Unregulated culling of Scotland’s mountain hares should be banned and the species protected, according to a report that says shooting the animals for sport is inhumane and uncontrolled. Landowners can shoot the hares without a licence from August to February and claim culls are necessary to protect game, especially red grouse, from disease. Campaigners say […]
Tag: culling
‘Kill them, kill them, kill them’: the volunteer army plotting to wipe out Britain’s grey squirrels
One snowy dawn in March, I went hunting for squirrels in the Lake District. In the silent and empty woods beneath the Aira Force waterfall, the only thing moving was a solitary red squirrel, balanced on a nut-filled feeder hanging from a tree. If you grew up, as I did, with the grey squirrel, seeing […]
POLL: Should the Government cull badgers or vaccinate them?
The government’s killing targets for the controversial badger cull in England are “deliberately being biased down”, according to a leading animal population expert. The badger cull, now rolled out to seven counties in England, is part of efforts to reduce the scourge of tuberculosis in cattle but has been heavily criticised by scientists. Farmers failed […]
POLL: Should crocodile hunting be legalized in Australia?
Two suspected crocodile attacks in the same north Queensland area within a day have prompted a bid by Katter’s Australian party to legalise hunting of the protected predators. Wildlife officers and police believe Warren Hughes, 35, may have been killed by a 4m-plus crocodile that later “charged” a police boat searching for the Cairns man’s […]
POLL: Should Australia’s feral horses be controlled by aerial culling?
More than 6,000 wild horses, buffalo, pigs and donkeys have been killed in Kakadu national park as part of a new feral animal management plan negotiated with traditional owners. The cull, conducted by helicopter shooters over 24 days, destroyed 3,654 horses, 1,965 buffalo, 294 pigs and a small number of donkeys. It is the first […]
Austria flouts EU law to cull otters
Lower Austria is planning to trap and shoot 40 otters in the very near future. This is in spite of the fact that otters are protected by the European Union Fauna and Flora Habitats Directive. This is in response to appeals from fishermen stating that there are too many otters. The numbers quoted for that […]
POLL: Should Australia’s feral cats be culled?
Feral cats now inhabit virtually the entire Australian landscape, and have been implicated in multiple recent mammal extinctions by conservationists. Illuminating the urgency of controlling cat populations across the continent, a new study in Biological Conservation finds that cats occupy over 99.8% of Australia. The study was conducted by over forty scientists—led by wildlife ecologists […]
POLL: Should the Wildlife Trust’s campaign to slaughter grey squirrels be stopped?
An army of 5,000 volunteers is being sought to save the red squirrel from extinction by monitoring populations, educating children – and bludgeoning grey squirrels to death. The Wildlife Trusts’ biggest-ever recruitment drive is focused on areas of northern England, north Wales and Northern Ireland where invasive grey squirrels first introduced by the Victorians are […]