Intolerance

[Exeldama]

If i bought a woodland (which i nearly have)...and i loved wildlife (which i do)...why would i start killing everything...???

I have bumped into an owner who in my view misguided.!

Controling deer and squirrels reasonable , but hating foxes , wanting badgers off the land and killing crows and magpies....ho hum .

Trouble is im going to cross swords and its a neighbour.

[tracy]

It is difficult, isn't it? Some people want to control squirrels, others don't, some control rabbits, others don't. This particular person sounds unusual though. As far as I know badgers are protected and he is not allowed to mess with them.. perhaps you could start by making sure he knows that!

Try to get into conversation about it. Much nicer way to deal with these issues.

[James M]

The reasons why:

Foxes/crows/magpies - kill nesting birds, esp ground nesting, inc game birds and will attack new born lambs. Foxes can wipe out a whole pen of pheasant poults.

Badgers, I doubt he actually does anything to them - there's still a hot debate about them spreading bovine TB, they also do take ground nesting birds.

Your neighbour's view is very common, and not unusual in rural areas, better not to argue, let him do his thing and you do yours.

[Exeldama]

So uch i could say. I am country stock..farmrs son and all that. i also work with wildlife everday and im astounded at the lack of knowledge and the way we humanise animals...using words like cruel and vicious. Its us that act that way. Animals are instinct driven...eat , sleep and woopie do.

Foxes killing sheep is rubbish and so is healthy lambs . MAFF (DEFRA) couldnt find a single proven case anywhere in the whole of the UK. Stillborn, yes. Raiding chickens, yes (lock them up properly its our failing not the fox..its just being a predator, what do we expect it to do.!)

[Exeldama]

Pheasants... well they arnt native. Nor are very many naturalised contrary to many peoples belief. About 1.5-3 million get imported a year raised a chicks or from the egg and relaesd into the wild. Even the RSPB now accepts that they caues massive damage to our wild bird population by decimating our invertebrate population many birds rely on. Think of it a couple of million big birds coming for lunch all at once,,,crazy. That said they do taste nice.

[Exeldama]

Magpies and crows belong.. they are native, part of a cycle which works best when we sit back and watch..natural selection. Songbirds etc have survived a millenium with magpies around they dont need us interfering any more.. as said we kill their only natural avian predator to protect pheasants which arnt native and then get sulky when their population rises.

I think rather than kill all the corvids you see, try supporting a habitat which helps the recovery of Goshawks.

Personally i would lve to have some boar in my woods along with the wolves and lynx to control them....

[James M]

If you had the answers and evidence to at hand waiting to refute any opposing view why did you ask the question in the first place?

[greyman]

Yesssss Indeedy!;~)

[Darren]

Maybe it is to test those answers?

[greyman]

I've always wondered about the phrase 'natural selection'....I wonder idly, if you will forgive my musing, if we couldn't also be part of 'natural selection'....

The man who is grey