definition for: #LondonParksSlaughter

Numerous healthy animals are killed in London's most iconic open spaces. Ask the Royal Parks to stop the culls, carry out a scientific analysis of the carrying capacity of the parks and adopt non-lethal methods.

Every year hundreds of healthy animals (deer, foxes, squirrels, rabbits, pigeons, crows, magpies, geese, etc.) are culled in Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, St James’s Park, The Green Park, Regent’s Park and Primrose Hill, Greenwich Park, Richmond Park and Bushy Park - London's most iconic open spaces where locals and tourists go to relax and reconnect with nature. The very animals whom the visitors admire and photograph are killed in astonishingly high numbers. This was revealed by the Royal Parks as a result of a Freedom of Information request by the animal rights organisation Animal Aid. The justification for the culls (that it is done for the sake of the animals themselves and for public safety) is not evidence-based. Non-lethal methods of population control are mentioned in policy statements, but not applied. Hundreds of animals thus lose their lives for no clear reason. A petition on Care2 ask the Royal Parks - to immediately halt the culling of healthy animals, - to put into practice all the non-lethal methods that exist for animal population control and are mentioned in their own policy statement, - to gather scientific evidence on the biological and cultural carrying capacity of the Royal Parks, - to increase the cultural carrying capacity by education and by promoting greater tolerance.