Buzzards and Defra

There have been reports in the press that DEFRA, a coalition government department, has been working with landowners, who organise pheasants shoots, to find a means of controlling the UK Buzzard population. One of the proposals is to capture and relocate live Buzzards and then destroy their nests. I would like to ask the question: why do pheasant shooting landowners want to do this? After years of persecution the Buzzard is just starting to re-colonise large areas of the UK from which they were completely eliminated by game keepers. I am now able to see Buzzards regularly in Kent. These magnificent birds have made a comeback because of legal protection.

The Buzzards is an  indigenous  species to the UK. The pheasant is not. Why should the pheasant be protected in this way? If we really want to protect the interests of the pheasant why do we not leave them alone to try to survive in their new environment without human interference. Twenty million pheasants are reared each year on private estates but under industrial farming conditions. They are then  released  for them to be shot for sport. Many of these birds escape into "the wild" and some of the weaker ones are taken by Buzzards. The pheasants' welfare is not taken into account; so what is wrong with a small proportion of these birds being caught by the increasing number of raptors. The activity of Buzzards hardly puts the commercial interest of landowners in jeopardy and to cull them to "protect" an alien bird species which will be shot anyway is simply immoral. Equally, a decision to cull Buzzards would be crass beyond belief. The RSPB has over one million members who could quite easily determine the result of a close fought election. Estate owners would be wise to recognise this as a change to conservation laws might affect more than a pheasant shoot. Members of the general population no longer "tug their forelocks" at the sight of a gamekeeper. Haven't the estate owners recognised this yet?

Why not live and let live. Let the Estates rear their pheasants but under strict animal welfare conditions and leave the Buzzards alone. This seems to be a fair trade off.