The first of two controversial badger culls in England cost £3,350 for every badger killed. Official figures show that the pilots cost the taxpayer £6.3m in their first year, during which 1,879 badgers were killed in Gloucestershire and Somerset. The Government said the costs were high due to monitoring of the humaneness and efficacy of […]
Tag: slaughter
POLL: Should lion canned hunting be banned in South Africa?
International indignation over the canned hunting of lions in SA is growing, writes Martina Polley. Lions are majestic animals, the alpha predators of the African bush. We think of them as roaming wild and free across the plains. But this is far from the reality. South Africa has a population of about 2750 lions in national […]
The Gamebird Industry: It’s Not a Game. It’s a Disgrace
Every year in Britain, around 40 million pheasants and partridges are mass-produced like commercial poultry so that they can be shot down by wealthy ‘guns’. This bloody and brutal end to their lives is the final insult. From birth, they are kept in cages, sheds and pens, in which disease and death are a daily […]
POLL: Should Grey Squirrels be Culled in the UK?
The Prince of Wales has ordered a cull of the grey squirrel on his estate in an attempt to protect the indigenous red variety. “Humane and lawful” measures to control the population of greys, which carry a poxvirus that is deadly to red squirrels, have been introduced on the Duchy of Cornwall estate. The grey […]
Elephants worth much, much more alive than dead, says new report
Elephants are worth 76 times more when they’re alive than dead, according to a new analysis released this past weekend. The report follows on the heels of findings by WWF that the world has lost 50 percent of its wildlife over the past 40 years, with more than half of African elephants killed for ivory […]
Gamekeeper found guilty of poisoning 10 buzzards and a sparrowhawk
A gamekeeper found with a bag of nine dead buzzards on a pheasant-shooting estate has been found guilty of intentionally killing a protected species in what is England’s worst recorded case of poisoning birds of prey. Allen Lambert, gamekeeper for 24 years at the Stody Estate in Norfolk, will be sentenced next month after being […]
POLL: Should the Monk Parakeet be eradicated in the UK?
It has taken nets propelled by bungee cords, egg stealing and £260,000, but the days of the monk parakeet in the UK are now numbered. A programme to eradicate the colourful but non-native bird that started in 2011 has brought the population down to the last 50 birds, according to the latest government estimate. How […]
POLL: Should the Faroe Islands’ whale slaughter be allowed to continue?
The recent arrest of 14 volunteers working to stop whaling in the North Atlantic Ocean’s Faroe Islands has focused a spotlight once again on a local tradition stretching back over a thousand years. Six of the protesters were found guilty this week of interfering with the grindadráp, or grind, as these drive hunts are called, […]