Letter to DEFRA on general licences

Yesterday Wild Justice’s lawyers sent this letter to DEFRA. Paragraphs 16, 17 and 18 sum it all up pretty well. The choice is DEFRA’s – and with the choice comes the responsibility for the consequences.

Essentially, Wild Justice has got what we asked for almost a year ago – an admission of unlawfulness from Natural England over their general licences and a period of review and consideration. That period is now coming to an end, and if it hasn’t been successfully concluded then that is DEFRA’s fault and DEFRA’s problem. We can settle the issue in court if needs be.

Wild Justice’s main interest is in the licence which foolishly and wrongly authorises killing of a long list of species for the purposes of nature conservation – we will not stand idly by and allow the casual killing of wildlife, falsely in the name of conservation, to continue unchallenged. How long does it take to cross off some species from a list?