25th April, West Midlands UK.
received anonymously via email:
“Fuck them scum, we knew this place were killing birds because it is trap season and we were not wrong. As soon as we hit the shooting estate we found a larsen trap with a decoy crow. Unfortunately there was someone on a tractor so we had to leave the trap for later and keep looking. It didn’t take long for a second trap to appear with two magpies inside. Nobody around meant we could bag up both of the birds for a health check and after having some very stern words with the larsen trap -which rendered it flat – we went back to check on the crow.
The tractor had left, so we jumped the fence and lifted the larsen back into the safety of the woods to check on the bird. Luck wasn’t on our side as as soon as we had jumped back into the woods the gamekeeper appeared with a bucket of corn, baiting hunting towers to shoot deer this evening. We locked eyes and knew we had to run, so run we did!
Two magpies in a carrier and a crow in a massive larsen are not comfortable cargo to lug around while running away from a hunter on a quad bike, but streams are easy to jump and not so easy to drive through and in no time we were collected by someone else and taken to safety.
It was only then that we could check on the crow. They had been very talkative the whole drive, and to our surprise they were not clipped, so we released them after giving some food and water. The caught magpie also looked good and was released the same day, whilst the decoy magpie had the wings cut, so she was transported to a new home where experienced rehabbers will care for them until the clipped feathers re-grow.
All in all an exciting day out, two traps smashed and three individuals helped out of certain suffering and death. Hunters are scum, and scum needs removing. Get out there and fight back.”
