Questions raised over legality of Welsh bird cull

The legality of a recent controversial cull of some 60 birds at Caerphilly Castle, Gwent, has been questioned by members of the House of Commons. Cadw – the Historic Environment division of the Welsh Government – executed the cull on 14 May under general licences issued by Natural Resources Wales (NRW), the same type that has recently been withdrawn in England. Cadw has since suspended any future culls.

Among the birds shot were Feral Rock Doves that had previously been in the care of Caerphilly Bird Rescue, before being released back into the wild. Legal experts in the House of Commons have questioned the cull's legality and Hefin David – a Welsh Government Assembly Member – has raised a number of legal questions with NRW.

Some of the birds killed were rehabilited feral Rock Doves from a local rescue centre (Alexander Viduetsky).

Mr David said he had been reassured by Dafydd-Elis Thomas, the Welsh Government's Deputy Minister for Culture, Sport and Tourism and Member of Parliament of the United Kingdom, that Cadw has "suspended" further culls at Caerphilly Castle and that a review of the policy was underway, with Mr Thomas saying: "Many people in Caerphilly have expressed their outrage at what has happened in the Castle.

"I would hope that any review of bird control at the castle will show that there are far better ways of controlling the numbers of feral Rock Doves than shooting them." Mr Thomas also confirmed that he, alongside Caerphilly AM Hefin David, will meet with Cadw on Friday, June 21 to "seek assurances from Cadw that these barbaric culls will never happen again".

Carol Gravenor, who runs Caerphilly Bird Rescue, told Caerphilly Observer she would prefer it if the culls stopped altogether: "I've offered to take it into my own hands, I'd happily put three or four dummies up myself to keep birds away. There was no need to do what they did. They killed my birds and offered no apology.

"To actually do that is shocking. It's a complete lack of care – it's arrogant. They had no right to kill the birds. What I want answered is; why do they think they're above the law? Why are they so worried about a little bit of pigeon poo when there's so much dog poo around the castle?"

Authorities in Cádiz, Spain, announced last year that they were tackling a feral Rock Dove problem by relocating 5,000 of the birds as they didn't want to kill them.