Here Today... Gone to Mali

This is True®

by Randy Cassingham

Cheep
Farmers in England may shoot at crows and other birds eating their crops, and sportsmen can still hunt birds for food, but only if they give the birds a chance by shouting or employing other “frightening techniques” first, the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has ruled. Only if the bird ignores it can they blast away. Failure to try to scare the bird before firing is punishable by a 5,000 pound (US$9,350) fine or six months in prison. Meanwhile, Glen Steinhardt, a farmer in Murgon, Qld., Australia, applied for a “damage mitigation permit” from Queensland’s Environmental Protection Agency to shoot swarms of birds eating his crops. An estimated 5,000 birds per day are feasting on his sorghum and wheat. The EPA gave him the permit: Steinhardt may shoot a total of 87 birds, but only if he spreads the kills over an 85-day period. Steinhardt says when trucks drive through the swarms of birds when they pass his farm, it’s common for them to hit and kill “30 to 60 in one strike,” but that sort of killing is considered accidental and not illegal. (London Times, Brisbane Courier Mail) ...So Steinhardt simply needs to soup up his tractor so it will go 80 mph.
Available in This is True: Book Collection Vol. 11

Here Today... Gone to Mali

Friday, January 18, 2008

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