The Truth About UK Species Eradication -It's Nothing New

 Perthshire Courier - Thursday 18 February 1841

The print from the period is hard to read so...

11       foxes

198    Wild Cats

246    Martin cats

106    Polecats

301    Stots and Weasels

67      Badgers

48      Otters

78      House Cats, going wild

27      White tailed Sea Eagles

15      Golden Eagles

18      Osprey, or Fishing Eagles

98      Blue Hawks, or Peregrine Falcons

11      Hobby Hawks

275    Kites, commonly called salmon-Tailed Gledes

5        Marsh Harriers, or Yellow-Legged Hawks

63      Gos Hawks

285    Common Buzzards

371    Rough-Legged Buzzards

3        Honey Buzzards

462    Kestrels, or Red Hawks

78      Merlin Hawks

83      Hen Harriers, or Ring-tailed Hawks

6        Jer Falcon Tag-feathered Hawks

9        Ash-coloured Hawks or Long Blue-tailed do

1431  Hooded or Carrion Crows

475    Ravens

35      Horned Owls

71     Common Fern Owls

3       Golden Owls

8       Magpies

And this was great work carried out to clear things for grouse hunting. The eradication of one species after another and this was going on in every other hunting territory. Anything not wanted was called by the hunting term “vermin” and killed.

By the 1860s the Old fox types were gone (note only 1 foxes killed on the above list imp[lying they were rare) as were the wild cats -note almost 200 killed on this estate which would have been adults as well as kittens. In fact in accounts from the 1830s it was noted that Golden Eagles were very rare as were wild cats and foxes were getting scarcer and the red squirrel was wiped out -they are not even listed here.

As for domestic cats “gone wild” it needs to be pointed out that there was an “in joke” about how game keepers always had the “best fertiliser” for their fruit and vegetable patches -domestic cats and dogs that wandered within shooting range of a game keeper were shot and disposed of pet dogs wandering a few feet from owners and off-the-lead were openly shot in front of the owners who could do little. So for a bounty on every animal and a race to se who could kill more on every straying pet was money in the pocket.

Despite noting all of the species declining and becoming rarer the ‘sports’ of the day still killed after all they could import more squirrels, more deer, more hares, thousands more foxes and even wild cats so they had a good hunt and shoot.

I would like to write that this was all in the past but it is not. A quarter million badgers slaughtered over fake science as recognised by many and not just in the UK. Red squirrels in commercial forestry are still trapped, snared and shot and hundreds of foxes are shot ‘for fun’ each week across the UK by ‘sportsmen’. Re-introduced birds of prey are still being killed as are hedgehogs in game-bird areas.

Oh, and this is all information from online news sources or sites and the great British ‘animal loving’ public sit back but, just one “lonely sheep” and thousands (undoubtedly many meat eaters) kick up a fuss until something is done.

The UK -The Blood Red Island