Wednesday, 14 January 2015

Magic Words: Biodiversity and Humane

When you see land managers using the words biodiversity or humane, stop, think and wave your antennae about. They are regularly used by those who want to avoid detailed scrutiny of their plans.

Humane is such a benign word but is often found  preceding those other less obviously benign words 'killing' or 'shooting'; but be wary of finding it used in phrases like humane management.

Badgers have received notice that they will be dealt with humanely (via 'sharpshooters') and the latest animals to be reassured by this word are wild boars in and around the Forest of Dean. The humane humans who've long been itching for an excuse to get out their firearms are now in opportunist mode after a fatal road accident on the M4. Now's our chance, they say.

Deer and foxes learned long ago that humans speak with forked tongues. Management is not something  they welcome. Those who play God are not their friends. Now SRWT is flagging up a humane solution to foxes. And what could possibly justify that? Yes, you must have guessed it. Biodiversity.

It's the fetishising of ground-nesting birds combined with an obsessive compulsion to manage everything that leads to this playing God with the landscape, selecting which things should live and which are expendable. They are much closer than they would like us to think to the grouse shooting industry and some of its gamekeepers.

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