HOW BIRD BRAINED to stop farmers from culling these pests
They ravage crops and send food prices soaring — but now conservation busybodies have changed the law to protect Britain’s 12 million pigeons
WhEthER you live in the town or the countryside, they are all around us. No one knows quite how many there are — some say 12 million, while others estimate as many as 20 million.
they can spread disease, destroy crops, cause pollution and, worse still, their population is on the rise. had they arrived in the country last week, they would have been regarded as a menacing invader, and urgent steps would be being taken to eradicate them.
You would be forgiven for thinking that I was referring to some form of malevolent insect, but the destructive creature in question is, in fact, the humble pigeon.
In Britain, there are two principle types of these winged pests — the countryside’s wood pigeon, of which are there are around 11 million, and the feral pigeon of our towns and cities, of which there are said to be as few as one million, but in all likelihood a lot more.
Although many people have a soft spot for these birds, and like to hear their low cooing or to feed them in parks, pigeons really are a menace. this is particularly so in the countryside, where wood pigeons cause extensive damage to crops.
According to a recent report issued by the Agriculture and horticulture Development Board, wood pigeons can reduce a crop yield by ten per cent to 40 per cent.
that costs farmers a lot of money, with an estimated loss of some £125 per hectare for oil seed rape, £250 per hectare for peas, and £ 330 to a staggering £ 1,250 per hectare for brassicas such as cabbage and kale.
Of course, that destruction makes crops more expensive, and ultimately means that we, the consumers, have to pay more for our food.
It is in order to protect their crops that farmers and landowners have been permitted to kill wood pigeons — even though they are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act of 1981 — under what is known as the ‘general licence’.
HOWEVER,
on tuesday, the Government-backed quango Natural England announced out of the blue that it was revoking the general licence at midnight tonight. Which means that farmers in England will have to seek individual licences in order to kill wood pigeons. After being given just 48 hours’ notice.
If this appears to you nothing more than a legal nicety, then you would be wrong. Because the revocation of the general licence on the order of a body endorsed by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs makes any farmer who shoots wood pigeons to protect his crops without an individual licence a law-breaker.
And yet, given the immediate introduction of this law, farmers have no idea how long they will have to wait before they can get that licence.
As many farmers will tell you, the best way to get rid of pigeons is to shoot them. One farmer explained on twitter yesterday: ‘ Growing oilseed rape is near impossible without the control of pigeons. Over the years we have tried birdscarers, scarecrows, kites — you name it, we’ve tried it. the only effective way to save the crop is to shoot the pests.’
But it gets worse. Because the same revocation also covers 15 other bird species, including rooks, whose flocks can devastate emerging crops as well as strip huge areas of grain from crops just before they’re harvested.
It is not just crops that are vulnerable. the general licence also covered crows, which regularly peck out the eyes of lambs. From midnight, a farmer who wishes to shoot a crow that is attacking a lamb cannot do so legally.
to make matters more confusing, Natural England states it is planning to issue new general licences next week, but no one knows which birds will be covered, under what circumstances, or indeed whether any new
licences will ever come into force. It is hardly surprising that the farming community is absolutely livid with Natural England, especially at such a critical time in the agricultural calendar, with vulnerable infant livestock out in the fields and young crop shoots emerging from the soil.
So why on earth has Natural England revoked the general licence, which has been in existence for decades? After all, it is not as if the pigeon population is under threat. In fact, quite the opposite — it increased by 123 per cent between 1970 and 2015.
the answer lies in the lobbying power of TV naturalist and presenter Chris Packham, who famously loathes shooting.
Working in cahoots with a pressure group called Wild Justice, Packham issued a legal challenge to Natural England in February, claiming the way general licences were being issued was unlawful.
his argument was that birds should be killed under the licences only if it could be proved that alternative non-lethal means, such as scaring, had been used. And with no way of establishing whether these conditions had been met, Natural England quickly rolled over.
At present, the quango has an interim chief executive in the form of Marian Spain, who is the chief executive of a wild plant conservation charity, and a former director of strategy at the Energy Saving trust, which offers advice on renewable energy such as solar panels and biomass boilers.
I may be wrong, but my suspicion is that with her eco-background, she appears more likely to side with Packham’s herd and its absurd accusations of ‘ casual killing’, than with farmers suffering financial losses as a result of this decision.
Wild Justice’s motive was certainly not born out of some legal tidying-up exercise. Its director, Mark Avery — formerly of the RSPB — explained: ‘Mass killing of wildlife under the general licences has been going on for nearly 40 years — it’s time that this casual killing ended.’
the idea that saving crops and livestock is ‘ casual killing’ is absurd, and shows that Packham and his militant cronies have no real respect for the delicate balance that needs to be maintained between the needs of nature and those of agriculture. Rather than fight its corner, or indeed swiftly issue freshly worded general licences, Natural England dithered until it was too late and then, to the shock of the farming community, scrapped them.
In essence, Packham has won a battle — but he has not yet won the war. had Natural England the spine to do so, it would do more than issue new general licences — and take this opportunity to remove the protection that pigeons enjoy under the Wildlife and Countryside Act.
THIS
would mean that anyone could shoot them, and they would not require any kind of licence at all.
Although such a move would clearly make Packham choke on his herbal tea, he and his group, as animal and bird lovers, should actually welcome it — because it would no longer be illegal to shoot a pigeon in order to eat it.
the point is that pigeon is the most ethical meat you can consume. Although feral pigeons are perhaps best left untouched, wood pigeon is plentiful, sustainable,
organic and basically free. Furthermore, as anyone who has eaten pigeon will tell you — and I eat it regularly — it is delicious, and tastes similar to duck or venison.
Compared with some poor, wretched chicken that has spent a miserable life in a cage or crammed in a barn without daylight, I know which I would prefer to eat, both on grounds of nutrition and ethics. the more pigeon we eat, the less we need to rely on intensively farmed animals. Why can’t Packham and his lot see that?
Until the Wildlife and Countryside Act came into being, it was perfectly legal for anyone to kill and eat pigeon, and there was never any severe diminution in population — in fact, the population was growing even before the Act came into force.
Pigeons can reproduce six times a year, so unless there was a widespread slaughter of millions of them, their numbers would sustain themselves.
What Marian Spain should be doing on behalf of Natural England is to send Packham packing. She has a glorious opportunity to both champion a cheap and ethical form of meat, and to help protect crops and livestock.
the chances are, however, that she will let the grey menace continue to rule the roost.