The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds is seeking to hire an ‘experienced contractor’ to hunt foxes with dogs and capture crows using live bait traps, documents reveal.
The bird protection charity is looking to employ an ‘appropriately qualified’ worker to catch and kill the animals, while hiding the cull from public view, documents seen by The Telegraph show.
The RSPB’s cull is aimed at protecting populations of ground nesting curlew birds in Northern Ireland, as part of an EU funded project to protect threatened curlew populations.
Former cricketer Lord Botham hit out at the RSPB’s plans as he accused the ‘eco-Left charity’ of presenting a ‘Disney version of the countryside’ to ‘keep its one million fee-paying members happy’ while killing foxes out of view.
The RSPB’s instructions say the contractor should catch crows using controversial Larsen traps, that have been ‘baited with a territorial call bird,’ and position the traps in areas that are ‘hidden from public view’.
The use of the controversial traps is aimed at removing ‘territorial crows that have learned behaviours to target curlew eggs and chicks’.
In carrying out the cull, the RSPB’s contractor will also be required to shoot foxes from distances of up to 200 metres, and ‘appropriately dispose’ of their bodies ‘out of public view’.
In ‘exceptional circumstances,’ the RSPB’s contractors will also be allowed to hunt wounded foxes using dogs.
Northern Ireland is the only region of the United Kingdom in which hunting foxes using dogs is still legal, following Britain’s fox hunting ban in 2004.
Writing in the The Telegraph. former cricketer Lord Botham, hit out at the RSPB in warning the 200 metre range at which it lets its contractors shoot foxes leads to wounding rates that ‘catastrophically high’.
Lord Botham said that ‘data shows that, at this range, around half of the foxes will be wounded,’ as he argued the high wounding rates leave hunters with two choices – either let foxes bleed out or instead hunt them using dogs.
The ex-cricketer also accused the RSPB of presenting ‘a Disney version of the countryside’ in its marketing materials, while spending its members donations on ‘killing foxes in Northern Ireland.’
Curlew populations have fallen by 48 per cent since 1990, the RPSB’s tender for the £92,320 EU funded contract says.
It states that curlews ‘are probably one of the most urgent bird conservation priorities in the UK,’ due to ‘their globally near threatened status’ and ‘rapid’ population declines.
An RSPB spokesperson told MailOnline: ‘The decision to introduce any form of animal control is something we never take lightly and is always a last resort.’
‘The RSPB is open and transparent about why it is sometimes necessary as we try and protect and restore some of the UK’s most threatened wildlife and habitats, but we appreciate that this is a really difficult and emotive subject for many people,’ the RSPB spokesperson said.
This article by Louis Goss was first published by The Daily Mail on 24 April 2023. Lead Image: The RSPB is seeking a contractor to catch crows using live bait traps.
What you can do
Support ‘Fighting for Wildlife’ by donating as little as $1 – It only takes a minute. Thank you.
Fighting for Wildlife supports approved wildlife conservation organizations, which spend at least 80 percent of the money they raise on actual fieldwork, rather than administration and fundraising. When making a donation you can designate for which type of initiative it should be used – wildlife, oceans, forests or climate.
Leave a Reply