Poisons ban only way to save eagles

A FORMIDABLE list of Kerry luminaries wrote to you (Letters, June 21) claiming eagles have not been poisoned deliberately there.

However, no one knows who was responsible, how or why.

Nor can they possibly be aware of all the actions of everyone involved with farming. If the poisoning was deliberate, do they really think the culprit is going to admit the crime?

They also claim landowners use alternative, safer means to control foxes and crows, but are not able to say what they are, nor can they have any way of knowing to what extent poisons, legal and illegal, are used, although evidentially they are used since they claim the poisoning was accidental.

Everyone, including farmers, has a legal duty of care, so clearly they are guilty of negligence; it is impossible to poison crows without a risk that the bait will be taken by eagles. Their letter was simply PR spin. If they really were concerned about eagles they would be proposing a total ban on the use of all poisons because that is the only way to prevent secondary poisoning — eagles eating animals that have been killed by poison.

Michael Job

Glengarriff

Co Cork