From Angela Hewitt, Whippingham:

Whoever supplied you (CP, 17-05-19) with the photo of a lamb in the claws of the white-tailed eagle was providing you with mis-information.

That is an old photo taken in Scotland and nothing to do with the IW.

It is this sort of story that loses the argument for those opposed to the introduction. I have made it clear in previous letters that I am opposed and why. Since than I have complained to Natural England and accused them of abusing the licensing system for moving a species from one place to another. Natural England wrote back and informed me they were using International Union for Conservation of Wildlife (IUCN) guidelines.

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, founded in 1965, has evolved to become the world’s most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biological species. It uses a set of criteria to evaluate the extinction risk of thousands of species and subspecies.

The guidelines are there to protect wildlife from unnecessary human interference. They are strongly worded, comprehensive and onerous.

To be able to re-introduce a species/organism it has to either be proven that it is a re-introduction (no text has been uncovered to substantiate this, claims they nested on Culver Cliffs are untrue. I have read all historic documentation and nowhere does it suggest eagles ever nested on the Islands cliffs.) or it is of genuine conservation value. i.e on the verge of extinction.

That argument can’t be used because on the World Red list they are “Least at Risk”. Indeed they are an overly successful species.

This is why the applicant is desperately concentrating on the re-introduction criteria. However, all they have done is prove it never nested on the IW.

The habitat they were meant to have used no longer exists. It is crumbling into the sea.

Natural England should be ashamed of itself. This is the same organisation that grants licences to destroy dormouse habitats so the supermarkets can be built.

If real conservationists really cared they too would object to these magnificent birds being treated like circus animals just because someone needs something to do and a few people want to gape in awe as they fly around.

Natural England is a government funded body and like all government bodies should be held to account.

Farmers own most of the land, they have 60 million mouths to feed and we need to help and support them to do more for conservation not kick them in the teeth.