We’re pretty accustomed to abuse from the shooting community – often from individuals but increasingly from their representative body BASC. The vituperative BASC are apoplectic with Wild Justice because of our legal challenge of the Welsh general licences – see here for what BASC say and see here for details of our challenge..
Apparently the three of us, Chris, Mark and Ruth, are bringing down the whole of farming, the whole of the countryside and the health of Wales by using legal approaches, available to all in a democracy, to challenge government action.
What is abundantly clear is that BASC is mightily rattled by the changes that are inevitable to the way that bird killing is licensed. We can’t be sure that we will win this case, but we are confident that we have an excellent chance, but we can be sure that change is on the way. BASC knows that it cannot bully Wild Justice and it cannot bully the law – so it just goes completely over the top with abuse. It is a strange way for a representative body to behave, have you ever heard the RSPB, the Wildlife Trusts or the National Trust using language like BASC uses against a few individuals with whom they disagree? And this approach will go down very badly with public bodies who will not want to be seen to be too closely associated with an organisation that spews out such nastiness. As is so often the case, shooting organisations are shooting’s worst enemies.
And lest there be any doubt about it, the timing of our legal challenge is not of our choosing, it is determined by the timing of the issuing of the general licences under challenge, the passage of exchange of letters between us and NRW and indeed the fact that NRW appears to want to fight this case. NRW knew full well that they would probably face a legal challenge if they issued their flawed general licences and yet they did. Bring on the legal battle!
And the excellent progress of our crowdfunder will have rattled BASC too – yesterday its total passed £1,000, £2,000, £3,000, £4,000, £5,000, £6,000, £7,000, £8,000, £9,000, £10,000 and £11,000 in a single day. thank you to all our supporters.
If you would like to support our challenge of the casual killing of birds in Wales then visit our crowdfunder here please. And thank you!
