Category: Hunting

General News, Hunting

England: National Trust pause trail hunting on its land following webinar police probe.

November 2020:

England:  National Trust pause trail hunting on its land following webinar police probe

The National Trust have said it will pause trail hunting on its land and will not be granting new licences this season.

The news follows a ITV News report that revealed webinars hosted by The Hunting Office, the sport’s governing body, are being examined by police officers in conjunction with the Crown Prosecution Service to see if any criminal offences have taken place.

In a statement shared by ITV News Wales & West of England Correspondent Rupert Evelyn, the National Trust said: “We have taken the decision to pause trail hunting on National Trust land and will not be granting any new licences for the remainder of the season.”

In a follow up tweet, the charity said: “We do not currently have a date when this decision will be reviewed.”

Forestry England has also moved to suspend trail hunting on its land.

Crown Estates also issued a statement advising it was “aware of the current investigation” and adding: “We do not condone any form of hunting outside of UK law and we are therefore looking into this matter.

“The majority of our rural portfolio is comprised of tenanted, working farmland. While any decision to allow hunting rests with the tenant, it must always take place in full compliance with UK law.  

United Utilities is also suspending trail hunting on its land until the investigation is complete, in a statement the company added: “At that point, we will consider what action we should take.”

 While Natural Resources Wales also confirmed it was “looking into [the investigation] to see what action, if any, we need to take.”

 A police investigation was launched after allegations were made to numerous forces about the contents of online meetings the hunting body held.

The Hunting Office say the seminars “clearly dealt with the operation and promotion of legal trail hunting and managing animal rights activism” but activists argue the seminars, organised to discuss trail hunting, raise questions about the motives of some in the sport.

Trail hunting involves laying a scent similar to that of a fox for hounds to follow.

Hunting groups maintain they follow the letter of the law but, they say, accidents happen.

When dogs follow a fake trail, it frequently leads them to a real fox instead. That is not illegal.

Animal rights activists have a long-held belief that legal exemptions like trail laying offer little protection to foxes and make illegal activities difficult to prove.

What is trail hunting and is it legal?

The police and the Crown Prosecution Service are investigating online seminars hosted by hunting’s governing body, The Hunting Office, ITV News has learned.

Traditional fox hunting – where the animal was chased and killed by dogs – was banned in England and Wales in 2005.

A number of alternative versions of hunting have continued in the wake of the ban, however, and are now the subject of controversy and fierce debate.

So what is the legal situation on the different forms of hunting and who’s who in one of the country’s most fiercely debated issues?

The variations on fox hunting

Following the ban on the chasing and killing of animals, different variations sprung up to allow the activity to still take place in modified, legal forms.

Drag hunting – a sport that existed before the ban – uses foxhounds to search for a scent laid by a drag pulled on a string.

The activity doesn’t involve an animal scent and doesn’t involve the pursuit or killing of wild animals.

Trail hunting uses an animal-based scent for the hunt to follow and is the form many hunts have switched to following the 2005 ban.

Groups on each side of the debate differ as to whether the scent is laid using a material laced with something like urine or whether body parts or carcasses are used.

Following the Hunting Act 2004, banning traditional hunts, the practice of trail hunting has been widely adopted.

Continue reading “England: National Trust pause trail hunting on its land following webinar police probe.” →
Environmental, General News, Hunting

EU to ban use of lead shot by wetland bird hunters; but they will still kill !

Photo – Magda2Geneve

EU to ban use of lead shot by wetland bird hunters

27 November 2020

Regulation will help prevent deaths of 1m waterbirds by lead poisoning every year

Lead shot is to be banned from all wetlands in the European Union, in a decision that is expected to pave the way for phasing out all toxic ammunition.

The European parliament voted against objections lodged by far-right parties, allowing the European commission to introduce the new regulations by the end of the year.

The ban will ensure that any wildfowl or waterbirds are shot with non-toxic steel ammunition after scientific studies found that 1 million waterbirds are killed by lead poisoning each year. Millions more wild birds, including raptors, are poisoned but do not die, with 40% of whooper swans found to have elevated blood lead levels.

If the regulations come into force before the end of the Brexit transition period, they will become UK law. This would compel some grouse shoots to use non-toxic ammunition because certain grouse moors are peatlands and are classified as wetlands according to the EU definition.

“It’s absolutely fantastic news,” said Prof Debbie Pain, an independent ecological toxicologist and honorary research fellow at the University of Cambridge who has studied the effects of lead shot for nearly 40 years. “Lead shot kills 1 million waterbirds each year, it contaminates the environment and it’s a cumulative poison, so the problem is getting worse and worse.

“This ban is going to make a huge difference to the health of wetlands and the health of waterbirds across the EU. It’s absolutely the right thing to do and non-toxic alternatives have been available for a long time.”

Although Denmark outlawed lead shot in 1996, most other EU nations continue to use it. In Britain, a coalition of shooting groups earlier this year pledged to move to non-toxic alternatives within the next five years. Waitrose has banned the sale of game shot with lead.

In England, the use of lead shot is banned for the shooting of all ducks and geese and on foreshores and other sensitive sites, but campaigners say compliance is poor. Research has found that more than 70% of ducks are still shot with lead.

If the ban does not come into force before the Brexit transition period ends, Britain will not be compelled to adopt it, but government sources say it supports the principle of addressing the impact of lead shot.

Countries will have 24 months to bring in the ban, which will result in shooters only being able to use non-toxic steel ammunition across vast swathes of northern European countries, where a lot of land meets the EU definition of wetland.

The European Chemicals Agency is now developing restrictions on the use of all lead ammunition and the use of lead in fishing weights in preparation for a full ban on lead ammunition.

Ruth Cromie of the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust said lead poisoning caused lowered immune systems in wild birds, potentially facilitating the spread of diseases such as avian flu.

“Progressive hunters have known for a long time that lead ammunition has to go. This is a clear sign that the policy is finally catching up with this no-brainer. We’ve got all the evidence and we’ve got a practical solution – non-toxic ammunition.”

Read more at source

The Guardian  London – Brilliant as always !

Regards Mark

Environmental, General News, Hunting

USA: Trump is rushing to hold a fire sale of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/

WWF warn Donald Trump's plans for drilling in Alaska 'could kill' polar bears | Metro News

Donald Trump finalizes plans to allow oil and gas exploration in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge | Daily Mail Online

Hi Mark,

Just as polar bear cubs are about to be born and begin denning with their mothers, Trump is rushing to hold a fire sale of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

He invited oil and gas companies to identify which areas of the refuge’s coastal plain they’d like to drill, then proposed to toss out rules on offshore drilling. New cubs could one day see oil rigs from their dens.

This pristine landscape is not his to sell, so we’re in court to stop him.

Please support our work to keep drilling out of the Arctic by giving to the Saving Life on Earth Fund. Your donation today will be doubled.

Trump and his greedy friends know time’s running out for them to plunder public lands for personal gain, which is why they’re moving fast to auction off leases to drill in the refuge.

Those leases will make it harder to keep this treasured landscape from turning into an oilfield.

We can’t let them get away with this last-minute money grab.

We’re in court to block more than 1.5 million acres of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from being opened to oil and gas drilling.

And we have a separate lawsuit in the works to stop Trump’s plan to open more than 18 million acres of the western Arctic.

Drilling in these areas will cause oil spills and greenhouse gas emissions already threatening polar bears with extinction. It will also decimate important caribou habitat, including areas where they raise their calves.

It’s obscene that after one of the worst seasons of wildfires and hurricanes in history, the administration’s priority is to worsen the climate crisis by giving handouts to Big Oil.

We can’t let the administration get away with ruining the Arctic refuge on its way out the door.

Please, help our fight for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge today with a matched gift to the Saving Life on Earth Fund.

For the wild,

Kierán Suckling
Executive Director
Center for Biological Diversity

Trump's Brazen Attempt to Open the Arctic Up to Drilling | Earthjustice
Opinion | The 'Drill, Baby, Drill' Crowd Wants Access to This Arctic Reserve - The New York Times

Environmental, General News, Hunting

USA: Big Asshole American Trophy Hunter Takes More Than 5 Shots (In The Head) To Kill His Trophy Elephant – What A Useless Shit !

WARNING – Disturbing Video – what disturbed and warped trophy hunter minds do for ‘fun’.

WAV Comment:  This is a very disturbing video to watch.  Elephants are protected within Kruger National Park but once they cross the ‘invisible border’, they are the target of fucking dead bead, super shit American trophy hunter turds such as the one which you see here – who takes at least 5 shots in the video, which even then does not kill the animal.

Trophy hunting shit; thats what they are. Rich boys with nothing between their ears; a bit like the current President and his sons.

Above – Dim and Dimmer Trumps with a trophy ‘prize’

Below – ‘He Man’ Trump after a kill.

Fortunately the Trumps have been sent a clear message about it all now – and that is ‘Fuck Off’.

Trophy hunters and those who make a living selling hunting trips and accessories like to claim that they kill animals in the name of “conservation” or, patronisingly, to support “natives” – but as this just-breaking PETA  video shows, hunting has nothing to do with respecting wildlife and everything to do with taking sadistic pleasure in killing animals. 

Following a  secret investigation, PETA has revealed South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s hidden connections to and investments in the trophy hunting industry and obtained video footage of an American trophy hunter who was incapable of making a clean kill, even with coaching from hunting guides, as he felled a young elephant just outside Kruger National Park. 

See the shocking footage for yourself, and then take action to help stop elephants, lions,  hippos, rhinos, Cape buffaloes, and other wonderful, vulnerable animals from being shot in cold blood and dying in agony just to give hunters a sick thrill and a trophy. 

Click here to take action for the elephant:

Tell UPS to Stop Shipping Hunting Trophies | PETA Australia

Hunting

Seven murder towers demolished in Czechia

from the website of “North American Animal Liberation Press Office”

Seven hunting towers have been damaged in the north of Czechia. The object is located on a hot-spot of carbofuran poisonings.

Carbofuran is a very toxic chemical widely used by hunters to get rid of natural predators. Intoxication results in respiratory failure and painful dead of the animal.


No prisoners have been convicted.

More towers are about to go down.

7 Hunting Towers Damaged (Czech Republic)

At least from these places, no more animals will be shot.
Thanks to the brave activists!

My best regards to all, Venus

Environmental, General News, Hunting

USA: Please Ask Joseph R. Biden, President-elect, United States of America to Re-instate Protection for Gray Wolves in the USA.

 

Although we are based in England and Germany (Europe); we have always given our support in calling for protection of the Gray wolves in the United States.

Click here to see all our past involvement on this:

https://worldanimalsvoice.com/?s=gray+wolves

Fortunately, with new President elect Mr Biden; there is now a chance to once again give Gray wolves the protection they deserve that has been demolished by the Trump administration.  We urge you please to give your support to the petition which is provided in the following link; and get back from the president elect the protection that wolves deserve.

Trump does not give a damn about the environment or animal protection; that is why we are more than happy to see him throw all the toys out of the pram; have numerous tantrums and be resigned to the (ex) presidential history books.  We don’t want people who dismiss science for the environment or global warming; just the same as they dismiss animal welfare and protection legislation.

We are sure that with Mr. Biden, things will be much better.  Please sign and pass on the petition, thank you.

Petition Link:

Biden: Restore Crucial Protections for Threatened Gray Wolves

Wording:

Target: Joseph R. Biden, President-elect, United States of America

Goal: Demand restoration of protected status for gray wolves.

Trump administration officials have officially stripped threatened gray wolf populations throughout most of the United States of their protection under the Endangered Species Act, leaving them vulnerable to greater hunting and predation even as their numbers were recovering from centuries of destructive human activity. Gray wolves are an essential part of many ecosystems across North America, but human settlement, pollution, hunting, and shrinking habitats have destroyed populations throughout much of their historical range.

The revocation of protected status is based on the claim that more than 6,000 wolves now live in wild populations. However, these exist in only limited areas in the northern United States, and wildlife experts say that removing federal protections may severely hinder the gray wolves’ ability to recover outside of these areas. Critics have pointed out the suspicious timing of this decision as the 2020 election winds down. Demand that President-elect Joe Biden pledge to restore protected status to gray wolves to ensure their complete recovery in the regions they once inhabited.

PETITION LETTER:

Dear Mr. President-elect,

The gray wolf was once an essential part of ecosystems across North America, helping to control pest populations and provide balance to numerous delicate food chains. Once near extinction, they have made a partial recovery, but that progress could soon be destroyed by the outgoing Trump administration. It falls to you to provide the protection needed by gray wolves to ensure a complete recovery in the coming months as you take up your duties. I urge you to act quickly to save our threatened wildlife.

Sincerely,

[Your Name Here]

Photo credit: dalliedee

You failed wolves – you lost the vote !

Baby Donald Trump GIF - Baby DonaldTrump Tantrum - Discover & Share GIFs
This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Gray_wolf_by_dalliedee-310x207.jpg
Hunting

Italy – hunting ban to fight pandemic! Super!
 

Italy has introduced a traffic light system in order to better coordinate measures to limit the COVID 19 pandemic on a regional basis.

Songbird hunting is therefore prohibited with immediate effect in the particularly badly affected “red” regions.

In this way, the authorities want to prevent the hundreds of thousands of hobby hunters from unnecessary trips to the district and the subsequent obligatory wine in the bar.

So far the hunting ban has been imposed in Lombardy and Tuscany, Piedmont, Calabria, Campania, and South Tyrol.

The hunters in other regions will soon face the same fate.

It is doubtful whether the traffic light will turn green again before the end of the hunting season on January 31, 2021.

Anyway! Several million migratory birds that would otherwise have been shot – above all skylarks and thrushes – can now fly over the Apennine peninsula undisturbed 😊

Committee against Bird Murder e.V.

 

And I mean…Actually, songbird hunting should be banned long ago!
From the EU.
But the hunting lobby in Europe is too strong for that, it has the say and not the EU.
Even the German hunters are not ready to call for an end to songbird hunting.

Great message!
We hope that the ban will remain in place, but that Italy needs the Corona for it … is shameful.

My best regards to all, Venus

Hunting

Germany: “Nothing is safe from hunters”

According to the German Hunting Association, hunters killed more raccoons than ever in the past season.

With 202,000 specimens shot nationwide in the period from April 1, 2019, to March 31, 2020, it recorded an increase of 22 percent compared to the previous season, the association announced.

The spokesman for the hunting association Torsten Reinwald told the German press agency that the reason was the increasing spread of the species, which originally came from North America, in Germany.


According to Reinwald, the small bears are particularly common in a band from the northeast to Hesse.
Reinwald emphasized that between 2006 and 2017 alone, the range of nocturnal small bears more than doubled.

Raccoons are on a list of alien invasive species for which “management measures” must be implemented in the European Union.
The hunt for raccoons serves to protect the European pond turtle, explained Reinwald.


Raccoons are considered to be “food generalists” in the hunting language – Reinwald puts it this way:
“Nothing is safe from raccoons.” (!!!)

They climbed trees and are also considered good swimmers.

According to its own statements, the hunting association sees great potential for the consumption of raccoon meat. It is of high quality and in the southern USA, for example, tens of thousands of animals are eaten annually.

As with wild boars, however, an examination for trichinae is mandatory before eating raccoons.
The raccoon population in Germany goes back to animals escaped and released after the Second World War.

https://www.rnd.de/panorama/uber-200000-waschbaren-erschossen-sprecher-des-deutschen-jagverbands-vor-waschbaren-ist-nichts-sicher-2IIHN2WC7TUE6VBRP6UE3I5SLA.html

 

And I mean…The only population that should be reduced, or best eliminated, is that of the hunters.
It is about heavily armed gangs with a murderous ideology who think they can do whatever they want in the woods.
And anyone who disagrees will be intimidated at gunpoint.

Hunters are not interested in the protection of the European turtles, the chatter about population control and damage limitation against wild invasions is only a deceptive appearance and does not even work for the dumbest of the dumb

It is shameful that a civilized society allows itself to be terrorized by a miserable hunter minority of 0.49% of the population.

My best regards to all, Venus

Hunting

Crane massacre in Lebanon: “It rained blood from the sky”

The online magazine “Reef Reporter” reports in detail on the crane massacre in Lebanon.

The Committee against Bird Murder had spread the incredible pictures and reports in October on social media – as a result, the police caught three of the perpetrators. The drug at the “Reef Reporters” is already two weeks old.

A hunter proudly poses with the killed cranes

Here is the article: Crane massacre in Lebanon
These days we are again receiving shocking images from Lebanon. This time by cranes. Dozens of individual hunters pose with the killed animals that they have hung on wire fences or draped on the hoods of their cars.

Even children can be seen in photos posing with the birds that are revered as “birds of happiness” in many countries.

In a report by a colleague from the ABCL bird protection association, it says: “These massacres are carried out every day across the country.”

Videos also show that was recorded for the different parts of the country, not only in the Lebanon Mountains in the north but also from the region around Tire in the far south.

We only hear about individual incidents in a flash. For example, last week near Ouyoun, east of Beirut, a group of pelicans were shot down with automatic M16 assault rifles.

We only know that more than a dozen birds were killed, and the weapon of war incident occurred less than 200 meters away from a military checkpoint.
During our research, we came across other similar incidents in the south and this crane massacre in the area around Tire on the coast.
Because of the corona pandemic, no international team from the bird protection organization can be on site this year.

Lloyd Scott, from the Committee against Bird Murder, is in constant contact with the Lebanese conservationists who are on duty regardless of the pandemic.

Apparently a great number of cranes were lured to rest at an estuary with the help of sound dummies, i.e. crane calls played on tape, and then slaughtered from military rifles and shotguns as soon as they started to land.

Many birds died instantly, others were able to fly away injured.

An eyewitness put it this way: “It rained blood from the sky”.
The shooting apparently lasted over two hours. The witnesses tried to stop the perpetrators, but they were on the other side of the estuary.

What happens to the birds that are killed?

The picture of a man holding up two dead cranes seems to have been made in a butcher’s shop.
Typically, larger birds are killed primarily as “sport”. Smaller birds are killed and eaten.

However, given the current political and economic situation in the country, it is likely that many of these birds will be slaughtered and eaten or sold for a profit in order to monetize them as illegal preparations.

However, many birds are simply left to die or thrown away after taking trophy pictures.

Lloyd Scott, of the Committee against Bird Murder, kneels on the ground while holding two illegally shot birds of prey in the air: a lesser spotted eagle and a long-eared owl.

 

There are now a large number of pictures of different, sometimes widely spaced locations, which show that the cranes were massively attacked in many places on the move.

One film shows children marching through the streets with a shot crane. The Tire massacre appears to be a particularly dire incident, but we believe there have been more such cases across the country in the past few days and weeks.

A massacre of migrating cranes in Lebanon sheds light on the deaths of millions of migratory birds on their way from Europe to Africa.

The rampant slaughter of eagles, storks, and songbirds is on the one hand an ethical scandal, but also a declaration of war on all attempts to preserve biological diversity.

In 2017, the Lebanese government also passed a new hunting law. Law No. 580 comprehensively regulates the shooting of birds and other wild animals for the first time. 13 species of birds are officially approved for shooting: quail, chukar chicken, mallard, common snipe, hollow, ringed and turtle dove, calendar lark, chaffinch, song thrush, and field thrush.

All other species, including all birds of prey, storks, pelicans, and cranes are strictly protected.

The use of electronic lure devices and boastful display, as documented in countless photos in the present case, is also prohibited.
And Lebanon is a member of the Bonn Convention for the Conservation of Migratory Species (!!!)

 

And I mean…The explosion in Lebanon killed more than 160 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless. The detonation of huge amounts of ammonium nitrate in the middle of the capital Beirut also shook the already fragile political situation in the country.
Only a total state failure as a result of nepotism and corruption makes such a catastrophe possible.

People are suffering from Corona and a devastating economic crisis. The money is no longer worth anything. People lose their jobs and then something like that happens.

Is that one reason why we “understand” the massacre that hunters and poachers carry out on migratory birds on their way to their winter quarters?
Should we also believe that poverty forces them to throw dozens of birds from the sky with hailstones?

If one really has nothing to bite and then catches birds to survive, then one could say that for the needy, morality or animal welfare is a luxury

But to shoot down the thousands of swallows that fly by in Lebanon on their journey, birds that are not eaten and are only massacred as a hobby and target exercise, then all understanding and tolerance come to an end.

Because that`s murder!

This also applies to Lebanon, but not only: we abhor the murderers who kill defenseless animals for fun or for a perverse hobby.
No matter which country they come from.

My best regards to all, Venus

General News, Hunting

Ireland: Wild Caught Hares To Be Used for Coursing Must Be Returned to the Wild. Sign Up for A Complete Ban.

We have some good news for hares!

With a six-week lockdown in force in Ireland, the Irish Coursing Club has been ordered to halt the hare-coursing season and release wild-caught hares back into the countryside

While it’s great news that no coursing meetings will take place while lockdown restrictions are in place, the Irish government must take action to protect hares exploited for coursing in the long run.

If coursing is allowed to resume, many more terrified hares will be taken from their homes and forced to race for their lives.

Hares deserve to live in peace in the countryside – they’re not ours to abuse and kill in the name of entertainment. We’re demanding that Taoiseach Micheál Martin (the Irish prime minister) ban hare coursing altogether.

Every aspect of this ordeal is terrifying for the hares, who are gentle, solitary animals. They often die or are injured as a result of the netting process and during transport.

Those who survive are held in captivity and put through training sessions to get them used to the field where coursing meetings take place and to teach them to run up the centre of it. During training, they’re kept crammed together in an enclosure. This is completely unnatural and extremely stressful for them.

At course meetings, dogs are made to compete against each other in pursuit of each hare. The petrified hares run for their lives, desperate to evade the dogs. The dogs are muzzled, but this does little to reduce injuries and fatalities, as they can still forcibly strike the hares, pin them to the ground, and toss them in the air – breaking brittle bones, dislocating hips, fracturing spines, rupturing organs, and causing internal bleeding. Hares are extremely sensitive animals, and the fear and stress of the chase can also cause heart failure. If they can’t find the escape holes or routes at the end of the field, they may be chased for so long that they die from stress or exhaustion if they’re not caught and mauled to death first.

The dogs involved are also victims of the “sport”. Often subjected to intense training, they’re treated not as cherished members of the family but as money-making machines. They’re usually kept in concrete outdoor kennels, repeatedly used for breeding, and abandoned when they get injured or are deemed too slow for coursing and therefore are no longer profitable.

Hare coursing is cruel, outdated, and deadly. Take action to end this blood sport!

The government granted hare-coursing licences for the 2020/21 season despite the cruelty involved and the potential environmental impact. A private members’ bill, the Animal Health and Welfare (Ban on Hare Coursing) Bill, has been introduced by Paul Murphy TD and will be debated in the Irish Parliament in due course. This bill would make hare coursing a crime punishable by a €1,000 fine and up to six months in prison.

The situation is urgent – hare coursing must be stopped. Tell Taoiseach Micheál Martin (the Irish prime minister) to support this bill banning hare coursing altogether.

Demand that the Irish government end hare coursing by sending the taoiseach a message

Join the call for a ban today:

https://secure.peta.org.uk/page/67883/action/1?utm_source=PETA%20UK::E-Mail&utm_medium=Alert&utm_campaign=1120::ent::PETA%20UK::E-Mail::hare%20coursing::::aa%20em&ea.url.id=4996632