RSPCA show support for proposed anti-countryside wildlife bill

 The RSPCA has kicked off a campaign supporting the creation of an updated Wildlife Act that could spell disaster for wildlife managers and conservation.

Backed by the American funded Humane World for Animals organisation, the RSPCA hosted a launch event in Parliament for the proposed legislation, attended by Defra minister Mary Creagh.   

The charity’s call for a single consolidated and updated Wildlife Act was accompanied by a 70 page report produced by Professor Angus Nurse of Anglia Ruskin University.

The report includes measures such as the application of the ‘precautionary principle’ to general licences for pest control, the provision of further legal protection for the fox as well as the instigation of a close season for hares, vicarious liability for farmers on whose land wildlife crimes occur, and a presumption of innocence for individual animals.

Chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, Tim Bonner said: “The report “makes unhappy reading for anyone involved in wildlife management, game shooting, hunting or fishing. The practical implications of this would make wildlife management nigh on impossible.

“Reducing wildlife populations over time through landscape-scale control to reduce the damage they do to wildlife, crops and habitats would be illegal under such a regime”