An Isle of Wight pub has stopped selling rook salad on police advice.
The Taverners gastropub, in Godshill, had sold the dish before the man who supplied the bird meat was arrested.Well, where to start?
Hampshire police confirmed a 45-year-old from Ryde was formally cautioned for contravening the Wildlife and Countryside Act.
Natural England said: "We would not want to encourage their [rooks'] killing, purely to supply a demand for human consumption and trade."
Rooks are not an endagered species. Far from it; anywhere where there is a bit of woodland they are aerial vermin. There's millions of the black raggedy bastards, and they make a noise that competes in volume and duration with any noisy exhaust or nearby airport. People go roost shooting, where you basically wait until they are coming home for a bit of kip, living as they do in multiple-occupancy tower blocks, stand under the trees and let rip with the old Eley No. 7 as they arrive home, arguing intently about the price of insects. They die in coppicefuls, but the numbers never seem to decline. They are an incredibly successful and resilient bird.
Personally, I don't wish them any harm (unlike magpies) and I rather like their cheeky demeanour.
So why the problem with killing a couple and selling them to a pub to make pseudo-traditional Englisshe Saladde Fayre? (Did they ever eat rook salad in the Olden Days? I doubt it. Nor snail porridge.) Well, apparently it is OK to shoot them, but to sell them for the purposes of their consumption by others is beyond the pale. People have been eating rooks for centuries (remember 'four-and-twenty black birds baked in a pie'? That was rook pie, that was, nothing to do with blackbirds) and people have been killing them for centuries. But for the participant in Activity 2 to give the proceeds to someone for the purpose of Activity 1 in exchange for some coin of the realm is apparently illegal.
Paul Cantwell, Natural England's species enforcement officer, said: "Under the provisions of a general licence issued by Natural England, it is legal to undertake control of rooks for certain purposes.Don't you love that 'technically legal'? Translation: you can do this, and this annoys us because we think you shouldn't. Part of me wants to ask what the poor bloody pigeon has done to deserve this status, but the key is in that phrase
"It is also technically legal for people to eat the birds they kill under the licence, but it has never been legal to sell wild birds killed for human consumption, with the exception of the wood pigeon."
Under the provisions of a general licence issued by Natural EnglandThere you have it. Natural food, grown and caught locally, sold locally, and eaten to satisfy Man's most basic instinct. And it needs a fucking licence. from Natural Fucking England, whoever they are.
What is not expressly permitted is forbidden.
Natural England said: "We would not want to encourage their [rooks'] killing, purely to supply a demand for human consumption and trade."Why not? Who is asking the same question on behalf of the poor bloody battery chicken?
It's the Walt Disney generation again. Shooting an animal in the wild and selling it to a local pub is morally repugnant. Making an animal live its life without air, free movement or natural food, killing it, wrapping it in plastic and putting it on a supermarket shelf is OK.
"From our part, they were bought in good faith. Obviously we won't be selling it again," he (pub manager Roger Serjant) said.Of course not. Step into line now. Good boy.
True story: A local pub-cum-eatery with a great reputation was raided a few years ago by the Police, along with Local Authority Environmental Health Inspectors. A diner in the pub had reported that the pub was serving heron on the menu. It's a protected species! The planet-raping bastards! The pub's entire stock was inspected, the freezers were impounded pending forensic analysis, and the proprietors' business severely interrupted. Goodness knows how many thousands of ratepayers' pounds were spent before someone thought to ask to see the actual menu. Sadly, the complainant must have been either dyslexic or pissed. It was herring.
I want to know what wood pigeons have done to deserve such treatment. Also, is it not insulting to followers of the Two Ronnies to deny them rook meat?
ReplyDeleteYou're right, though, this is insane.
Hadn't seen that one. Very good!
ReplyDeleteStewed tortoise :)
Of course it's technically legal to eat these and their unborn offspring.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/01/battery-eggs-sold-supermarket.php
Rook Pie, a local if not countrywide feast. Remove the backbone first.
ReplyDelete"What is not expressly permitted is forbidden" which used to be the European way while ours was always "what is not forbidden is allowed".
ReplyDeleteThanks a bunch Ted Heath & Cast Iron Dave.
I think that it is still the case that if you run over a partridge and take it home, that is poaching but if you are in the following car and pick up the carcase that is roadkill and fair game.
"It's the Walt Disney generation again. Shooting an animal in the wild and selling it to a local pub is morally repugnant. Making an animal live its life without air, free movement or natural food, killing it, wrapping it in plastic and putting it on a supermarket shelf is OK. "
ReplyDeleteSpot on! The Disneyfication of nature continues apace...
Natural England/the Environment Agency et al are clear examples of what you get if you let bureaucrats more than a smidgen of discretion over interpretation of the law.
ReplyDeleteThe River Esk forms part of the border between England and Scotland. In England you need a rod licence to fish in a river; in Scotland you do not. The Environment Agency have spent considerable time and money trying to get anglers from Scotland fishing from the Scotland bank of the Esk to buy an English rod licence - on the basis that their fishing line may cross over the centre line of the river onto "the Environment Agency's" patch.
@Joe - thsanks for the link. Interesting reading. This is one where I am 100% with the tree-huggers.
ReplyDelete@Anon - I've never had it, but I believe it was widely popular many years ago (hence the nursery rhyme), especially in the countryside. No shortage of protein if you aren't too fussy :)
@banned - yes, we are certainly moving in that direction, more's the pity. I'm not familiar with the laws regarding roadkill, but what you say makes sense. Some years ago, vehicles carrying horses were limited to 50 mph, but if the horse died en route they became conveyors of horseflesh and had to slow down to 30 mph. It's similar logic.
@Derf - this story doesn't surprise me one little bit.
I clicked through the BASC site to Natural England's General Licence here. One has to scroll down to page 4 , Exception h) to discover it is verboten to sell the species covered by the licence. It's ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteIt's ridiculous all right. My objection is that the State thinks it has the right to punish people for carrying out a trade which has been going on for centuries and which, in the context of the story of human development, is entirely natural. If we were talking about a rare species, or the trade in ivory, then maybe, but rooks? The State just can't help interfering, whether you call it English Nature or something less cuddly.
ReplyDelete