No further action will be taken over the shooting of two rare birds of prey on royal land last month, it was announced today to the disappointment of conservation charities. Three witnesses, including a warden for Natural England, claim they saw two hen harriers shot out of the sky over the Queen’s Sandringham estate, in Norfolk, on the evening of October 24. Police interviewed Prince Harry after the royal family admitted he had been out shooting in the area with two friends that evening. However, Clarence House said he knew nothing about the incident.
The alleged incident raised concern among conservationists about practices at Sandringham, leading some to question the Queen’s role as patron of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. Last year, one of the Queen’s gamekeepers at Sandringham was fined £500 for trapping a tawny owl.
A Poem for Rare Bird Shooting
Who shot the Harrier?
I, said the gun, with my hair trigger.
I shot the Harrier.Who stole his flight?
I, said the crosshairs, with my telescopic sight.
I stole his flight.Who silenced his cry?
I, said the bullet, straight as a die
I silenced his cry.But who held the gun?
I, said the hand, the hand of The Man.
I held the gun.
“Who Killed the Harrier?” by Mandy Coe
Some More Good News–ALDF v. Woodley Victory!
For hundreds of dogs living with loving foster families, holding out for they day they could be adopted and become official members of their families–the wait is over! Their journey began with ALDF v. Woodley, a historic lawsuit filed by the Animal Legal Defense Fund to enforce North Carolina’s cruelty law. ALDF’s victory meant that the dogs were freed and placed with “temporary” foster families, but convicted animal hoarders Barbara and Robert Woodley appealed the court’s ruling again and again. Two and a half years later, the final legal victory has arrived! On October 11, 2007, the North Carolina Supreme Court upheld ALDF’s victory, and the more than 300 dogs rescued from nightmarish, concentration camp conditions are now free forever.
Killing and Beheading a White Stag In England
A white stag, thought to be the only one in Britain, has been shot and beheaded by poachers. The decapitated 300lb carcass of the animal was found strung up from a tree. It is thought that its head and antlers will be mounted and sold for thousands of pounds. The existence of the white stag, actually a variant of the male red deer, which lived on the Devon and Cornwall border had been kept secret for years.
“Outrage as poachers shoot and behead Britain’s only white stag” in The Daily Mail
The Grumpy Vegan notes that even The Daily Mail is outraged.
Suicide Foods
Don’t forget to periodically check out the Links page on the Grumpy Vegan for an eclectic selection of interesting Web sites to visit.
The latest that the Grumpy Vegan adores is Suicide Foods, which “depicts animals that act as though they wish to be consumed. Suicide Food actively participates in or celebrates its own demise.”
Lobster Self-Liberation
Lobsters in Germany took fate into their own claws and broke out of an Asian supermarket. They now face a brighter future in an animal home. Dozens of lobsters destined to be boiled alive made a successful getaway from an Asian supermarket in the German city of Stuttgart in the early hours of Sunday morning, police said. The clawed crustaceans, some of them up to 15 centimeters long, managed to crawl out of their crates, which had been poorly secured with wire mesh, then scurried across the floor of the supermarket and squeezed through the metal shutters covering the front of the store. The front door had been left open by mistake. “The breakout was successful,” Katrin Brandeis, spokeswoman for the Stuttgart police, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. “Passers by alerted the police at 1:45 a.m. reporting a large number of the animals heading down the street.” The escape may have saved their lives. “These animals weren’t ever going to be pets,” Brandeis said. “Now they’ve been taken to an animal home. The supermarket hasn’t got in touch with us.”
