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ACT - EXPOSING SHOOTING’S VILE UNDERBELLY!
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A BIRD trapper caught red-handed has been fined £250 after pleading guilty to attempting to snare highly-protected wild creatures. Scarborough magistrates also confiscated the cage trap used by 51-year-old James Vincent, from Peverel, in Essex, and ordered him to pay costs. (Full Story)
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May 2008 : Larsen Trap Time
April and May are the key times to find cruel Larsen traps.
Following information from the public, ACT investigators filmed these traps:
  
1. Shows a magpie with no shelter
2. Shows a crow with its water can tipped over
3. Shows a new type of trap with a tiny piece of metal that provides very little shelter
DEFRA created a general licence which demands the decoy bird has food, water and shelter. However, few people ever bother meeting their requirements as they know no one will ever see the traps, except a rare chance find by a member of the public who would have to trespass to find them.
ACT has contacted Heather Ferguson at Natural England about the round larsen trap with little shelter. She responded: I think RSPCA would be best placed to advise on what qualifies as 'adequate shelter'. Ultimately it would be down to a court to decide. From the picture the covered roof bit does look small but its directly covering the section holding the decoy bird so perhaps would give it shelter from wet conditions in most circumstances.
However, as anyone can see it would provide little shelter from the sun which wou have a particularly detrimental effect on a black bird. It is clear the manufacturer is pushing the boundaries of the law with this trap. By comparison, the manufacture of the trap containing the magpie has not even included a shelter in the design! |
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 Corvid Aid is a small, independently run corvid sanctuary.
It aims to rescue and rehabilitate all corvids in need of our help.
We were especially impressed by their 'Care Guide'.
Visit their great website for more information. |
Larsen Traps: Open General Licence - Scotland
Under the revised regulations that came into force on 1 April 2008, anyone wishing to use a crow or Larsen trap must apply to the police for a registration number.
They must then display this number along with the contact number for local police on every trap they operate.
Additionally, when the trap is not in use, the doors must be removed rather than being tied back.
If you find any Larsen traps in Scotland that don't comply with the new regulations, contact the police. |
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 The Queen has given money from her private income to a group that wants to exterminate magpies, grey squirrels and feral cats.
Needless to say Songbird Survival has close links to the bloodsport industry. Its principle Trustee and spokesman, Viscount Coke, heir to the Holkham Estate,
Norfolk, faced
12 charges relating to the use of poisons on the family’s
Norfolk estate. His charges followed the conviction in March that year of
one of the estate’s gamekeepers for shooting and poisoning
three kestrels.
In October 2007, the Queen's grandson, Prince Harry, was interviewed by police after two rare and legally protected birds of prey were killed on the royal family's Sandringham estate.
In 2006, Songbird Survival published a study by Prof Roy Brown which said that the grey squirrel was the greatest predator of native songbirds. The report was dismissed by DEFRA, who added, "These results are not consistent with the findings of the repeat woodland bird survey of 2005."
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A Washington, Tyne and Wear, businessman has been banned from keeping birds after catching magpies in an illegally-sized trap. Stephen Carruth, 39, director of Northern Health Care, built the Larsen trap after claiming the magpies were scaring off songbirds.
Sunderland magistrates heard when RSPCA inspector Emma Ellis visited the 39-year-old's home on Peareth Hall Road, Springwell Village she found four live magpies and one dead in the chicken wire and wood trap.
RPSCA prosecutor Mrs Jackman said the birds were emaciated with ulcers on their beaks. No food, water or shelter had been provided for them. One of the birds later died and another two had to be destroyed.
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 Three gamekeepers yesterday admitted using baited traps to catch protected birds of prey that might attack grouse and partridges on an estate in North Yorkshire. Scarborough magistrates heard that RSPB inspectors had found five traps baited with live pigeons on the Snilesworth estate near Osmotherley.
The traps can be used legally only to catch birds such as magpies and crows, and only members of the crow family can be used as bait. James Shuttlewood, 40, head keeper of the Snilesworth estate, pleaded guilty to five charges of permitting the use of traps and was fined £250 on each. (Full Story)
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 10 July 2007: Illegal Use of a Larsen Trap Discovered
A Larsen trap using two decoy birds with inadequate shelter and no water or food for the decoys has been found by a site visitor in Dorset. The eggs are being used as bait in the trapping department. We have advised getting the police to investigate.
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 30 April 2007: Gamekeeper baited Larsen Traps with live pigeons
George Aitken (picture left in balaclave arriving at court), 56, a Borders gamekeeper has pleaded guilty to two offences of setting in place pheasant carcasses laced with carbosulfan in the open, setting bird traps (Larsen traps) using live pigeons as bait, cruelly ill-treating pigeons and causing them unnecessary suffering by using them as a decoy to attract birds of prey and possession of a quantity of cage traps. (Full Story)
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 April 2007: More Larsen Traps Info Received!
A visitor to ACT has just sent us a photo of a magpie she was horrified to find in this tiny Larsen trap.
Keep sending us your photos of these instruments of torture for wild birds. Please note the bird traps (live trap) position as exactly as possible with a description and, if possible a photograph. |
November 2006: ACT Shulbrede Priory Investigation
When crows were found trapped in netting at a game-bird farm at Shulbrede Priory this summer, we took the case up with Sussex police as it looked as if the gamekeeper was using the netting as an illegal trap. When police investigated they found crows dead and dying in the netting and a Larsen trap nearby with a dead decoy bird as well.
The gamekeeper was interviewed and police recommended to CPS that they prosecute. However, CPS declined to act, even though the gamekeeper admitted:
- Birds are caught in the netting and are "dead when he gets to them and he leaves them there to discourage others."
- The police saw that some birds could escape, indicating gaps in the netting.
- That "dead birds" were in the Larsen trap and the gamekeeper admits one is a decoy bird and he just left it after it "suddenly died".
Full Details of the ACT investigation at Shulbrede Priory |
Gardeners World Larsen Trap Complaint
E-mail we have just received October 23, 2006:
"Glad to have found your site. Received a Gardeners World offers magazine this morning www.selections.com/gw with an advert for a Larsen trap which describes the trapping of magpies (or pests as they describe them) I sent them an e-mail expressing my disgust and will be cancelling my subscription." |
 Bird of Prey Starved To Death In Larsen Trap
A rare bird starved to death after it was caught in a trap set for 'pests'. (See Report)
ACT's Vew: This news report highlights the danger of Corvid traps for Raptors. It however falsely gives the impression that birds are released from these traps. PC Marsden's claim that an unknown person "must have closed the door on the trap" does appear somewhat far fetched to put it politely. PC Marsden however does believe that there needs to be tighter rules on the management of traps when not in use are needed. Hopefully he will be keeping a very close watch on this gamekeeper in future. |
 Injured Crow in Blooded Larsen Trap
A round metal Larsen trap with very small compartments
and only the smallest shelter for the decoy bird in
the middle. One desperate crow had injured itself, leaving
a blood trail.
See
picture of the cruel confinement of big active wild
birds, desperate to get back and feed their young. |
 Repetitive Stress of Confinement in a Bird Trap
Video footage taken by ACT of Larsen trap on a prominent shooting
estate in April 2006 demonstrate the stress 'decoy birds'
suffer through confinement.
Video
(1.05MB) |
 Inhumanity of those using Larsen traps
Jonathan Darcy, a contributor a UK based internet
hunting forum on 12th April 06, gave this revealing
account of how he uses a wounded bird for the "decoy"
that attracts other birds to his Larsen trap (we apologise
in advance for Mr Darcy's spelling and grammar):
"IMHO (In my humble opinion) forget the jay mate.
Theer are two ways to get a call maggie and one is to
lend/load or beg one off someone. the other is to go
out now , while there is still no leaves on the trees
and shoot some at night by looking for their sillouette
in the trees. If you shoot enough you will find the
odd one is a winged "runner". beware, they
can run bloody fast!!! best to use the clipped bird
to get the first maggie, then use the new bird. I used
to supply a good few "first" call birds to
the guys local. We used to have a larson in thr garden
at this time every year. i think best we ever got was
14. In 10 years of using larson only ever got maggies,
never got a crow or a cat....they are a very good trap.
good luck."
It is likely this is not an isolated event, and underlines
the cruelty of those using these traps. |
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