Changing the Rules

Our message is common sense, so why won’t the industry listen? What do they have to lose?

The Garden Press Event is behind us, exhibiting in Central London is never fun, but it was constructive and we met lots of people who I really hope will play a part in our future. However the last two weeks have been overshadowed by news which at face value is good, however, the time has come to share the truth behind it. 

I will state at the outset that I am a member of the RSPB, the charity is fantastic, sadly it is run by a senior management who are arrogant and incompetent at the very best, my guess is much worse. They are completely incapable of managing the rampant disease epidemic we are experiencing. The tipping point for me was the announcement that they have secured government funding for another Trichomonosis study, 19 years after the disease became endemic in the UK. There are days when I have some sympathy with the parasite, it has been studied to a point that it will soon have a complex. 

I will try to briefly put the history of Trichomonosis in the UK into a few sentences. Disease in Greenfinches was identified in 2005. There were some ideas back in the early days that the deaths in some way related to the food that was being provided.

After much hand wringing, and with funding from industry, the RSPB, BTO and ZSL set up Garden Wildlife Health. GWH is a veterinary organisation, and of high repute.

Trichomonosis is not limited to the UK, in North America the same issues were occurring. As a result the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative (CWHC) were also investigating. It made sense that they share data, and they did. Logically they both came up with the same conclusions. The parasite was identified. The means of transmission was clear. 

What was different, was the advice in terms of disease management. The science was identical, the management advice in Canada clear, the management advice in the UK was minimal and lost in a keep “clean feeders” message. NOTHING TO SEE HERE! Coincidentally, CWHC do not derive an income from bird feeder sales, the RSPB do. I encourage you to read the following two CWHC documents, “CWHC Trichomonosis” and “CWHC Stratagies to prevent and control bird feeder associated diseases and threats”. 

When I researched disease in the early days of Finches Friend, these documents were my bible.

What do they tell us?

They tell us that Trichomonosis can be contracted, directly bird to bird, ie, a sick adult feeding a chick. They tell us that the parasite can be contracted through faeces in water, the parasite remains viable for an hour or so in organic matter. They tell us that the parasite can be contracted at the point of feeding through remnants of food infected by saliva. They tell us that discarded food under feeders will infect ground feeders. They tell us that the parasite can both survive and replicate in wet feeder ports. They tell us the parasite can remain viable for up to 48 hours in damp food. They tell us not to enable the birds to walk and defecate in the food provided, to feed from a perch, provide rain shields and to feed from a non porous substrate. They tell us to minimise the amount of species that can feed together. 

My guess is that the RSPB had a plan in those early days, let’s not make a big issue of this and then develop safer products over time… But they never got round to it, in fact over time they have made their product range worse, it is far more destructive today than 19 years ago. Perhaps now you can understand my anger at the latest research, they already know what is wrong, they just need to buy some more time, at the expense of yet more dead finches.

Are We Crazy!?

RSPB Window Feeder

RSPB Ground Feeding Table

RSPB Seed Catcher and Pigeon Adapter

Looking at these open tray feeders, and trays to catch falling seed, it’s obvious to me that food can get wet and birds can walk and defecate in the food. Would you feed your pets from a feeder like this, sat out in all weather for days, used by tens of other animals?

Do we need another research project to see if this is a breeding ground for disease?

After years asking people across the industry why this is safe for birds, the only conclusion I can draw is that those at the RSPB, and other retailers are more interested in profit than bird welfare.

And when the RSPB says it’s ok, why would anyone question them?

Andrew Woods - Finches Friend

When the first Finches Friend feeders were prototyped, we sent them to Beccy Speight (CEO). She didn’t reply, weeks later we had a rejection from retail, with an inference that we were trying to circumnavigate the buyer. At no point did we ask them to buy from us. Soon afterwards we were barred from advertising in the RSPB magazine as a “competitor”.

Later, the following statement was issued to one of our customers;

“We are aware of the Finches Friends feeder, but we are not looking to test or endorse this product. We already have a range of bird feeders that have been designed and tested to ensure that they are fit for practice with optimum bird safety. As such our Trade team are confident in our current range, and not looking to expand this. With regards to garden bird diseases, we widely share our feeder hygiene guidance to help minimise spread of disease”.

Siân Denny RSPB

I am something of a prolific letter writer, I intentionally don’t give them much peace. In three years, I have had a single, patronising and inaccurate reply from the RSPB / Beccy Speight. She ended it with a comment that they would not reply to me in future.

Who do I write to?

At the RSPB Beccy Speight CEO, Kevin Cox (Chair), Dr Richard Gregory (Head of Science) and Emma Marsh (Director)

In relation to the new study

Natural England; Dr Tony Juniper CBE, Marian Spain, Alan Law, Oliver Harmar, Dr Tim Hill, Navroza Ladha, Kirsty Carter-Brown, and The Rt Hon Lord Blencathra. At BTO I have complained to Frank Gardner OBE and Prof Zoe Davies. At ZSL Matthew Gould, and at GWH Becki Lawson. To date none of them have replied in any way.

Beccy Speight and Kevin Cox, cannot claim ignorance in any of the issues I have outlined, as well as heading the charity, they are two of seven directors of RSPB sales limited. I have written to all directors of RSPB sales limited, reminding them that the feeders they sell some of which allow any bird of any size, to walk, defecate and feed in wet food risks a public health epidemic through H5N1.

“The H5N1 variant is extremely virulent WITH ONE TEASPOON OF FAECES BEING ENOUGH TO CONTAMINATE TENS OF THOUSANDS OF BIRDS”

Dr Christine Middlemiss Chief Veterinary Officer

“UK SHOULD BE PREPARING FOR A BIRD FLU PANDEMIC”

Professor Devi Sridhar of Edinburgh University

CWHC re wrote the rules, RSPB as the custodians of our wild birds, dug their heads in the sand and hoped the problems would go away. When Finches Friend came along the best they could manage was and is suppression. No one questions the RSPB, where are the Naturalists, and the Journalists, this situation is scandalous, almost every wild bird feeding product the RSPB sells is a danger to the birds they are supposed to protect. If Cows or Sheep, developed a disease that made their throats so sore that they starved to death, would it take 19 years to fix their feed troughs?

Finally on a positive note, thanks to Sir Roger Gale MP, and to a member of the House of Lords who will remain anonymous at this point, for their support. We will change the RSPB and save our Finches!