[Closed] I agree with Monbiot

That's marvelous. Are you pleased ?

Snaring has been illegal for years, and if the person responsible is caught, they're prosecuted. It's catching the perp that's difficult; not much CCTV along the hedgerows around my way.
As for lead shot, it's also my understanding that shooters use lead-free cartridges, and fishermen use tungsten shot, and both have done for years. Certainly I remember hearing that lead shot had been outlawed ages ago, but again, how do you police such things?
http://www.basc.org.uk//en/departments/game-and-gamekeeping/game-shooting/lead-and-nonlead-shot.cfm
Lead shot has been restricted in its use since 1999, but there are still issues with non-compliance; it's illegal to use a mobile phone while driving a vehicle, but thousands still do it, and they're highly visible..
I'm not entirely sure what the writer of the article would like to see done to enforce this issue, it's Europe-wide, it seems, if not international, so this seems to be just government bashing for the sake of it.

Stet my post, it's late, and I'd skimmed the top part, about shot, which seems to be an issue wider than just the UK, and snaring is illegal, but other issues, like the persecution of raptors, and other such things, are totally unacceptable, and the prosecution of the landowner for any example should be instant and heavy. However, it's proving who was responsible; if poisoned bait is laid, but the bird is found six or seven miles away, how do you prove which landowner or keeper was the culprit?
There are shoots that take place near Avebury, and I've seen Ravens around there in the past, but they suddenly seemed to vanish a couple of years ago. Coincidence? Who knows, I've seen no dead birds, I have no proof, only suspicions, but they get you nowhere. The buzzards are still up there, though.
I have no problems with land ownership; someone has to own it, in order to graze animals, grow crops, etc, and those owners have to have the skills to do the job, but certainly vested interests interfering with legislation that protects wildlife need to be brought to public attention, and such interference removed, the same with access to waterways.
But it's policing these things in rural areas where the nearest police might be thirty miles away, and have little interest in said offences that's the problem, although some forces do have dedicated wildlife units, their ability to cover effectively hundreds of square miles of open country is obviously limited, especially when they might be having to investigate hare coursing at night as well as poisoned raptors miles away and poachers taking deer somewhere else.
*sigh* I live in the countryside, and I see these issues first-hand; trouble is, they've always been here, and many, many people really couldn't give a toss, they're more interested in what the police are doing about graffiti, or dog fouling, or drunken louts damaging their cars, a few dead birds are irrelevant to your average townie, who's more likely to be writing to the Daily Mail demanding that buzzards, sparrowhawks, peregrines, etc, are culled to save the birdies in their garden, or to protect their bloody racing pigeons!
I see those letters regularly, they're appalled that the RSPB/RSPCA are protecting birds of prey, while allowing songbirds to be slaughtered, so how do you then expect them to support legislation to stop happening what they are demanding happens?
And a change of government would make no difference, either. It didn't when the last lot were in power. 🙁

Since when was snaring illegal? And you can get a permit to shoot ravens. But the only realistic threat to wildlife in the UK is loss of habitat. And it's the shooting industry that's the main contributor, not the RSPB/PCA or the public.

The moors would be all grass, hedges ploughed up, no game crops, woodland cleared for mono-culture cropping. You think the food keepers get out of bed all winter to chuck on the ground is somehow exclusive?

Not defending it, just stating the facts. The countryside would be practically barren without it.

Have I linked the wrong article? I thought it was about access...