| amacmil304@aol.com 2006-11-24, 3:25 am |
| On Fri, 24 Nov 2006 08:52:52 +0000, Geoff <g23434ssd@hotmail.com>
wrote:
>Tax payer foots the bill again for CONservation hooliganism!
>
>How did these looneys ever get into power?
>
>http://news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=1662122006
>
>Red alert as £3.7m drive is revealed to target Scotland's grey
>invaders
>IAN JOHNSTON
> ENVIRONMENT CORRESPONDENT (ijohnston@scotsman.com)
>A FIVE-YEAR plan to save the red squirrel has ruled out the complete
>eradication of the invading hordes of greys, Scottish Natural Heritage
>revealed yesterday.
>
>However, the £3.7 million proposal, which is being considered by the
>Scottish Executive, would see a campaign to drive back the North
>American greys with a targeted culling programme.
>
>It is estimated that Scotland's population of 121,000 red squirrels,
>which represents about 75 per cent of all those in the UK, will be
>gone in 50 to 100 years if action is not taken to deal with their
>larger rivals, which carry a disease fatal only to the reds and
>generally out-compete them for food.
>
>SNH has drawn up four options to save the red species and is
>recommending a limited programme of control of the greys, along with
>measures to help the reds survive. It is hoped this will help preserve
>red numbers while a vaccine for the deadly squirrelpox is developed.
>
>There are about 250,000 greys in Scotland. They dominate the Central
>Belt but are also moving into the Borders and Dumfriesshire from
>England along the M6/M74 corridor.
>
>Their numbers stretch as far north as Pitlochry and there is also a
>pocket in Aberdeenshire, where the greys have been moving out along
>the Don and Dee.
>
>SNH officials said one of the aims of the targeted cull, which
>involves live trapping followed by a "humane" death, would be to push
>the greys back to the edge of Aberdeen over the next five years.
>
>This strategy would also be used in Argyll, north Perthshire and
>southern Scotland.
>
>Animals which are caught will be shot or put into a sack and then hit
>with a blunt object on the right part of the head.
>
>Other recommendations in the plan include identifying and establishing
>20 large "stronghold" areas for reds, improving the woodland habitat
>and researching a squirrelpox vaccine.
>
>Dr Mairi Cole, of the species advisory office at SNH, said the red
>squirrel would have a "much, much better chance" of holding its own
>territory "primarily because we would be investing a huge amount more
>in controlling the competitor".
>
>"It's fairly well accepted we are not going to eradicate grey
>squirrels so the best thing we can do is target the money and
>resources we have in the right places," she said.
>
>"The idea is to start at the edge of [grey squirrel territory] and
>start pushing them back."
>
>Experts do not believe red and grey squirrels actually fight each
>other. However, in addition to carrying the squirrelpox virus, the
>greys are more efficient at claiming any available food supplies.
>
>Dr Cole said while some people were not in favour of killing grey
>squirrels, it was necessary if the reds were to be saved.
>
>A spokesman for the Scottish Executive stressed that SNH and the
>Forestry Commission were currently involved in red squirrel protection
>work and the action plan, which was still to be considered, was
>designed to feed into work on future priorities.
>
>Murdo Fraser, MSP, who has called for a bounty to be offered on grey
>squirrels, welcomed the action plan as "a step in the right
>direction".
>
>Andrew Kendall, of the European Squirrel Initiative, which advocates
>the eradication of the grey squirrel, said a "red squirrel tsar"
>should be appointed to lead the campaign.
>
>PUTTING A PRICE ON PESTS' HEADS
>THE plan to save the red squirrel would mean spending £30.73 for each
>one in Scotland, based on an estimated population of 121,000.
>
>This is comparatively cheap compared to the £250 per pigeon chick that
>the Scottish Parliament considered spending to rehouse birds that
>managed to avoid the buildings' anti-nest defences.
>
>Trappers on North Uist were paid £20 for every hedgehog captured in
>2004 as part of a programme designed to protect native wading birds.
>The government offered a tax exemption on the reward, before a cull
>was introduced.
>
>On the Island of Canna, pest controllers eradicated about 10,000 rats
>at a cost of about £50 each, again in an effort to save bird-life as
>the rats were eating too many eggs.
>
>But perhaps the most expensive animal protection programme took place
>on the Western Isles to save eggs, chicks and adult birds of all kinds
>- including crofters' hens - from the rampaging mink, which were
>escapees from failed fur farms.
>
>The five-year cull reportedly cost more than £3,100 per animal.
>
It's a ridiculous waste of money!
Something needs to change.
At Loch Lomond the National Park Authority is building a new
headquarters @ £9m, yet about a mile away emergency cover at the
Vale of Leven Hospital has been cut after 9pm because of lack of
funds. So if one takes seriously ill or has an accident, it has to be
before nine o'clock.
WTF is wrong with this country?
Angus Macmillan
www.roots-of-blood.org.uk
www.killhunting.org
www.con-servation.org.uk
All truth passes through three stages:
First, it is ridiculed;
Second, it is violently opposed; and
Third, it is accepted as self-evident.
-- Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)
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