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18 weeks jail for taking Peregrine eggs. (1 Viewer)

Punishment only deters, but is really pretty ineffective, as the drug problem shows.
The only lasting solution is to make the illegal item so cheap that there is no profit in smuggling it.
Unfortunately, short of genetic engineering there is no obvious way to proliferate peregrines.
Still, there has been reasonable success with captive breeding of parrots and macaws, which has apparently curtailed the wild bird trade.
So maybe a more intensive captive breeding effort could help.
 
Some truth in the second sentence I suppose. Crime is very low in Monaco and Switzerland. But, if any of us feel that we could achieve a similar society in our own country, we should run for president!
Monaco is a tax haven, so full of rich criminals, and we all know the range of people with numbered bank accounts in Switzerland! A character in one of my favourite novels opines there's two things that make a crook: one's wanting a million, the other's having one.

The fundamental cause of raptor persecution in Britain is rich people.

John
 
Some truth in the second sentence I suppose. Crime is very low in Monaco and Switzerland. But, if any of us feel that we could achieve a similar society in our own country, we should run for president!
Impossible......the testosterone fuelled falconry and hunting pastime is so ingrained into the history and heritage of many Arab nations the demand will remain high for many years to come. Good luck trying to change their attitudes. I saw an article once that showed a private jet fitted out with perches and paraphernalia for transporting his favourite birds around.
 
short of genetic engineering there is no obvious way to proliferate peregrines.
I suppose the fine chaps who shoot and poison them (or have their staff do the dirty work, rather) in the UK could let them breed and sell the youngsters to the fine chaps in the Gulf etc who prefer to hunt with falcons rather than Purdeys!

Captive breeding of falcons is a well established thing in many countries these days, and IIRC a much larger proportion of falcons kept in the Middle East are captive-bred than used to be the case. Middle Eastern buyers also have access to a huge number of wild-caught birds from North Africa to Pakistan and far beyond (part of the reason why I question claims that peregrine eggs are worth $25,000 each - that sum I think would buy a wild-caught saker that is far more the finished article. No doubt they have value, and of course even a fraction of $25,000 (or whatever) is enough for some folks to commit crimes for. But as with much that is published in the media, journalistic license has likely been applied to some of the figures quoted.

Falconry in the Arabian Peninsula was once a (relatively) sustainable activity whereby the birds were trapped on their southward migration in winter and released in spring, as they could not be kept in the heat of the summer. Money and prosperity has greatly distorted the dynamics of this activity - hugely increasing demand despite far fewer folks actually having the time and wherewithal to hunt wild quarry. What we are seeing (falcon races, beauty contests etc) is a gross distortion - some would say a perversion - of the traditions of falconry.

If the desire was purely to experience the thrill and excitement of falcons hunting (which I absolutely understand) that is one thing, and could perhaps be satisfied by watching wild birds. You'd think setting up a few nest boxes for Barbary falcons in Dubai or Riyadh would be a doddle if anyone was interested, and there are all kinds of conservation measures within the Gulf region and much further abroad for which even a small fraction of insane amounts spent on eg. the Qatar World Cup would make a huge difference. But when you have stables of falcons being kept as status symbols, or for such purposes as beauty contests and falcon racing, it's different.

As for what we can do in the UK ... well, since we seem to be living in a feudal society, I suppose some of the punishments that applied in the days of yore would not come amiss. I believe some of the punishments of old were similar to one dictated in the Sharia for thieves I noted upthread. Or if the plan is to become Singapore-on-Thames, some of their punishments would do just fine...
 
1. You can't make an activity not profitable so long as there is a demand, and there's only so far you can go to prevent smuggling. Remind me how well the "war on drugs" is working.

2. Not all thieves are poor, and "societal change" doesn't eradicate crime. The City is full of wealthy crooks. The man convicted in the present case is a tree surgeon and drug addict. His life choices are on him, not "society".
The only thing I’d disagree with here is it’s not a lifestyle choice for all drug addicts.

Rich
 

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