WILD JUSTICE NEWSLETTER #52

 

 

 

 

Good morning!

 

Non-native gamebird measures from DEFRA: After more than a two-week delay DEFRA has issued its consultation on gamebird releases.  We're reading it carefully and so are some friends of ours.  The consultation is a necessary step in the process of regulating gamebird releases which DEFRA has promised to implement this year as a result of a Wild Justice legal challenge (see here for the results of our legal challenge and see here for the consultation paper).  We will send out a newsletter on 8 or 9 March with our views on the consultation to aid any of you who wish to respond (and we hope you will). 

 

General licences in Wales: we've had useful discussions with Natural Resources Wales about the next steps following the court judgment in January which clarified the strict terms under which killing of certain species is lawful - see here.  Those discussions will continue.

 

Testing Sainsbury's game meat: all three of us have a long-standing interest in the issue of lead ammunition. Lead is a poison and yet it is commonly used to kill species which end up in the human food chain.  Around 6000 tonnes of lead are deposited in the countryside in the form of spent ammunition every year. Non-toxic alternative ammunition is readily available and is mandatory in some other countries and certain parts of the USA. Many game dealers, butchers and supermarkets sell lead-shot game meat without any health warnings.  We have collected samples of game meat from Sainsbury's and these have been sent off for analysis at a laboratory. Read more about what we've done - click here.  We'll let you and Sainsbury's know the results when they become available later in the spring.

 

Happy birthday 'T'! :  today is the birthday of a young lady who helps us with our admin tasks. We won't embarrass her by giving her name, and certainly not her age, but she'll be surprised, and we hope pleased, to see this item in the newsletter.

 

Next two newsletters:  our next newsletter will be sent out on Monday, 1 March, when we'll ask for your support in a campaign. On either 8 or 9 March we'll brief you on issues we have found in the DEFRA gamebird consultation.

 

And finally...: We get lots of lovely cards and messages but we highlighted this on our blog because it inspired us - click here to read more.

 

That's it for now - have a good weekend and please be ready to act when you see our next newsletter on Monday.

 

Wild Justice (Directors: Mark Avery, Chris Packham and Ruth Tingay).

 

 

 

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