Concerns over hunting after two geese shot ay Chigborough Lakes
AN ANIMAL-LOVER has called for a clampdown on hunting after watching a pair of shot geese die in agony.
Martin Southwell, 59, who spends his weekends living in a mobile home on Goldhanger Road, Heybridge, was woken abruptly at just after 6am to the sound of shots being fired and geese squawking.
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WITNESS: Martin Southwell at the lake where the geese died
He jumped out of bed, threw on his clothes and hurried over to Chigborough Lakes, where he saw two greylag geese lying wounded on an island and a small number of men huddled with shotguns by the shore.
"At this time of year you get hundreds of geese around this area and a lot of people come to see them," he said.
"There really is something special about them. Obviously they make a bit of mess but they are lovely creatures."
As Mr Southwell approached the lakes, he saw that two of the beautiful beasts were flapping their great wings, looking very distressed.
He said: "They were about 40 metres out from the shore, on an island in one of the lakes. The group of men, who had shot them, were accompanied by retrievers but they seemed a bit daunted by swimming out that far, and these geese are big birds.
"I waited for about 25 minutes as the birds were dying, it was awful. They were flapping their wings slowly and then one stopped. I do not know what happened to the birds as they were not there when I went and checked the next day.
"I do not know why the men had shot them, whether it was for sport or culling, probably a bit of both. I have heard that farmers in the area find that they eat some of their crops but there are other, more effective and humane ways of stopping them."
Mr Southwell informed the police of what he had witnessed and they came to investigate but saw no sign of the men with guns.
Mr Southwell said: "They were quite concerned that people were walking around with shotguns, especially because there was a young boy with them.
"I didn't really want to go up to them, what with the adrenaline they had from the shoot itself.
"I also spoke to the Essex Wildlife Trust, at Abbotts Hall Farm and they were concerned about what had happened. People there said they would look into it."
The Essex Wildlife Trust, which owns the land, could not provide the Chronicle with a comment on the case, despite numerous requests.
5 Comments
by Bhudeeka
Monday, October 31 2011, 8:45AM
“you are all wrong ture hunters make sure the prey is dead as quikcly as possible no one has the right to ban nhunting if you dont like it dont do it but you dont have righ tto stop otehrs yeta again naninki people are quick enough to turn around the fact that virtually every ritual slaughter is not by christians or witches withces? where did that come from? you all refuse to face up to the facts nad tat is your problem but i know what is true the swans that have been tortured recently has not been hunters but evil youths and religious murders of animals happeens every day by non christian religions”
by Nanniki
Sunday, October 30 2011, 3:52PM
“Not sure this is a case of ritualistic slaughter, more like the usual mindless bloodletting of the countryside mob, who think they have a God given right to kill anything that moves. Fox hunting is, thankfully illegal, however, in spite of that, rural nobs and their working class lackies still allow their mutts to tear foxes to pieces, kill cats in the process and trespass private land at will. The police refuse to take any action. Why you may ask? The answer is simple, because one certain family, the Windsors no less, support and partake of bloodsports. As long as these dinosaurs support this barbarism then the authorities will continue to turn a blind eye.
On a separate note, although this appalling shooting does not have the hallmarks of ritual slaughter, this does take place, be it cats nailed to fences in the crucifix position in Canewdon, or horses having their throats slight. Most disturbingly, there was the case of the young African boy sacrificed and dumped in the Thames as shown by an investigative journalism programme on TV. The culprits are practitioners of witchcraft, both domestic and foreign.”
by Qichina
Saturday, October 29 2011, 12:48PM
“'The Essex Wildlife Trust, which owns the land, could not provide the Chronicle with a comment on the case, despite numerous requests.'
Why not?
EWT is one of the biggest wildlife trusts in the country with funds in excess of £15milion.
Can't an organisation of that size get its act together and find someone amongst all their staff to make a statement about how it proposes to deal with this?
Or is the EWT just another unaccountable quango?”
by LyleA
Friday, October 28 2011, 7:02PM
“Bhudeeka, hunters don't always 'do their job properly' and there are probably many types of people who hunt..unfortunately no character references or shooting tests are required....do some research on waterfowl 'crippling losses' and you will find for every few birds 'bagged' there is another injured. There is about a 20% 'crippling loss' involved in hunting and any % is too much. These birds are left to suffer and die or try to carry on with injuries including broken legs and wings.”
by Bhudeeka
Friday, October 28 2011, 12:09PM
“tahts right mr. southwell you do not know that it was hutning if it was hunting they would have more than likely have done thre job peroperly do no hunting should not be banned what should be banned is rituals carried out by other religions in this country of all countries where they slit the throats of sheep and chickens and allow them to bleed to death why do none of you speak out about that because you are too scared to thats why so you pick on another group who are already picked on -hunters”