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Alick Simmons Profile
Alick Simmons

@alicksimmons

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Amateur naturalist || Animal ethicist || Aspiring conservationist || Erstwhile veterinarian || Author of ‘Treated Like Animals’:

South West England
Joined October 2015
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
17 days
Leghold traps are obscenely cruel. Thankfully, their use is prohibited in the UK. We have almost no fur bearing animals but there are plenty of equally unpleasant and legal methods available for ‘country folk’ to persecute our wildlife. Details below:
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@NHCART
NH Citizens Against Recreational Trapping
17 days
If we were to say that trappers are completely devoid of compassion and empathy, would you agree? #BanTrapping #Raccoon #CompassionOverKilling #ProtectWildlife #Coexist #TrappingIsASickness
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
8 months
For the 3rd autumn in succession, men with powerful but silenced rifles are prowling around my village, in the dark, with night vision equipment trying to rid the environment of the only protected large carnivore in GB. 1/-
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
3 years
Today I had the privilege of a morning with @gow_derek in and around his re-wilding project in west Devon. It's ambitious and exciting - Derek's enthusiasm is infectious. Good luck!
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
1 year
Good evening @FerberPainting . Do you know that many of the products you offer for sale are prohibited in the UK? If not, you should. Poisoning or attempting to poison weasels, badgers, foxes, beavers and snakes is a crime. Withdraw these products.
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
6 years
Release 50 million non-native pheasants: consultation: none influence of general public: none statutory controls: none. Proposed release 6 formerly native lynx: consultation: extensive & protracted influence of vested interests: considerable statutory requirements: many
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
8 months
The government claims that the standards of shooting badgers are comparable to the standards of killing other wildlife which is “currently accepted by society”. Whose acceptance? It’s nonsense. I haven’t been asked. And I’m willing to bet that you haven’t been either. 6/-
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
2 years
In 25 years of watching my local patch, I have seen a weasel perhaps 4 or 5 times. Today, I photographed one. How cool is that? @Mammal_Society @MathewsFiona @RobbieAMcDonald @JLowenWildlife
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
8 months
For these are the agents of secretly licensed private companies authorised by the government to kill badgers. This is taking place over 40% of the area of England. This represents the combined area of 3 national parks: Kruger, the Everglades and Royal Chitwan. 2/-
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
8 months
Residents are told nothing. Nada. Rien. Diddly squat. It’s a secret. You will get more information in a three minute warning of nuclear armageddon. I encourage you to drop any notion that you might have had that wildlife is for everyone. 3/-
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
2 years
@JoshLukeDavis Euthanasia is the practice of ‘intentionally ending life to relieve pain and suffering’. The walrus was, as far as I know, neither in pain nor suffering. It was shot because it was an inconvenience.
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
4 years
Is there any wildlife in this benighted, bloody country that some son of a bitch doesn’t want to fucking shoot?
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
8 months
There are fewer and fewer badgers around the village and, unlike 5 years ago, I rarely see them. They’ve mostly been shot. 4/-
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
5 years
Common Swift, Apus apus, West Moor, May 2019 - each spring I tell myself that I am going to photograph swift and do it well. Each year I end up disappointed - except this year, I think I might have done it.
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
2 years
Infuriated by licensed killing of buzzards when, judging by the numbers of dumped pheasants, there is an absolute oversupply, I’ve submitted a FOI request to @NaturalEngland . @WildJustice_org @RuthTingay @RobThomas14 @MarkAvery @LandEthics @rupertevelyn
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
8 months
I haven’t gone into the effects of protracted & widespread badger killing on the prevalence of bTB. Suffice it to say that I’m sceptical, very sceptical, that both current & apparently planned policies are very unlikely to achieve eradication by the expected date of 2038. 9/9
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
8 months
One would have thought the shooters would be expected to operate with the utmost probity. Here’s a screenshot of one with an uncovered rifle on the back seat of his vehicle while on a public road not 400 m from my home. Perhaps not. 7/-
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
8 months
Authorised shooters undergo training but independent scrutiny once they are deployed is deficient despite the government-appointed Independent Expert Panel’s recommendation to increase the proportion of shooting observed. 5/-
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
3 months
@GeorgeMonbiot If I were pleading poverty and unfair competition I wouldn’t turn up driving the biggest, newest and shiniest tractor.
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
5 years
I think I’ve done it: passable photos of blue/mountain/Arctic hare. Taken this morning on the Cairnwell, Glen Shee.
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
2 years
@malcolmjackson @LordLucasCD @RSPBEngland @CarolineLucasMP @RishiSunak An unelected, entitled, unaccountable old Etonian with a meal ticket for life. No wonder British democracy is in such a dire state.
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
4 years
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
8 months
Perhaps most act with utmost care and attention and this is an aberration, a momentary lapse of judgement. But without independent scrutiny and reporting how will we ever know? And with 3rd party observation of shooting how can we certain that badgers are killed humanely? 8/-
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
10 months
This is astounding. A litter of several 12 week-old wolf cubs and their parents in one of the most densely populated countries in the world. About 80 km from Amsterdam.
@ftheunissen3
Frank Theunissen
10 months
Zuidwest-Veluwe. Open veld.
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
4 years
After licensed badger, cormorant & buzzard killing, if further proof that ⁦ @NaturalEngland ⁩ exists solely to facilitate the exploitation, by a tiny minority, of the natural environment was needed, here it is. And don’t forget....sod the rest of you.
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
8 months
@honking_a The older I get the more I get to understand that many people think and act very, very differently to me, my family and my friends.
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
4 years
Game birds 'could wipe out adders in most of Britain within 12 years': Just how much louder do we have to shout? ⁦ @MarkAvery ⁩ ⁦ @RuthTingay
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
3 years
Traps set, illegally & at scale maim and kill sentient animals indiscriminately. As a vet of 40+ yrs, I condemn this. These people need to be held to account and brought to heel. Inspect, prosecute, prohibit: Do something, for pity’s sake. @NaturalEngland @defra
@MoorlandMonitor
Moorland Monitors
3 years
🚩More illegal traps in @peakdistrict Horrified walkers found a series of highly illegal uncovered Fenn traps on a grouse moor- with a live victim who could not be saved. Yet more blatant wildlife crime in our national park. Please RT. @WarOnWildlife @ChrisGPackham @FoxHITeam
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
2 years
If there was any doubt about the need to prohibit these foul things, this ought to remove it. I defy anyone to provide evidence that snares are humane & can safely discriminate between species. It is not possible. ⁦ @OtlPodcasts ⁩ ⁦ @AnimalAid
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
5 years
A pelican? A PELICAN? I thought @guardian ’s Week In Wildlife reached rock bottom last week with a hare described as a rabbit but this, this.... I’m speechless. @guardianeco
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
3 years
I’m going out on a limb here, but I think this @guardian photo of the day might be wrongly captioned.
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
3 months
This is a mole trap I bought on-line to use at a talk I am giving next month - This is exactly as it came with no label, no instructions & no advice. 1/3
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
2 years
British wildlife: a family of brown rats from earlier today.
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
2 years
@RaptorPersScot @WiltsHuntSabs @natalieben @LeagueACS @ChrisGPackham @rupertevelyn @DefraGovUK @MarkAvery @IoloWilliams2 I have a question. Perhaps it’s naive, but I don’t think so: if there are so many surplus birds, so many more than the market demands, then why is it deemed necessary to issue licences to kill buzzards because they eat a few?
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
1 year
The areas of Spain and Sweden are similar. Spain has 18 million sheep and around 2000 wolves. Sweden has 0.5 million sheep and yet can’t tolerate 270 wolves.
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
2 years
@RaptorPersScot @pow_rebecca @ZacGoldsmith @TonyJuniper @ChrisGPackham @MarkAvery @RuthTingay @natalieben @Team4Nature @IoloWilliams2 @Animal_Watch @gill__lewis If poisoning or another form of persecution is the cause of the demise of these birds, I will not be mollified by the authorities repeating the usual blandishments. Nothing less than a commitment to forming a dedicated, properly empowered wildlife inspectorate will be sufficient.
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
5 years
The snakes are back! After around five years' absence I am again seeing a grass snake next to my house. And what an exquisite creature it is.
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
5 years
Scrutiny of badger killing now effectively zero bringing it into line with gamekeeping and ‘pest’ control: Unaccountable and unmonitored. Worse, the culls are demonstrably ineffective in controlling TB. @BBCPallab @fishvetmj @domdyer70
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
2 years
Eurasian Cranes against the misty backdrop of the Forest of Dean. @WWTSlimbridge
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
2 years
@JMPSimor I spent several years as a government vet implementing the single market in fresh meat. In the space of six months the paperwork and associated activity went from several hours to a few minutes - and with no change in risk to animal or public health. Mrs Currie is wrong.
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
4 years
One the most cogent and compelling critiques of driven grouse shooting. In a page and a half. Worth a read.
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
10 months
Defra has promised to review evidence on snares. But is amassing evidence & a consultation necessary to conclude that the snare is an inherently inhumane method of capturing an animal? Watch this & draw your own conclusion. (FWIW, I would do the same as Doug. Well done.)
@dougmaw
Doug Maw
10 months
Why did @sussex_police arrest me?
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
5 years
Us little people are not to be trusted with the detail but it is estimated that an area similar to that of Israel or Kruger National Park is the subject of systematic killing of our native wildlife. No other country in the world does this. ⁦
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
1 year
@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
1 year
@JournoJane @ACQuinney @FerberPainting I’ve just reported them to the HSE which appears to be the body responsible for regulating pesticides in the UK.
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
3 years
Humpback whale, harbour porpoise and common dolphin seen in the Minch yesterday. @whalesorg
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
3 years
I've just scored 80% in an online test. I am now a @Gameandwildlife Accredited Game Shot despite having not held a firearm in 30 years. With a certificate. Cool or what? @LandEthics @charliemoores @MrRyanJDalton @outdoorspodcast @IanCarter67 @MarkAvery @RuthTingay @ChrisGPackham
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
4 years
@RaptorPersScot @ChrisGPackham @MarkAvery @IoloWilliams2 @natalieben @Team4Nature @ReviveCoalition @RareBirdAlertUK @N_E_R_F For pity’s sake. It happened on a piece of land owned by someone. That someone authorised the placing of the trap. That someone needs to say who or risk prosecution for the obstruction of justice. Enough.
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
2 months
@CeliaRichards0n There’s only one response to that:
@KathyBurke
Kath 💙🙀🇪🇺✊🏾
2 years
I love being ‘woke’. It’s much nicer than being an ignorant fucking twat.
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
4 years
This is a wicked crime. I’m past furious; given the money and effort involved to bring these birds back, I’m simply sad. And baffled about the perpetrators. What goes through the minds of those responsible? Have they no shame?
@RSPBbirders
RSPB Birders
4 years
📹 In this video, Head of Investigations Scotland @Ian_M_Thomson speaks about the white-tailed eagle found poisoned, with a banned pesticide, on a grouse moor - the latest in a catalogue of incidents. "It would be wrong to say we were surprised" Surely now, enough is enough. 👇
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
3 years
Grass snake, my garden, April 2020.
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
3 years
My first night in the most excellent hide at @Bawdsey_Hall and not only did I complete the set of British mustelids, I got a photo! Several, in fact. What a cool creature is the polecat.
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
3 years
I showed my neighbour’s grandsons the slow worms that lurk in my garden and some of the moths from the overnight light trap. Two days later they gave me this. Isn’t it brilliant? Future candidates for the GCSE in Nat History? @curlewcalls
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
6 months
@RaptorPersUK @ChrisGPackham @ReviveCoalition @IoloWilliams2 @mrhenrymorris @gill__lewis @Animal_Watch @Team4Nature @RewildScotland @townsendoutdoor @ramblersscot FFS. The use of the pole trap was prohibited ONE HUNDRED and NINETEEN years ago. There’s absolutely no reason for anyone to possess one and as we clearly cannot trust those who do, it’s time their possession became a crime.
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
2 years
I’m pleased to have been able to help.
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
10 months
If Netherlands can manage with to live with wolves (NL has a population density almost twice that of the UK), then we ought to give this serious consideration.
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
2 years
A parcel has just arrived from @pelagicpublish containing seven ‘advance reading copies’ of my soon-to-be-published book (Feb ‘23). This might be the only tangible thing I’ve completed since my son was born.
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
4 years
If you want the chance of seeing scenes like this in the future, you need to sign this petition: @MarkAvery @RuthTingay @badgergate @domdyer70 @WildJustice_org
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
4 years
The biggest sustained campaign against a native animal since the wolf was extirpated from the USA, just got bigger. Badgers may be lawfully killed across 1/3 of England. ⁦ @domdyer70 ⁩ ⁦ @MarkAvery ⁩ ⁦ @ChrisGPackham ⁩ ⁦ @patrick_barkham
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
2 years
@RaptorPersScot @ChrisGPackham @ReviveCoalition @townsendoutdoor @LeagueScotland @onekindtweet @Ian_M_Thomson @RSPBbirders @HHDayUK @markruskell @RareBirdAlertUK What’s all this bollocks about ‘Animal rights advocates’? Repeat after me: ‘Campaigning to prevent the inhumane and indiscriminate persecution of our wildlife does not make you an Animal Rights Advocate. It is simply one facet of being a decent person’.
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
4 years
.....confirming myriad studies from elsewhere. Time to stop studying and time to get on with it. ⁦ @DefraGovUK ⁩ ⁦ @gow_derek ⁩ ⁦ @Natures_Voice ⁩ ⁦ @WildlifeTrusts
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
4 years
Once again, Scotland leads the way.
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
4 years
@Coldwar_Steve That’s one of the simplest but the most chilling yet.
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
4 years
And yet in the UK, a few beavers nibble a tree or two and the wrath of landowners knows no bounds. Supported and trained, of course, by our very own statutory agency for killing wildlife, @nature_scot .
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
3 months
Peer-reviewed science that shows this type of trap and other mole traps are unlikely to kill moles quickly. It is likely that they take several hours to die. There is no good reason why moles are treated so badly other tradition and prejudice. 3/3
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
3 years
Ay caramba! I'm not much of a twitcher but I made an exception for this one: The walrus in Tenby this morning. A much needed diversion and a lovely day out despite the long drive.
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
4 years
Take a look at this petition: killing of badgers is poorly monitored & has never met animal welfare standards recommended by independent experts. This method of culling is inhumane & should be banned. @WildJustice_org @RuthTingay @ChrisGPackham @MarkAvery
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
4 years
After over 70 trap sessions since the beginning of lockdown, I finally got to 200 species for the garden. Seems fitting it was this. What an extraordinary creature it is.
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
3 months
‘Ministers plan to introduce controversial targeted culling […] whereby populations of badgers can be reduced to almost zero in some areas […]’ This measure is in direct contravention of Article 8 the Bern Convention to which the UK is a signatory.
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
4 years
@sciencewithtyus Spotted Hyena. Extraordinary anatomy, matriarchal societies and genuinely scary.
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
1 year
@RaptorPersScot @ChrisGPackham @IoloWilliams2 @natalieben @Team4Nature @Animal_Watch @N_E_R_F @gill__lewis @RSPBbirders @MarkAvery @RareBirdAlertUK An appeal for information 6 months after an apparent crime. What’s the point? I appreciate that finding the ‘smoking gun’ is always going to be difficult, but after this time the gun could have been melted down, built into a new Volkswagen and driven half way round the world.
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
5 years
@MarkAvery @nationaltrust @WCL_News @RewildingB @RewildingEurope @BeaverTrust @gow_derek @PeteMRCooper @GeorgeMonbiot @ChrisGPackham The beavers are not to be released but confined in a compound. Yet another in an interminable series of ‘trials’. Given the data amassed from numerous reintroductions across Europe, there is no good reason for further trials. Why the extreme caution? Just let them go.
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
8 months
Nine (9) wolf packs in a country with a human population density 2x that of GB. And yet we appear unable to either tolerate our existing wildlife (badgers) or make space for the most benign of our lost species (beavers). It’s small wonder that the #StateOfNature is dire.
@JMergeay
@Jmergeay.bsky.social
8 months
NINE wolf packs for the Netherlands according to the latest report! At least 39 pups born in 2023.
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Alick Simmons
3 years
My first self found Death’s Head Hawkmoth this PM, ⁦ @WWTSteart ⁩ looking like it has not long for this world. ⁦ @JLowenWildlife ⁩ ⁦ @MothIDUK ⁩ ⁦ @MigrantMothUK
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
2 years
The #WarOnWildlife is conducted in private and is one of the prime reasons why landowners resist the #RightToRoam
@FoxHITeam
H.I.T.
2 years
🩸Behind the scenes on the Hilborough Estate 4 At what point does this stop getting called "conservation"? Stink pits containing corvids, deer, hare and pigeons are used at snare sites on the Hilborough Estate, to draw predators into their deaths. This is a wildlife massacre.
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
5 years
Photos from @guardian ’s Week in Wildlife, 18 Oct. That’s not a robin and that’s not a magpie, ffs. Week after week, howler after howler. Employ someone with some basic knowledge of wildlife or get a field guide, for pity’s sake.
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Alick Simmons
3 months
Is it just me or has anyone else reached the conclusion that every aspect of government wildlife policy in GB is now under the control of the NFU? @NFUtweets #WarOnWildlife
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
3 years
The UK is 100 years behind Sweden and 60 years behind Germany in restoring 🦫 to the wild. It’s time we caught up. I support @WildlifeTrusts call for the safe return of 🦫 to the UK. Show your support here:
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
11 months
@RaptorPersUK @ChrisGPackham @LeagueACS @ReviveCoalition @onekindtweet @AnimalsCount @scottishbadgers @SP_RuralAffairs @AnimalAid @Animal_Watch A groundbreaking decision. The other countries of the Union will surely follow as the case for continuance is extremely thin. This is just the start, however - mole traps, various types of cage traps for corvids & most spring traps are inherently inhumane & need to be prohibited.
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
3 years
Is there a cooler seabird than the Great Skua? It would eat your grannie.
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Alick Simmons
2 years
Good evening, @HighwaysSWEST . I have just driven along the A303. Hundreds of metres of live, growing hedgerows have been cut down in the last 48 hrs to facilitate the building of a dual carriageway at Sparkford. I have a question. 1/-
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@alicksimmons
Alick Simmons
3 years
It’s just 6 months since my wife took over a new allotment. This is what it looks like. #nodig @charlesdowding
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Alick Simmons
3 months
@JasonEndfield @SteveOrmerod Of course, moles should be protected. They are - in Germany and many other countries. In the UK, anyone can kill them without training or supervision. The commonly used traps are unapproved, very likely inhumane and can be used year round leaving dependent young to starve.
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