Did tax payers need to fund this shite?

I can't begin to explain the utter incredulity that I felt when I read the latest article; hosted by Birdguides. The title reporting that humans kill more pheasants than buzzards do - what? Really? How can this be? Who the fucking hell cares?



A magnificent "cock" pheasant - flushed by the dogs on a shoot in Hertfordshire.

Apparently this scientific data gathering exercise has been conducted in response to the recent Defra proposal of "non-lethal" Common Buzzard control measures in order to protect the Common Pheasant. Let's rephrase that last statement - "in order to protect the business interests associated with the killing of Common Pheasant" Be under no illusions, this is all about the dollar and reflects the influence that a fortunate few, who control vast areas of our countryside, are able to assert.

A Common Buzzard (Steppe Buzzard - this one was photographed in Turkey!) - a species
which occurs naturally within our countryside and is spreading due to the habitat provided by
the very people who seek to "control" it.

I have a very clear understanding of what "country sports" are about and the impact that "big business" has on the wider audience. When an advert can run in "The Shooting Times" advising of a 2,000 bird/day (at £16.50 per head). Knowing that just eight "guns" will be involved and every bird killed be buried; because the supermarkets are unable to sell the birds for fear of claims of damaged teeth, due to lead shot. It is a system that has completely lost the plot.



Derbyshire road-kill - Bev and I enjoying this supplement to our Christmas meal - December 2011

I make a deliberate effort to align myself with country sports, after all I do get a great deal of satisfaction from angling, yet find it increasingly difficult when such lunacy is proposed. Controlling (killing!) Common Buzzards in order to preserve a non native species? By their own estimates, the authors of this masterpiece of scientific twaddle state that between 20 & 35 million (that is one hell of a variable!) pheasants are released into the wild each year. This follows the same logic as the proposed Badger cull - we've actually no data, but blood-lust is far better for vote winning than a referendum!

Only lentil eating/tree huggers could not find this appetising! An organic "road-kill cafe" meal - fill your boots!

 I work incredibly hard to sustain Bev and myself. A mortgage and bills - you know the drill - yet somewhere in the system my hard earned taxes are being used to fund this pointless crap! It would take a complete numpty little more than a trip between Lemsford and Wheathampstead (Herts) to see the carnage caused by road traffic on the introduced pheasant population of these shooting estates. It is the same if you visit the Norfolk roads around Sandringham. Pheasants (Multi-coloured Bush Chickens) are thick and have suicidal tendencies. To even think of pointing the finger at Common Buzzard speaks volumes of the crass nonsense that is involved in the "corridors of power"

My mates, who shoot, do so in order to fill the larder - it is not about blood lust and egotism. That there is an agenda that undermines the whole country pursuits tradition and now seeks to place profit before sustainability - shame on the politicians who choose to align themselves with this scenario!

Buzzards kill fewer pheasants than humans - who'd ever have known it? Humanity is forever in the debt of these wankers (who masquerade as scientists) for alerting us to this alarming situation. My own reading of their results is to increase the buzzard population so as to try level the playing field thus allowing them to kill as many pheasants as humans do!

"Lies, damn lies and statistics" - Winston Churchill