BB gun for pestering pigeons?

Yup
Every word
You decided to leave them alone and the discussion continued about shooting them
I contributed
What’s your problem?

Between this….

You’re the one planning to illegally hurt wild birds , so have you changed your mind?

… and this 25 minutes later….

You decided to leave them alone and the discussion continued about shooting them

… you DID read the thread. Well done.

What ? I asked you what changed your mind ?

I still don’t get it . What’s your problem? Is it because you were called out for planning something stupid ?

No wait , I typed have instead of what
Either way you were planning something stupid so please don’t try and divert away from that.
I’m only informing other why you would have been stupid.

And patronising is for dicks

I think I’ll leave you to it.

Why do you need to kill them ?

I haven’t said I want to kill anything. Not my pigeons after all

All I’ve said is it’s not illegal as long as you follow the law.

The two examples I came up with; what is illegal about either?

So I can move onto shooting them

I took that as meaning you want to kill them.
As long as you have a reaso ( crop protection , health of animals or humans etc) and you have tried non lethal means or they are unavailable or impractical then under the general license you can shoot them.
It’s pretty straight forward.

Non lethal means do not involve BB guns or pea shooters

that’s a hypothetical “move onto shooting them”

okay, so we’re agreed I (or anyone else) can [hypothetically] kill pigeons that interfere with the garden (either through being detrimental to my health or eating my crops) with no illegality involved*.

That was the only point I was raising.

*obviously using a firearm at all brings other restrictions.

If they’re shitting in your house I’d say you’ve got bigger issues than how you dispatch them. You do realise it’s only dried guano that is toxic and even then in a poorly ventilated space.

So that’s one reason gone.

For crops, it’s not exactly demanding to net them in a garden or even a smallholding. There’s one perfectly reasonable non-lethal solution.

Reason number two gone.

You know, its times like this I actually feel grateful for the licensing system up here, flawed as it is, since it gives the Elmers less options.

The license system is easy to work with. “Elmers “ use it to allow shooting.:)
Even when it’s being challenged.
Shooters have been ruled by it for as long as I can remember.
It’s the wildlife and Countryside act that protects birds and animals from cruelty.

I’ve even trapped birds for release rather than shoot them , and nowadays almost every crop field i shoot has scarers already in place.
Garden birds should rarely if ever need killed.

Good job no-one’s asking how to kill birds, right?

bigger issues than how you dispatch them

Garden birds should rarely if ever need killed.

None of which I disagree with. My disagreement is solely on the blanket & numerous posts of ‘It’s illegal‘.

It’s not. And spreading an incorrect interpretation of the law is wrong.

However, now we’ve all agreed it’s not illegal, I shall comment no more.

Op, have you shot those ugly birds yet? Before you break out the hardware, how about a spud gun? Birds don’t like potatoes, probably. Used to have one as a yoof in the 80’s, not sure if they still exist…

Nah, still deploying the feather duster – got a cheap nerf gun on order, if that’s not too pokey, we’ll see how that gets on. 🙂

I’m surprised this thread has got to three pages, when the answer was in the first post:

I should just get used to the pigeons, shouldn’t I… 🙁

If you took the time to watch them, I’m sure you would become attracted to their charms.

It’s irrational, I know, but I like everything I see feeding – except pigeons. There’s no logic to it. I’ve even read Homing and enjoyed it immensely.

My disagreement is solely on the blanket & numerous posts of ‘It’s illegal‘.

It’s not. And spreading an incorrect interpretation of the law is wrong.

The original post was about firing a BB gun at them
It’s illegal
Stop complicating the discussion.

Good job no-one’s asking how to kill birds, right?

Except Petec

oh good.

We’ve now reached the targeted abuse stage.

I’ve never mentioned I wanted to kill pigeons. Never. I just pointed out (more than once) it’s not illegal to kill them

In fact, ridiculously, you will get into less trouble shooting them with an air rifle than a BB gun.

But please, I’ve not given you ( @brads ) any abuse; I’ve asked a couple of polite questions. Please reciprocate.

The original post was about firing a BB gun at them
It’s illegal
Stop complicating the discussion.

It’s not complicated – I asked if I could use a BB gun to scare pigeons without hurting them. The only person being in any way patronising in here is you, banging on about the illegality of killing them, which this thread is clearly and unambiguously not about.

Well either way, shooting them with BB’s is cruel and as such illegal which he also said in his inital post.

@petec calling you out by name isn’t targeted abuse, get a grip. You are also wrong in your interpretation of the general licence, I have pointed out reasonable measures that can be taken thus there is no need to shoot them. Shitting on your car or patio is not a danger to health, nor is eating some strawberries that you haven’t bothered netting reasonable excuse under crop damage. Therefore it would be illegal to shoot them under general licence.

I’ll even repost the BASC passage you quoted:

Can I shoot or trap pest birds if I haven’t tried non-lethal methods?
Yes.

The general licences require that, before and alongside their use, reasonable endeavours are made to achieve the purpose in question using lawful methods not covered by the licences, unless such endeavours would be impractical, without effect or disproportionate in the circumstances.

Could you explain how the measures I proposed would be in any way disproportionate or impractical?

Quite frankly the poorly justified nonsense you are spouting is exactly the sort of thing that gives responsible shooters a bad name. There is enough stigma in the sport without people like you giving folk more ammo to hit us with. If you shoot you should have half a clue what I’m talking about and if not I strongly urge you to stop talking about things you clearly have no idea about and leave it to the people who do.

Well either way, shooting them with BB’s is cruel and as such illegal which he also said in his inital post.

Cleared up in about the first five posts.

gosh @squirrelking

that’s a bit of diatribe

Might I point you in the direction of this thread, four years ago? Recognize the poster? I know the GL has changed, but the principle remains.

Next, as long as his pellets aren’t leaving his land and said pigeons aren’t being caused undue suffering then there’s not much you can do.

Unless the GL specifies the non lethal actions you must take, it is open to interpretation. What you may classify as impractical may be different to pondo’s. You don’t know his garden, his situation, his anything. Apart from probably his regret at starting this thread

however, seriously. We shall agree to disagree about legality. I’m out. The cycling is on

You’re right, that was four years ago and a lot has changed since then. I’ve had my own educational experiences and as such, have changed my opinions on certain things. People are allowed to do that you know.

I give up
I’ve never abused anyone on this. Kind of resent the implication actually.
And Pondo
Other people spoke about killing them so I answered , it really isn’t all about you.

Peace out

And Pondo
Other people spoke about killing them so I answered , it really isn’t all about you.

Forgive me for quoting your words to me back at you.

You’re the one planning to illegally hurt wild birds

I’m pretty sure the only conversations about killing them have come from you saying it’s illegal – the original post clearly stated I didn’t want to hurt them.

I read all that and still don’t know if it’s wood pigeons or feral pigeons or how many pigeons, like 2 pigeons is quite nice but 70 is maybe too many.

My only advice is don’t use a pigeon trap if your not going to eat them, if you release them they are back before you.

okay, so we’re agreed I (or anyone else) can [hypothetically] kill pigeons that interfere with the garden (either through being detrimental to my health or eating my crops) with no illegality involved*.

NOpe you cannot. Read what Brads and other wrote