bird sanctuary closing

rossy · #1 (**permalink**) 14-02-2010, 07:02 PM

read in the local paper that the three owls bird sanctuary has closed, the reason is born free and the council in rochdale will put many injured and sick birds to die, the full story can be found rochdaleobserver.co.uk on a personal note, for some time local residents have complained who live nearby, cant help thinking that the land is going to be used to build on, sad as it was a place to visit and see first hand the work put in by staff to help thousands of birds over the years get well and released back into the wild, the ones that couldnt were always made comfortable and well looked after, rossy.

ChrisJB · #2 (**permalink**) 14-02-2010, 08:13 PM

I saw this in th' Ob' too. Very sad. I took a young blackbird there last year after a magpie had 'ragged' it. When I was a kid, Three Owls was Rochdale's premier tree sparrow spot, on account of there being plenty of spilt seed.

Regards, Chris

rossy · #3 (**permalink**) 15-02-2010, 09:47 PM

yes chris once took a little owl many years ago which had been injured, and remember going round the a few years ago and herons that they released had built a nest in the sanctuary that had young in, the thing is it was low down, then a heronry was formed in the trees just outside fence, turns out that a few more sanctuarys are on the hit list to be closed around the country,thanks to born free cant say ill be contributing to that lot again , rossy.

Ukwildlifeo · #4 (**permalink**) 17-02-2010, 03:33 PM

Its rather sad case of stupid bureaucracy. As for the born free foundations role, they appear to be denying responsibility but there is no denying they had a hand in it. While there idea of checking zoos are ok for animals is on paper a good one, in this case it seems like it was unnecessary, and the motives and aims behind it somewhat questionable.
And I have to say the wildlife belongs in the wild ethic while in an ideal world would be a good one, in the real world there are a number of amphibian species that would now be extinct thanks to the cytrid fungus had it not been for conservationists collecting some of them for captive breeding before the fungus arrived.