Chris Packham

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What do people think? He's always been outspoken and ruffled feathers. But now he's helped create a new law banning the shooting of 'pest' birds, he's received a backlash. These include change.org petition to get him sacked from the BBC and people trolling him at his property with 'gifts' of dead animals and on Monday he received a hand written death threat to poison or RTA (road traffic accident).

I met him once and wrote about it in the meeting a celeb thread and he was not pleasant. Which at the time was disappointing.

If he really wants to effect change, cats are the biggest issue for declining bird numbers, studies estimate that cats in the UK catch up to 275 million prey items a year, of which 27 million are birds.

Yet he's going after farmers shooting some crows and pigeons to protect their lambs? I find him a little confusing to be honest. How about a campaign to keep cats indoors for dawn at dusk at least, a far better 'law', if we need one at all.
 
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Oh dear. Farmers don't want to protect their lambs; they want to kill them.

Chris Peckham is autistic as far as I know so you might've mis-read him. Of course people shouldn't be able to shoot birds. What a sensible law. Good guy.
 
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I don't agree with the protecting lambs bit but they are protecting their crops. If Chris packham had his way all farmers land would be in ruin and the country would be over populated with rabbits, badgers and birds.
 
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I think the farmers want to stop the lambs being killed immediately after their birth when the Mum is weak and can’t protect them as easily.
The crows and magpies are predatory and know when to move in , apparently they peck out the eyes of the lambs.

I only know this from Jeremy Vine’s show ( I know I know🙄) and it was horrific to hear so I can understand the farmers anger in that respect.

On another point I agree to keeping cats in at night. We’ve always done this, to protect the cats from mischief and keep them safe.
 
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I think the farmers want to stop the lambs being killed immediately after their birth when the Mum is weak and can’t protect them as easily.
The crows and magpies are predatory and know when to move in , apparently they peck out the eyes of the lambs.

I only know this from Jeremy Vine’s show ( I know I know🙄) and it was horrific to hear so I can understand the farmers anger in that respect.

On another point I agree to keeping cats in at night. We’ve always done this, to protect the cats from mischief and keep them safe.
Yeah, and farmers are known for their compassion towards animals... Haha. Dude, they literally buy and sell them to kill them. Why would they be angry about the cruelty of birds? They're pissed off about the money. Let them be pissy. They get let off the hook constantly for their awful, inhumane behaviour. I bet if Chris Packham was supporting a law against shooting cats, you'd be all for it.
 
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Yeah, and farmers are known for their compassion towards animals... Haha. Dude, they literally buy and sell them to kill them. Why would they be angry about the cruelty of birds? They're pissed off about the money. Let them be pissy. They get let off the hook constantly for their awful, inhumane behaviour. I bet if Chris Packham was supporting a law against shooting cats, you'd be all for it.
Wow. I felt so offended by your post I was going to try and put my experience of farmers across. But your comment is just so awful I don’t think it’s worth my time.
 
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Quite interesting to hear you've met Chris Packham IRL OP. It's funny to see his friendly persona on TV might not be real all the time.
 
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He has Asperger’s. He probably find interaction with the public quite difficult.
 
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Yes, he did a documentary about his Asperger's didn't? He really struggles with interaction. I like and admire Mr Packham- he's totally passionate and committed. He made a speech about Alan Turing that brought tears to my eyes.
 
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I’ve really liked him since I was a kid watching him on The Really Wild Show. Given how humans treat animals and this planet we need more like him being given a voice that matters.
 
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He has Asperger’s. He probably find interaction with the public quite difficult.
There was a documentary on him and how he lives with Asperger a year or so back, im sure he avoids ppl and prefers his animals
 
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It’s incredibly disappointing to see the vehemence against farmers in this thread. If people think that farmers don’t care about their animals then they’re incredibly misled and ignorant.
 
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The simple fact of the matter is that most UK species of bird are in severe decline due to loss of habit and farming practices amongst other things. Doing anything about it is better than doing nothing, even if it’s advocating a small change.

I’m not shitting on farmers, but that is the truth of the matter. You can’t sugar coat that sort of tit sandwich.

I like Chris.
 
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The simple fact of the matter is that most UK species of bird are in severe decline due to loss of habit and farming practices amongst other things. Doing anything about it is better than doing nothing, even if it’s advocating a small change.

I’m not shitting on farmers, but that is the truth of the matter. You can’t sugar coat that sort of tit sandwich.

I like Chris.
Pigeons and corvids are absolutely not in decline. You know which species are in decline? Song birds and small garden birds.
Do you know which species kill small birds?
Go on, have a guess.
 
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Pigeons and corvids are absolutely not in decline. You know which species are in decline? Song birds and small garden birds.
Do you know which species kill small birds?
Go on, have a guess.
I didn’t say all, I said most. I think his point with the killing of corvids is that once you legalise the killing of any bird, it will put all birds at risk, not just the corvids people are allowed to kill.

There’s still problems with the persecution of birds of prey, and illegal killings so as soon as you give the green light for the killing of corvids you’re also putting those birds at risk and undoing years of conservation work to protect them.

You don’t have to patronise me, I’ve seen my far share of magpies raiding nest. I don’t believe they’re responsible for the decline in numbers though, I definitely think that’s more to do with climate change/habitat loss and all the other crap we’ve done to the environment.
 
I didn’t say all, I said most. I think his point with the killing of corvids is that once you legalise the killing of any bird, it will put all birds at risk, not just the corvids people are allowed to kill.

There’s still problems with the persecution of birds of prey, and illegal killings so as soon as you give the green light for the killing of corvids you’re also putting those birds at risk and undoing years of conservation work to protect them.

You don’t have to patronise me, I’ve seen my far share of magpies raiding nest. I don’t believe they’re responsible for the decline in numbers though, I definitely think that’s more to do with climate change/habitat loss and all the other crap we’ve done to the environment.
But the killing of corvids has always been legal. There are 14 species of pest bird covered by the general licenses, and they are covered because their numbers need controlling. The only reason this has been successful is because Natural England found a loophole with the law which meant it HAD to be revoked temporarily while changes were made to tighten that.
It’s not just raiding nests, they kill adult birds. Only yesterday we scared off two magpies literally ripping a thrush apart by its wings, and we see this regularly. I’ve witnessed first hand lambs disembowelled, eyes and tongue pecked out, it’s horrifying. Of course some of our concern comes from a financial point of view, it can be devastating to small farms, but if people think that farmers don’t care about the welfare of our animals just because they’ll eventually be sent to slaughter then they’re just ignorant. Yes all of those factors have had an effect on population decline, but that’s not the full picture, and to deny that pest birds are a problem just shows how out of touch some people are with the realities of the countryside and farming.
 
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But the killing of corvids has always been legal. There are 14 species of pest bird covered by the general licenses, and they are covered because their numbers need controlling. The only reason this has been successful is because Natural England found a loophole with the law which meant it HAD to be revoked temporarily while changes were made to tighten that.
It’s not just raiding nests, they kill adult birds. Only yesterday we scared off two magpies literally ripping a thrush apart by its wings, and we see this regularly. I’ve witnessed first hand lambs disembowelled, eyes and tongue pecked out, it’s horrifying. Of course some of our concern comes from a financial point of view, it can be devastating to small farms, but if people think that farmers don’t care about the welfare of our animals just because they’ll eventually be sent to slaughter then they’re just ignorant. Yes all of those factors have had an effect on population decline, but that’s not the full picture, and to deny that pest birds are a problem just shows how out of touch some people are with the realities of the countryside and farming.
I don’t think people think that at all! Of course farmers care about their animals.

I’ll admit I don’t know a lot about farming/farmers. I just think it’s a conversation that’s definitely worth having, any sort of culling shouldn’t be taken lightly and maybe alternative solutions need to be discussed.

Anyway, I’m always against this sort of thing so call me ignorant if you want. I believe this is more to do with attitudes towards culling “pest” birds in general rather than just the legal killing of corvids.
 
I don’t think people think that at all! Of course farmers care about their animals.

I’ll admit I don’t know a lot about farming/farmers. I just think it’s a conversation that’s definitely worth having, any sort of culling shouldn’t be taken lightly and maybe alternative solutions need to be discussed.

Anyway, I’m always against this sort of thing so call me ignorant if you want. I believe this is more to do with attitudes towards culling “pest” birds in general rather than just the legal killing of corvids.
There are post in this thread that outright say as much.
As part of the general licenses we have to prove that we have considered and tried alternative methods. We have to show evidence of this.
I’m more than happy to discuss farming and answer any questions, unfortunately it seems most people have already made their minds up regarding farmers and it’s very difficult not to get defensive when there’s so much misinformation given out and peddled as fact, and how much abuse we get.
 
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I am interested to know, those of you that are slating farmers etc do you know the real damage that is caused? How many of you knew the laws before they changed? I hope the people that agree with him dont participate in bird watch, the only thing you will be counting from now on is magpies, wood pigeons and crows!
 
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