Topic: Trapping birds for bird food

[ceres]

The traps don't have to be species-specific.  Non-target species have to be released.

[Amazin]

songbird and small mammal predation can also be lessened by us pet owners being responsible by belling our felines

Really? and are these bells put on only for the time the cats are outdoors? No, they're left on 24/7. Never in a million years would I bell any of my cats. It's unthinkable.

[rosebud]

WHY DON`T SOME OF YOU POSTERS HERE GET REAL CRUELTY IS CRUELTY, WHICHEVER WAY YOU LOOK AT IT OR TRY TO PLAY IT DOWN .
THE BIRDS WERE BEING TREATED BADLY & WERE RELEASED & I SAY WELL DONE TO MY SON IN LAW, AT LEAST HE HAD THE GUTS TO DO IT.
IF THAT FARMER WAS NOT DOING ANYTHING WRONG HE WOULD HAVE CALLED THE LAW STRAIGHT AWAY.

[Carol]

These traps are set for catching Hooded Crows which go for the weakly lambs and peck their eyes out.  There are no young lambs on the go just now so I guess the farmer was setting the traps for magpies if they were becoming a pest.  The ground nesting birds have fledged their young so I guess he was aiming for the Buzzard.  They are being tagged at the moment.  Nasty things like this go on in the countryside, maybe it sounds barbaric and I for one wouldnt want to see it but really Magpies are a pest as well as hooded crows which are particularly nasty. 

[SamLouise]

I think some of you are under the impression I'm some kind of city slicker who knows nothing about the country.  You couldn't be more wrong.  You don't know me, so don't try and make up your minds about my decisions :)

I'm not a flouncy woman who runs from cute thing to cute thing in the country squealing, "oooo, it's cute n fluffy, let it go ..... oooo, it's too sweet to be caged up, let it go ...." 

What I saw was wrong.  I don't care that any of you think what we did was wrong because in our minds it was right.  You didn't see what we saw so you cannot judge.  If a farmer has his reasons for trapping animals and it's detrimental (sp?) to his way of life, I have no problem with that, live and let live, we all do what we need to for survival. Those birds trapped in that cage had been there too long - longer than they should have been.  I've also stated, more than once, that the cage itself had NONE of the legal requirements that the trap owners are supposed to abide by, including shelter, food, water and a perch!  I'm supposed to abide by the law and let animal cruelty continue but they .... the trap setters .... don't have to?  I don't think so!  If they're going to do it, then they should be doing it the right and legal way or it's their hiccup at the end of the day.

And btw, I'm pretty sure that tying a pheasant down to two corners of the cage doesn't fall under the trap rules!

[Heldi]

Samlouise...well done.

Fer feks sake when will people realise that nature is not designed for our own personal enjoyment? Or abuse. Magpies and other members of it's species take eggs and young birds.  Yes it is distressing to see,yes it's distressing for the parent birds but it's life and you have to get to grips with that. But for humans, wildlife gets along pretty well on it's own. We are the biggest threat.

As for lambs...why should anyone care if a few get their eyes pecked out? Most of them end up on the table anyways and how many of you really care about how they got there??  Surely you can afford some wild critters taking their chances for a meal? Eyes might be their speciality..whats yours...roast leg with a few spuds?

My cats wear bells. 24/7 Big fecking bells anorl!It causes them no problems and lo! No bird deaths via their paws.   Neighbour's terrier kills blackbirds four or five times a year.  Oooh fancy that...dogs killing garden birds/frogs etc...no one admits to that do they.

Get real. It's dog eat bird out there.

[markyb23]

Interesting thread. I'm a 'live and let live' bloke myself, but, i do understand that some of the ways of the countryside are not for the squeamish.
  The only thing i dont understand is, why didn't the farmer just say "i'm trapping these magpies and any other pests that come along because they are attacking my game birds/ sheep"
 If he is genuinely involved in the tagging of buzzards, that should be fairly easy to verify with the RSPB.
 I do think that, regardless of the farmer's reasons, he should operate strictly within the law.
 I beleive that, unfortunately there are still a minority of landowners and gamekeepers who think that they have the right to kill anything that moves on their land. I'm not for one minute saying that this man is one of them as he may well have been operating on behalf of the RSPB.

[Robert_Brenchley]

I'm no townie, and I never get sentimental over animals. But I don't like gratuitous unpleasantness or unnecessary culling. This sounds like a case of the latter. the law does allow for this type of trap, but if the farmer concerned wasn't following the law, that says it all.

[OllieC]

He'd be very very foolish to break the law so close to a place of public access though, wouldn't he?

Seems like most of us have pretty strong views on this, and I don't like upsetting people, especially on here... so I'm shutting up. For once!

[rosebud]

Well said Heldi, thank you.

[Mr Smith]

Have a guess  what I'm doing on Monday morning? no not signing on the dole that is for Thursday but off ferretting with mi mate, we will be out all day with nets making a few bob to put into Melton market on Tuesday, and tucked in mi jacket will be a little 410 for any thing else I fancy having a pop at :)

[betula]

Yawn...............

[kenkew]

Ok! Here's the low-down from 'The horse's mouth'.

 A crow will attack a feeble new born lamb. If the mother sheep has had twins and one is weak and struggling crows will actually swoop down like vultures and attack the weaker lamb. The eyes are the easy target and it seems that's the point of attack. A healthy lamb is pretty much immune from this sort of attack due to it's capability to shake them off.
 The mother sheep seems not to care about these attacks on a feeble new born.
 Regarding Magpies. No evidence on that one, although they do have the equipment to do as much damage as a crow, there isn't evidence of them acting as 'bravely' as crows.

[rosebud]

BORING  TROLLEY  SMITHY, YAAAAAWN............

[Robert_Brenchley]

That confirms what I thought, Kenkew.

[Mr Smith]

Betula and Rosebud, you are both invited to come along for a day out thats if you know what being in the countryside and down an hedgerow  is  all about, 

[Jeannine]

Mr Smith..it might surprise you to learn that I ran  a farm   BUT we operated in a very legal way and nobody set traps on my land.  As for watching you in the ciountryside doing what you are talking about frankly toilet cleaning sounds more interesting. You would be teaching you Grandmother to suck eggs son.

As I said to the first poster, well done for releasing them, there are times when I feel it is right to follow a higher order than the law, this is one of those times. I would have done it in a minute, I probably would have taken the trap too, and if the farmer called the cops so be it..right is right to me. I couldn't care less.Calling the cops wouldn't frighten me if I was doing what I thought was right for the sake of something in distress.

ROSEBUD..well done

BETULA... well done

My own view is this. I am but one species put on this earth, and as luck will have it I happen to be human ,however I am not arrogant enough to think I should have the right to be cruel to something else in the name of  human supremacy.

XX Jeannine

[grawrc]

Have a guess  what I'm doing on Monday morning? no not signing on the dole that is for Thursday but off ferretting with mi mate, we will be out all day with nets making a few bob to put into Melton market on Tuesday, and tucked in mi jacket will be a little 410 for any thing else I fancy having a pop at :)

I don't have a problem with this. It's probably more honest than folk that eat the meat but can't cope with the slaughter etc, however your tone is a problem Mr Smith? You are trolling - deliberately setting out to upset people. I don't like that. I told you before I might press the ignore button for you. Now I am doing it.

Apart from that totally agree with Sam and Rosebud  and Ollie and Betula and Jeannine and anyone else likeminded that i have missed. We don't have the right to muck about with nature. I watched the Matrix years ago and thought that's what we do and we oughtn't.

I'm on the brink of giving up milk and butter and cheese (which i love) because I find it intolerable that cows are kept in a lactating state endlessly and then butchered.I can actually cope with the meat thing better than this.

And crows are vermin that will eat dog poo (as are magpies) but they've got themselves where they are - in the evolutionary path - just like us. And we are often just as execrable.

Enough said.

[rosebud]

I ACTUALLY LIVE IN THE COUNTRY TROLLY, I DON`T NEED YOUR NONSENSE & AGGRAVATION TO  BE POINTED OUT JUST GO LOSE YOURSELF TROLLY. >:(

[betula]

Betula and Rosebud, you are both invited to come along for a day out that's if you know what being in the countryside and down an hedgerow is  all about, 

Thanks for the invite Mr Smith.However I live and work in the beautiful  Warwickshire countryside. :-*