The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has given the go ahead to slaughter over 2000 threatened gulls near the Warton aerodrome in Lancashire because the aerodrome is finding them a nuisance.
DEFRA is allowing the cull of nearly five hundred breeding pairs of herring gulls and an even greater number of lesser black-backed gulls. Populations of both species have been falling in recent years and neither can afford to lose any more individuals.
This is all happening in an SSSI – a site of special scientific interest – packed with rare wildlife. This is not an appropriate site for an aerodrome in the first place. Killing said wildlife because it becomes a nuisance to aircraft is utterly ridiculous.
BAE Systems has the responsibility to figure out solutions without slaughtering local wildlife.
Tell the UK government not to allow the cull of endangered sea birds for an aerodrome’s convenience.
We the undersigned ask that you call a halt to the planned cull of 475 breeding pairs of herring gulls and 552 pairs of less black backed gulls on the Ribble Estuary. Populations of both species are declining. Culling them for the convenience of BAE Systems is completely unacceptable.
An SSSI is a completely inappropriate place for an aerodrome in the first place. If such an aerodrome then finds the wildlife a nuisance, the answer certainly is not to kill the wildlife.
We ask that ill-thought-out cull be abandoned and BAE Systems told to find alternate means of reducing the collision risk.
Thank you for your attention.
