UK gardening - Ruddy Ducks win a reprieve

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Ruddy Ducks win a reprieve

Stephen Firth

2007-03-25, 1:25 pm

Ruddy Ducks win a reprieve
Paul Britton
22/ 3/2007

http://tinyurl.com/25bpj6
A COLONY of Ruddy Ducks threatened with extermination has earned a
stay of execution.

Council chiefs in Wigan were last night asked to scrap the cull
completely.

As revealed in the Manchester Evening News, more than 100 Ruddy Ducks
live on the town's marshland flashes.

Their future was threatened when the government ordered a national
cull in 2003, after complaints from authorities in Spain that the
birds were flying south in the winter and mating with indigenous
white-headed ducks.

Wigan environmental bosses gave the go-ahead to let government
officers on to Pearson's Flash to shoot the ducks, a decision that
angered opposition councillors. Now the cull has been delayed until
after September's breeding season.

Cull

The postponement was revealed as bird experts claimed just four Ruddy
Ducks were identified in Spain last year, prompting calls to abandon
the cull completely.

Judith Smith, Greater Manchester's bird recorder, said global warming
meant the ducks were staying closer to their breeding grounds and the
population of white-headed ducks had increased to healthy levels. She
said: "Statistics show only four Ruddy Ducks were found in Spain last
year. That doesn't justify the millions being spent on the cull."

Coun Peter Franzen said: "I am delighted the cull has been postponed.
It gives us longer to protest against any future cull. "I am not an
animal rights campaigner, but I am concerned about the process. This
was rushed through cabinet without any consultation.

"The evidence shows that because of global warming, Ruddy Ducks in
Britain are not migrating abroad. This cull is just not needed at
all."

gordon monohan

2007-03-25, 1:25 pm

On Sun, 25 Mar 2007 16:14:57 +0100, in uk.politics.misc Stephen Firth
<steve@smalloc.co.uk>, wrote

>Ruddy Ducks win a reprieve

More importantly, are they good to eat?

P eople
E ating
T asty
A nimals

GM

Old Codger

2007-03-25, 1:25 pm

gordon monohan wrote:
> On Sun, 25 Mar 2007 16:14:57 +0100, in uk.politics.misc Stephen Firth
> <steve@smalloc.co.uk>, wrote
>
>
> More importantly, are they good to eat?

Probably at least as good as any other duck. However, ask Pete. It is
he who has been forging headers yet again. Steve either hasn't noticed
or more probably has declined to parley with the idiot.

> P eople
> E ating
> T asty
> A nimals

Like it :-)

--
Old Codger
e-mail use reply to field

What matters in politics is not what happens, but what you can make
people believe has happened. [Janet Daley 27/8/2003]

amacmil304@aol.com

2007-03-25, 5:25 pm

On Sun, 25 Mar 2007 16:14:57 +0100, Stephen Firth
<steve@smalloc.co.uk> wrote:

>Ruddy Ducks win a reprieve
>Paul Britton
>22/ 3/2007
>
>http://tinyurl.com/25bpj6
>A COLONY of Ruddy Ducks threatened with extermination has earned a
>stay of execution.
>
>Council chiefs in Wigan were last night asked to scrap the cull
>completely.
>
>As revealed in the Manchester Evening News, more than 100 Ruddy Ducks
>live on the town's marshland flashes.
>
>Their future was threatened when the government ordered a national
>cull in 2003, after complaints from authorities in Spain that the
>birds were flying south in the winter and mating with indigenous
>white-headed ducks.
>
>Wigan environmental bosses gave the go-ahead to let government
>officers on to Pearson's Flash to shoot the ducks, a decision that
>angered opposition councillors. Now the cull has been delayed until
>after September's breeding season.
>
>Cull
>
>The postponement was revealed as bird experts claimed just four Ruddy
>Ducks were identified in Spain last year, prompting calls to abandon
>the cull completely.
>
>Judith Smith, Greater Manchester's bird recorder, said global warming
>meant the ducks were staying closer to their breeding grounds and the
>population of white-headed ducks had increased to healthy levels. She
>said: "Statistics show only four Ruddy Ducks were found in Spain last
>year. That doesn't justify the millions being spent on the cull."
>
>Coun Peter Franzen said: "I am delighted the cull has been postponed.
>It gives us longer to protest against any future cull. "I am not an
>animal rights campaigner, but I am concerned about the process. This
>was rushed through cabinet without any consultation.
>
>"The evidence shows that because of global warming, Ruddy Ducks in
>Britain are not migrating abroad. This cull is just not needed at
>all."
>

And hasn't ever been needed!

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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