to an increase in the killing of wild birds to protect game bird interests, then given the nature and climate emergency we find ourselves in, this would be a massive backward step for nature conservation in this country,” said Kate Jennings, head of site conservation policy at the RSPB.

The amendment is supposed to also aid ‘conservation’ efforts by permitting culling of predatory birds to protect the eggs and young of endangered bird species, but if readers are under any illusions as to the type of people who wanted this change to go through, you might remember the time when Chris Packham found dead crows hanged by the neck outside his home. This followed Wild Justice’s successful challenge of the general licenses in 2019, effectively banning the shooting of 16 bird species including crows - evidently temporarily - and wood pigeons. This angered many country and farming interest groups, and people who regard crows, jays, magpies and jackdaws as vermin to be freely killed no matter where they are, plus those who hunt wild wood pigeons for sale abroad.

Wild Justice has also managed to secure changes to the general licence including removing all gull species, and they can no longer be used in sites of special scientific interest and nature reserves.

Andrew Gough is Media and Investigations Manager for Surge.

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