https://youtu.be/z9uJbS-sIws
Ban the cruel trapping in 'Larsen traps' of British birds like magpies, jays, rooks and crows, which is being carried out by pheasant breeders to protect their shoots.
Why is this important?
The wild “decoy bird”, its most vital instincts frustrated and abused by confinement, suffers a terrible fate. Close to the ground it is terrorised by predators, and watches as its fellow birds are brutally killed in front of it. A number end up being found dead through neglect.
The Larsen trap is a cage bird trap made of wire and either a wooden for metal framed cage where one live bird (decoy bird, or call bird), usually a crow or magpie, is placed to encourage another bird, not always of similar species, to come down to it. This visiting bird, not knowing its fate, falls through a false floor into a compartment, where it awaits its fate with the gamekeeper.
Larsen Traps were designed by a Danish gamekeeper (Larsen) in the 1950s, but are now banned in that country because the traps are viewed as inhumane for trapping magpies and crows.
The live traps use a “decoy” bird, which is kept in one compartment, and when another bird lands on top, it falls through a one-way gate. Legally they must have a perch, shelter, food and water, but this is often neglected.
