THE Government's announcement that £3.3m of public money for the mass slaughter of Britain's ruddy ducks amounts to an obscene and wasteful enterprise.
Ruddy ducks were brought to the UK in the 1940s by the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, as an 'ornamental' species, due to their small stature and the male's bright blue bill. A small number of birds escaped and began reproducing.
Some of these ducks are now said to be flying from Britain to Spain and mating with the endangered white-headed duck - the offspring being considered 'impure' by conservationists and bird watchers.
The attractive little ruddy ducks have, therefore, been sentenced to death in the name of blood purity. Hybridisation (the mating of two different species) is a perfectly normal process in nature and not uncommon among bird species. In fact the white-headed duck itself is a hybrid. And of course, if the white-headed duck didn't want to mate with the ruddy, it wouldn't. This is yet another example of humans interfering with nature. Hunting and habitat loss in its main breeding ground - Pakistan - are the reasons the white-headed duck is endangered in the first place. Not only is the slaughter of the ruddy ducks a vicious, insane and massively expensive exercise, but it is also logistically impossible to eradicate a whole population spread over a thousand UK sites and in personal collections across 20 countries in Europe and North Africa. Species conservation starts with habitat protection. It seems it's far easier, however, to target a small duck than the real cause of species loss.
KELLY SLADE,
Campaigns Officer,
Animal Aid.
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