Final nail in the coffin of the Kerry eagle project?

[Ecoguy]

The depressing (though at this stage predictable news) that 2 more sea eagles have been poisoned in Kerry must surely signal the death nail for this initially worthy but now apparently doomed project(see todays IT). It now appears that are being deliberately targeted, given that the lambing season in Kerry was well finished when these two eagles were poisoned, which rules out this in any case non-excuse.

By their actions this small but destructive, criminal scum element within the Kerry farming community have taken it upon themselves to sabotage an emblem of our natural heritage and what was proving to be a big draw for tourists to Killarney and the surrounding area with large groups of people coming to the National park to photograph these magnificent symbols of the wild in their rightfull and ancestral home in the Kerry mtns(as evidenced by the many place names in this part of ireland referring to both the english and irish word for eagle). Reading todays article in the IT it appears the individuals behind these acts of cultural,ecological and economic treason are using any toxic household or garden chemical they can get their evil hands on to carry out these despicable acts of cruelty.

Even worse for every eagle poisoned, even bigger numbers of other birds of prey as well as Ravens, pine martins and badgers(all protected species) are condemned to an agonizing and totally pointless death. It was assumed that the dark days when the irish countryside was awash with poison meat baits(mainly strychnine which was finally banned in 86') leading to the deaths of countless innocent wildlife and pets(my family are of Mayo farming stock and lost countless quality sheep dogs to this scourge) were behind us. It now appears to have reared its ugly head big time, at least in Kerry.
The only solution is to hit these scum were it hurts ie in the pocket through the total loss of any farm/headage payments for at least 3 years. This and the total ban on poison meat baits are the only way some of the most enigmatic and important symbols of our heritage and clean green image(on which so much of our tourism and indeed food industry depends) can be salvaged.

PS - The one sliver of in this case is that one of the eagles was found near an old sheep carcass so hopefully tests on both will help at least help identify the culprit.

[jpc]

Shower of backward s..hit ignorant mucksavages.
Take everything give nothing back.

[Ecoguy]

Just read on another website that "Minister Gormley is looking at legislation to bring in a licensing system for all potentially dangerious chemicals which could be used to poison wildlife. This is in response to an increasing number of incidents where everything from alphacholorose to paraquat has been used to poison protected bird species in recent months".

Fair enough but shouldn't this have been done before various re-introductions of eagles and Red Kites started arounded the country, smacks of shutting the stable door and the rest

[fabra]

The Min of Environment has acted already - I think the ball is in the court of the Min for Agriculture.

Quote from today's Irish Times:

"The Dept of Environment has introduced legislation to ban the use of meat baits in the control of birds. However the Dept of Agriculture's Protection of Animals Act 1965 still provides for the use of poison baits to control foxes."

So it's up to Brendan Smith to do something about it.

[wombat]

Fair enough but shouldn't this have been done before various re-introductions of eagles and Red Kites started arounded the country, smacks of shutting the stable door and the rest

It was reasonable to assume that people would handle poisons responsibly, it will be interesting to see if anyone is prosecuted, I like the idea of stopping their payments, which I understood are partly to reward people for taking care of the environment.

[Ecoguy]

So it's up to Brendan Smith to do something about it.

Hmmmmm - That fact doesn't exactly fill me with confidence that action will be taken quick enough

[Vega1447]

The depressing (though at this stage predictable news) that 2 more sea eagles have been poisoned in Kerry must surely signal the death nail for this initially worthy but now apparently doomed project(see todays IT). It now appears that are being deliberately targeted, given that the lambing season in Kerry was well finished when these two eagles were poisoned, which rules out this in any case non-excuse.

By their actions this small but destructive, criminal scum element within the Kerry farming community have taken it upon themselves to sabotage an emblem of our natural heritage and what was proving to be a big draw for tourists to Killarney and the surrounding area with large groups of people coming to the National park to photograph these magnificent symbols of the wild in their rightfull and ancestral home in the Kerry mtns(as evidenced by the many place names in this part of ireland referring to both the english and irish word for eagle). Reading todays article in the IT it appears the individuals behind these acts of cultural,ecological and economic treason are using any toxic household or garden chemical they can get their evil hands on to carry out these despicable acts of cruelty.

Even worse for every eagle poisoned, even bigger numbers of other birds of prey as well as Ravens, pine martins and badgers(all protected species) are condemned to an agonizing and totally pointless death. It was assumed that the dark days when the irish countryside was awash with poison meat baits(mainly strychnine which was finally banned in 86') leading to the deaths of countless innocent wildlife and pets(my family are of Mayo farming stock and lost countless quality sheep dogs to this scourge) were behind us. It now appears to have reared its ugly head big time, at least in Kerry.
The only solution is to hit these scum were it hurts ie in the pocket through the total loss of any farm/headage payments for at least 3 years. This and the total ban on poison meat baits are the only way some of the most enigmatic and important symbols of our heritage and clean green image(on which so much of our tourism and indeed food industry depends) can be salvaged.

PS - The one sliver of in this case is that one of the eagles was found near an old sheep carcass so hopefully tests on both will help at least help identify the culprit.

Didn't I see it suggested recently that Gardai know who is doing this?

[jpc]

Didn't I see it suggested recently that Gardai know who is doing this?

Considering a promitory fort was demolished some years back, and given the lack of action on same.
Don't expect much.

[Ecoguy]

If traces of the poison that killed the eagles tallies with what is found on the samples from the nearby old sheep carcass, then the landowner will have a case to answer. A conviction at this stage might just make some of these scumbags think twice before they engage in this vile activity!!

[socialdemocrate]

my little "demons" are telling me some emergency legislation will be introduced shortly to try at least stop these poisoning scumbags - its going to be a "deal breaker" for the green party should any FF person or "independent FF" (i.e read JHR) get in the way