Tobi
01-02-2013, 12:46 AM
Well Spring is on its way.
And in the UK countryside where I live -usually around March, April...I come across imprisoned birds (usually crows or magpies) in tiny cages put out into the fields or orchards. These birds are "bait birds" for other corvids who come down to attack the one in the cage, for being on their territory. Both birds get trapped by a hinge-lid mechanism. Then they get left for hours, usually till sundown, when the trapper will arrive and kill them both.
The birds forget territorial battles, and instead both, in sheer panic and desperation attempt to escape. They could be doing this from dawn to dusk, which could be 12 hours. (as the traps are usually set at dawn, attended at dusk)
Except they usually don't make it that long. Torn, panicked, with broken wings and beaks, bloody all over from repeated attempts to get out, they die a horrible long drawn-out death.
Corvids are exceptionally intelligent birds. One can hardly begin to imagine the extent of their suffering.
Every Spring I go out -I am not ashamed of admitting this on an open forum (if the moderators wish to delete my post, so be it) -and I trespass on any land I see fit, and I open those traps, often destroying them after the birds have got free. I have done that every Spring I can count, and I will continue to do this until these barbaric traps are banned. I try to go early and re-visit the areas to lessen torment for the imprisoned birds and set them free while they can still fly.
That is breaking the "LAW" ! But never mind eh?
I have posted, below, a link to a site which informs abut Larsen Traps (don't be fooled by the happy picture of a magpie in a Larsen cage! This picture is actually sourced from a pro-Larsen Trap website originally)
Anyway, on the webpage my link goes to "ACT against Corvid Traps" -there is a petition anyone can sign if they wish to (just down the page in small lettering on the right)
http://www.againstcorvidtraps.co.uk/
Let's do what we can -eh?
And in the UK countryside where I live -usually around March, April...I come across imprisoned birds (usually crows or magpies) in tiny cages put out into the fields or orchards. These birds are "bait birds" for other corvids who come down to attack the one in the cage, for being on their territory. Both birds get trapped by a hinge-lid mechanism. Then they get left for hours, usually till sundown, when the trapper will arrive and kill them both.
The birds forget territorial battles, and instead both, in sheer panic and desperation attempt to escape. They could be doing this from dawn to dusk, which could be 12 hours. (as the traps are usually set at dawn, attended at dusk)
Except they usually don't make it that long. Torn, panicked, with broken wings and beaks, bloody all over from repeated attempts to get out, they die a horrible long drawn-out death.
Corvids are exceptionally intelligent birds. One can hardly begin to imagine the extent of their suffering.
Every Spring I go out -I am not ashamed of admitting this on an open forum (if the moderators wish to delete my post, so be it) -and I trespass on any land I see fit, and I open those traps, often destroying them after the birds have got free. I have done that every Spring I can count, and I will continue to do this until these barbaric traps are banned. I try to go early and re-visit the areas to lessen torment for the imprisoned birds and set them free while they can still fly.
That is breaking the "LAW" ! But never mind eh?
I have posted, below, a link to a site which informs abut Larsen Traps (don't be fooled by the happy picture of a magpie in a Larsen cage! This picture is actually sourced from a pro-Larsen Trap website originally)
Anyway, on the webpage my link goes to "ACT against Corvid Traps" -there is a petition anyone can sign if they wish to (just down the page in small lettering on the right)
http://www.againstcorvidtraps.co.uk/
Let's do what we can -eh?