RUDDY PROTESTS COME TO SCOTLAND help save the ruddy duck f..

The RSPB led persecution of wildlife continues.



RUDDY PROTESTS COME TO SCOTLAND
Join the campaign against the slaughter

Two days of Scottish protests will be staged on the 13th and the 14th
August against the government's decision to eradicate the entire UK
population of ruddy ducks - many of them located in Scotland.
Centrepiece will be an impressive trailer, which will parade the
streets broadcasting the message about the plight of the ducks. Clad
in ruddy costumes and carrying large banners and posters, the
demonstrators will distribute leaflets to the public.

Press release: Issued 13.08.03

As killing gangs prepare for mass slaughter...
RUDDY PROTESTS COME TO SCOTLAND
Two days of Scottish protests will be staged on the 13th and the 14th
August against the government's decision to eradicate the entire UK
population of ruddy ducks - many of them located in Scotland.

Organised by Animal Aid, the demonstration will start in Glasgow on
Wednesday the 13th and make its way to Edinburgh the next day.
Centrepiece will be an impressive trailer, which will parade the
streets broadcasting the message about the plight of the ducks. Clad
in ruddy costumes and carrying large banners and posters, the
demonstrators will congregate in Buchanan Street at 11.30 am and begin
distributing leaflets to the public.

Ruddy ducks are being targeted because some of them have reportedly
flown from the UK to Spain where they are mating with the endangered
white-headed duck - endangered because it has been mercilessly hunted
and its habitat destroyed. The result of the mating of the ruddy and
its close genetic kin, the white-headed, is an 'impure hybrid'.
Despite grass-roots opposition from their memberships, those who run
the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and the Wildfowl
and Wetlands Trust (WWT) are offended by the idea of genetic impurity
and have pressed the government into this attempted genetic cleansing
of nature. There have already been two major 'trial culls' in which
thousands of ruddys have been killed - many in Scotland. Animal Aid
has led the campaign of opposition to the slaughter.

It was in March this year that the government announced that it was
committed to total eradication of the ruddy population - a bird
brought to the UK as an 'ornamental' species by the WWT. The
government announcement followed a 'rehearsal' slaughter that
accounted for nearly 3,000 ruddy ducks - many killed on their nests.

Fifty per cent of landowners who were approached refused to allow the
killing gangs on to their land. The government is now considering
passing a law to gain compulsory access.

Says Animal Aid Campaigns Officer, Becky Lilly:

"It is disgraceful that the government is committed to this morally
repugnant and scientifically illogical slaughter programme. It is
particularly disturbing that top-table conservation groups such as the
RSPB and the WWT are the main movers for this scheme. They should be
focussing their efforts on saving animals and their habitat rather
than promoting ethnic cleansing projects. Since so much of the
slaughter has already taken place in Scotland, we want the Scottish
public to know what is being done in their name and with their taxes.
We are confident of continued widespread support."

For more information on the ruddy duck cull, please visit Animal Aid's
website, www.animalaid.org.uk, or call 01732 364546 for an action
pack.

..........................

Notes to Editors

The demonstrators will be congregating at Buchanan Street Precinct in
Glasgow on Weds 13th August, and by the empty shop at the corner of
Charlotte St in Edinburgh on Thurs 14th. In each location there will
be a photocall at 11.30 am.

For Glasgow interviews, please contact Helen Robinson of Clydeside
Animal Action on 07967 252838. For Edinburgh interviews contact Becky
Lilly of Animal Aid on 01732 364546.

For a full detailed background on the ruddy duck campaign click here.
http://www.animalaid.org.uk/campaign/wildlife/ruddyduck.htm

We have an ISDN line for broadcast-quality interviews.





See also: Sign the ruddy duck e-petition
http://www.animalaid.org.uk/news/2002/0201rudd.htm

Ruddy duck campaign
http://www.animalaid.org.uk/campaign/wildlife/ruddyduck.htm

Duck secret revealed, white-heads impure
http://www.animalaid.org.uk/news/2003/0307rudd.htm

Scapegoating the aliens
http://www.animalaid.org.uk/campaign/wildlife/aliens.htm
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well thought out, civil debate?

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