AN URGENT PLEA FOR YOUR HELP.. PLEASE ACT NOW! OUR LOVELY BIRDS ARE IN REAL DANGER ........YOUR HELP IS ABSOLUTELY VITAL!
Seven weeks ago our favourite birds were being ruthlessly killed in France. Up to 64 species were in the gunmens' sights, including thrushes, skylarks and blackbirds. Had they survived some would have bred in the UK.This shocking slaughter of birds during their Spring migration was illegal and your help is needed to stop this outrageous contravention of European law. For twenty years the European Directive has given European birds some of the best protection in the World..BUT FRANCE CONTINUES TO FLOUT THIS LAW OPENLY. France is already the most dangerous country in the European Union for our favourite birds; it has more hunters and allows more species to be hunted than any other European country. Yet the reality is even more shocking. Surveys show that many French hunters often cant tell whether the birds they killed were legal quarry or not! Last year the French Parliament again agreed to allow the national hunting season to extend until the end of February. This gave hunters the green light to hunt birds when they are most vulnerable. During February millions of birds cross France as they migrate from Africa to Northern Europe. These are the survivors..the fittest birds, and on them the survival of the species depends. The European Birds Directive is designed to prevent exactly this kind of threat to breeding populations. Under article 7.4, birds cannot be hunted "during their return to their rearing grounds" ... France blatently flouts this law and as a direct result millions of birds are shot out of the sky each Spring. Some of these birds would have spent their Summer in the UK. Some could even have been reared on RSPB nature reserves.In a second lethal act the French Parliament has agreed to begin the NEXT national hunting season in July - at least one month EARLIER than other European Union countries. Once again they will contravene the European Birds Directive, by allowing hunters to kill birds at another perilous time - when many birds are still rearing their young.Think of the consequences! Vulnerable young birds will be easy pickings for the hunters. The death of an adult bird could lead to the death of the whole brood through starvation. The effects could be detrimental for species such as turtle doves, redshanks and curlews, which are already in decline. PLEASE TAKE PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE BIRDS YOU LOVE...Please write to the European Parliament to ask them to prevent weakening of the Birds Directive and please also write to the French Parliament to express your disgust and to ask them to comply with the European Law. Please also arrange a Petition with as many signatures as you can collect and send it to THE RSPB,The Lodge,Sandy,Beds.SG19 2TN.
Please send e mails to: webmaster@europarl.eu.int and Luis.Borrego@ces.be and do all you can to help stop this outrageous killing of our lovely birds. IF WE DONT HELP THEM WHO WILL? WE MUST ACT NOW. If you have any useful addresses for this purpose please send them to me and I will add them to this page.
16th July 1999: The campaign to stop French hunters slaughtering millions of British birds every year was stepped up when a giant lapwing shaped balloon joined the Trafalgar Square pigeons to help boost support. Appropriately enough, he made is appearance on Bastille Day as Gallic hunters prepared to launch their summer shooting season along the French coast. Also last week, Michel Matais, director of the LPO - the equivalent of the RSPB - said up to three million lapwings alone are shot in France every year during the hunting season, extended contrary to European law. Lapwings which nest on farmland have suffered massive declines with our population falling by about 33 per cent in the past 10 years. Mr Metais said: "Allowing hunting in late summer means migraating birds will be shot alongside those still breeding. It is a massacre." He urged Daily Express readers to sign the LPO/RSPB petition to be presented to the European Parliament and added: "We want to beat the petition by 1.6 million hunters calling for an extension to the season. We want to break the 2 million mark by October." The Express helped to raise more than 170,000 signatures when they revealed how thousands of song thrushes and skylarks were killed by French hunters every winter, even though they are in decline here.
IF YOU WANT TO SIGN THE PETITION PLEASE WRITE FOR A COPY TO RSPB Admail 975, Freepost Ang 6335, The Lodge, Sandy, Beds. SG19 2TN. Or you can e-mail st.orders@rspb.org.uk. You may also use the Internet site www.rspb.org.uk or phone 0870 601 0215 PLEASE ACT NOW.. THIS IS A DISGRACEFUL AND TRAGIC SITUATION AND MUST BE STOPPED.Thank you.
24/03/01