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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dale Forbes" data-source="post: 1382029" data-attributes="member: 65117">It seems like the Austrian state, Lower Austria (Niederösterreich) has decided - in their infinite wisdom - to have 200 Common Buzzards and 50 Northern Goshawks shot in order to "protect endangered prey species".60 years on from Aldo Leopold's predator conservation efforts and people have still not heard (or understood) his calls - killing predators does not help the prey!And on top of that all, of the 26 prey species for which the predator-killing programme was designed to protect, none of them are prey items of either the buzzard or the goshawk. Some of the worlds foremost conservationists have been hunters; Theodore Roosevelt and Aldo Leopold immediately come to mind. But it seems that when a nation's conservation efforts are led by hunters then, unless they have the insight of the fine gentlemen mentioned, the conservation efforts are going to be fraught with disastrous (or at least disgraceful) conflict of interests.This is the link to the WWF <a href="http://www.wwf.at/de/menu260/artikel1005/" target="_blank">English summary page</a>, and their <a href="http://www.wwf.at/de/menu46/petitionen4/" target="_blank">online petition</a>.</blockquote>