Tennis Club Kills Geese -membership costs, facilities and famous members seem more important

 I posted This Is What The UK Thinks of Wildlife and guess what?  Even more evidence. Natural England seem to sign off on animal death warrants (oops. "Cull licences") like people throw confetti at a wedding. Are they being paid for these licences?  Does anyone at NE even check personally on a situation before issuing a licence to kill wildlife -and this is far more common than people know- ?  Oh, the old "Health and public safety" excuse -the club spokesman uses the phrase a lot along with the crocodile tears and "we never wanted to do this"fakery.  

Name the "pest controller"/company who carried out the killings. 

Every night hundreds of men and women (including off duty police officers ("blue insurance") go out 'sport' shooting -foxes, deer, birds in fact anything "legal" or illegal for kicks. HOW can polirticians say we have the greatest gun control when morons rush out to shoot and kill every day?  And Natural England mentions declining species numbers (well, they try to avoid it unless it serves a purpose) and "environmental causes" but totally ignore the, uh, 'sportsmen' -the same type of people who wiped out so many UK species in the 19th cemtury -all through 'sport'.

Many thouysands of birds are killed by local authorities each year on, uh "health and safety" grounds. 300,000 badgers were killed (Wales wants to go for a cull next) based on fake science and health and safety issues.

The UK is simply anti wildlife and takes any opportunity (even without cars) to kill it -shooting, snaring, poisoning it goes on and on and everyone puts on the fake smiling face and "We LOVE Wildlife" badgeswhile hiding their blood stained hands behind their backs.

Geese and goslings at the club

Tennis club secretly asked marksman to shoot geese

https://uk.yahoo.com/news/tennis-club-secretly-asked-marksman-212527298.html

The Canada geese that visited St George's Hill had become a familiar sight, regularly appearing on the club's social media channels

Members of one of Britain's most prestigious tennis clubs have cried foul over the secret culling of a gaggle of geese.

They are "furious" after the management at St George's Hill Lawn Tennis Club in Weybridge, Surrey, called in a marksman to stop the birds making a mess of the courts.

Residents reported hearing a volley of gunshots shortly after sunrise and later learned that eight birds had been killed, including goslings, according to The Times.

The club, set on the exclusive St George's Hill estate, has long been associated with famous residents including John Lennon, Jenson Button and Sue Barker.

Members pay an annual fee of £2,664 on top of a £2,000 joining charge. In return, they have access to 34 courts, including grass, clay and indoor surfaces, as well as a swimming pool and clubhouse.

The club was also where Emma Raducanu won the UK Pro Series and the UK Pro Classic in 2020, a year before her US Open triumph.

It has previously embraced the Canada geese on its social media channels, sharing a photo last year of two young birds waddling, captioned: "We have baby goslings on our Lakeside Terrace!"

The year before, it posted a photograph of two adults and two goslings walking across a tennis court in wet weather, captioned: "Canadian geese family enjoyed the courts today."

An adult and gosling who were spared the cull on July 16 were allegedly "found in a distressed state the same day wandering the local area", according to a social media post.

It said: "The tennis club claim they were pests and murdered them by the club's lake, which they used as their home, much to the delight of the young and old club members. Such barbaric action in a situation where local wildlife organisations would have taken them in."

Members claimed the birds were part of the "beauty" of the club and that they were not consulted about the cull.

"The members have always liked the geese," one long-standing member said. "It is sometimes a bit annoying because they amble on to the courts and leave their poo.

"But that does not mean they had to be shot. It's a private estate and the residents are concerned about a firearm being brought in without any warning."

Another player added: "The club management ordered this because they felt the birds were making the courts messy. There was no consultation with the members. The club is in a beautiful setting and the birds were part of that."

One member claimed they were initially told the birds had been relocated, only to find out later that they had been shot.

"The Canada geese were adored and loved. They walked around the club at their own pace and sometimes held up the traffic, but nobody minded," they said.

"First we were told they had been rehomed and then that they had 'flown off'. The members and local residents are furious."

The shooting, which started at 5.25am, was carried out by a marksman operating under a Natural England licence permitting the culling of certain bird species to protect public health and safety.

Surrey Police said they were informed about the shooting at 5.18am by a pest controller.

Miles Hill, the club's chief executive, said: "We fully understand that some members and estate residents have been upset by what occurred.

"This was not a decision the club wished to take, nor one that was taken lightly. It followed many months of attempting to manage a growing resident population of Canada geese through enhanced cleaning and non-lethal measures.

"The decision was taken primarily on the grounds of public health and public safety.

"Despite extensive daily cleaning by multiple members of our grounds team, we were increasingly unable to keep pace with the volume of faeces being produced."

Mr Hill said it was important for the cull to remain secret so the operation could be carried out safely.

"The decision reflected a genuine desire to avoid causing unnecessary concern, distress or alarm over what was a lawful operational matter undertaken in the interests of public health and safety," he added.

He said the club had "reflected carefully" on the incident and was developing a wildlife management plan under which lethal control would remain a measure of "absolute last resort".

"The recent arrival of further Canada geese at the lake reinforces why the club's future focus will be on preventing geese from establishing themselves in heavily used member areas, rather than relying on relocation, which is neither a practical nor sustainable long-term solution," he said.

"Where members made inquiries to me about the absence of the geese, I responded directly, openly and honestly, explaining the reasons for the decision and the background that led to it."

Canada Geese were introduced to Britain in the 17th century and were recorded as part of King Charles II's waterfowl collection in St James's Park, central London, in 1665.

They are now well established in the UK, with the RSPCA placing their number at about 190,000.