RSPB Part II
Thanks for your support!
Last months RSPB piece received considerable attention, we genuinely thank everyone who got involved, we are feeling the love!
We did not expect any direct contact from the RSPB, and we didn’t get any. However one of our community members wrote to them, we have his permission to publish the reply he received.
We have seen this reply several times now. When our name comes up at RSPB, computer screens light up, “Danger Danger” flashes across the screen and refer to higher authority is the instruction.
It might be quite as dramatic as that, but we can tell by the similarity of the replies that a set of criteria are provided to the unlucky individual who has to concoct a reply.
It always begins “sorry for the delay”! We think that this arms length communication could be really useful. The RSPB will not speak directly to us, but they have to respond to members (of which I am one by the way)
Here is the reply:
“Thank you for getting in touch. Please accept my apologies for the delayed response. We are aware of the Finches Friend feeders but unfortunately, we will not be stocking them in our shop.
Decisions on which products to sell through our online and physical shops are made with great care by our expert product development team, who ensure that everything we sell meets our high standards. All our bird food and bird care products, such as feeders and nest boxes, have been rigorously tested to ensure that they are as safe and beneficial to birds and wildlife as possible. The team are regularly reviewing the safety and sustainability of our products, and we are confident in our current range.
As a charity we need to generate income to be able to carry out our vital conservation work and deliver more action for nature. By designing, selling, and advertising our own products, we can ensure that as much of this income as possible is put towards our conservation efforts, public education, and advocacy work in the UK and around the world.
I can also assure you that similar to Finches Friend, we take wildlife disease and feeder hygiene very seriously. We are a partner of Garden Wildlife Health (GWH), a collaborative project between the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), Froglife, and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) which aims to monitor the health of, and identify disease threats to, British wildlife.
We also raise awareness about the importance of good hygiene at feeding stations through our website and other communications, and are currently conducting research to better understand wildlife diseases.
I hope this explains our decision not to sell these products in our shop. Thank you once again for highlighting them”.
I was trying to think of a good analogy as to where we are at the moment, I have toyed with the emperors clothes and the song “there’s a hole in my bucket”. I will leave you to ponder those.
Why so defensive?
RSPB Window Feeder - Does this stop water getting to the food? Does this stop birds walking and defecating in the food?
Has this really been “tested to ensure it is fit for practice with optimum bird safety“
In all seriousness, the corner the RSPB have boxed themselves into is really serious, they are selling products that they fully understand spread disease, they have now taken government money to research the disease they are profiting from. They deflect criticism by puffing their collective chests out and saying “We are the RSPB, we rigorously test what we sell, take our word for it”.
Beccy Speight (CEO) and Kevin Cox, (Chair) of the RSPB are also two of seven directors of RSPB sales limited. Beccy Speight wrote to me personally some time ago, stating that they would not answer future communications from me.
People in the general population have no understanding of disease transmission on wild bird feeders, that ignorance enables the RSPB to hide in plain sight.
Armed with the knowledge that wild birds should not be fed wet food, and should not be able to defecate in it, a quick look through the RSPB website, shows their position is ridiculous.
I have great faith and admiration in the staff on the ground at the RSPB, but those running the organisation should be removed and people with ethics should take their place.
6.5 million dead finches are on my side, and should be on their conscience, the only thing stopping the pattern repeating is extinction.
My job is to continue the battle until the RSPB sell safe products, I genuinely don’t care if they are mine or not.
Breaking down the response
RSPB Ground Feeding Table - Does this stop water getting to the food? Does this stop birds walking and defecating in the food?
Has this really been “tested to ensure it is fit for practice with optimum bird safety“
Let’s dissect the letter above, I can then pose questions no ethical organisation would have a problem answering.
“We are aware of the Finches Friend feeders but unfortunately, we will not be stocking them in our shop.
Decisions on which products to sell through our online and physical shops are made with great care by our expert product development team, who ensure that everything we sell meets our high standards”.
Firstly, I need to make it clear I have never asked them to sell Finches Friend products. We would never sell our products, alongside the highly damaging products they offer.
We did send two of our very first hanging feeders to Beccy Speight, hoping to start a conversation. Surely they would be keen to engage with anyone trying to combat disease! She did not reply, eventually passed them to retail, who responded to say they would not be interested in our feeders. I reiterate, we have never asked the RSPB to sell our feeders.
Separately I sent a window feeder to them to illustrate that there is no need to enable rain, feet and faeces to access a window feeder. They have never acknowledged or returned it, that feeders went to Matthew Morris, who at the time was Head of Retail.
The last part of that paragraph is laughable, were it not so serious. The following is a reply to a previous customer who asked why the RSPB did not offer Finches Friend products.
“It is really good of you to bring this to our attention. The RSPB is already 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.
They realised in hindsight that “not looking to test or endorse this product” showed their true colours, hence the change of tone and language in later versions.
Perhaps the most important point I could make is that an RSPB officer, in a video meeting in front of eight people from four organisations stated, and I paraphrase
“I have been asking for a bird feeder testing programme for years, it would take a year to get funding and a year to complete” .
A gentleman from the BTO backed him up, underlining that it was true. I have intentionally not mentioned names, but I have them, together with the meeting record. At that meeting along with Andrew and I, was a household name who would attest to my statement being true.
Finally on this section, I challenge the RSPB to release test criteria and data, on ten products within the RSPB portfolio of my choosing. Surely the criteria and test structure should not be a secret, they are in the interests of our wild birds. They have clearly stated that they have them, surely they are not secret!
It is my belief, that if such data exists it will explain the mystery of why disease is not transferred bird to bird in wet food mixed with faeces……the science attached and every ounce of common sense I can muster says it can’t be healthy!
“As a charity we need to generate income to be able to carry out our vital conservation work and deliver more action for nature. By designing, selling, and advertising our own products, we can ensure that as much of this income as possible is put towards our conservation efforts, public education, and advocacy work in the UK and around the world.
I can also assure you that similar to Finches Friend, we take wildlife disease and feeder hygiene very seriously. We are a partner of Garden Wildlife Health (GWH), a collaborative project between the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), Froglife, and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) which aims to monitor the health of, and identify disease threats to, British wildlife.
We also raise awareness about the importance of good hygiene at feeding stations through our website and other communications, and are currently conducting research to better understand wildlife diseases”.
Anyone reading this section would be forgiven for thinking that RSPB only sell products that the design and procure themselves, guess what, that ain’t true folks. They buy and sell lots of products that are manufactured by others, my guess, the vast majority.
RSPB, please provide a list of the products you designed and procured in house, and a list of suppliers that offer their products widely. For what it is worth I know of two “garden centre “ suppliers without doing any research.
Straightforward Questions Unanswered
RSPB Seed Catcher and Pigeon Adapter - The RSPB have just announced a (yet another) study into Trichomonosis, where they state “For many decades, garden bird trichomonosis was mainly observed in pigeons and doves“.
They know pigeons are thought to have spread the disease to finches, yet introduce a product that brings the birds together! You couldn’t make it up!
As mentioned at the start of this post, we no longer receive a reply to any letters sent to the RSPB but that hasn’t stopped me from writing, asking straightforward questions -
Please show us the scientific evidence that says it is safe for birds to eat wet food; food that has been defecated in; food that has been walked in?
Please show us the appraisal document and testing process that you say is used on all of the products that you sell?
Please explain how the open platform feeders that you sell don’t get wet, or allow birds to walk in the food? If they do allow this, how is the food immune to the bacteria and parasites known to thrive in wet food? If they aren’t immune, please explain how the birds are immune to the effects of the bacteria, parasites, and mould? If they aren’t immune, please explain why you don’t think the continued spread of disease is related to your feeder designs?
Please show us the appraisal document that justifies collecting secondary food waste from finches, and then feeding it on a platform that can be walked in, allows rain in, and can be defecated in?
Please show us the tests to justify a recommendation of cleaning feeders weekly?
Please explain why yet another scientific study is needed to prove things that have been known for millennia, namely that old wet food and faeces cause illness?
As well as writing to the RSPB, I send letters to those working with them, in the hope that someone will step out from under their influence.
My last letter to Becki Lawson (A highly respected veterinary scientist) at GWH also went unanswered. Becki, as a professional in the area, is it your professional opinion that RSPB feeders are safe, would you argue with the CWHC documents I attach?
Dr Richard Gregory, RSPB Centre for conservation science, could you justify RSPB wild bird feeding products please, do you have test criteria, do you accept that the Trichomonoas parasite is transferred through faeces, is the Avian Influenza virus transferred in faeces, do you disagree with the CWHC advice attached?
None of them will answer, they can’t, it is a hose of cards, an absolute scandal.
We won’t give up!
Andy Dufresne in the Shawshank Redemption writing two letters a week to get educational resources for his prison!
I’m sure to some I sound angry and bitter, and I am! The RSPB funds its operation by knowingly enabling the destruction of British Finches, six and a half million of them so far.
I am furious that they have never engaged with me in good faith, they have deflected and hidden behind statements that in now way address the concerns that I’ve raised.
I hope that you can see how hard we try to get them to engage and stop pretending that the standard they set is acceptable. The industry and the public follow the example set by the RSPB but they are more interested in selling feeders than keeping garden birds safe.
This week I made a submission to the Advertising Standards Authority, challenging the ridiculous claims and the omissions which mislead the public into purchasing RSPB products.
I believe it is vital for the RSPB to change their position and start to do more than hide behind a “Clean Me” sticker. We will keep working to engage with them, those who work with them, and to spread the word, asking the public to question what is happening. It’s not easy as there’s only two of us but we’ll keep going!
Alongside trying to highlight the problems in the market, we continue to develop products that do follow an ethical path, trying to keep birds safe.
Our criteria
We have worked on our own criteria, based on scientific studies by Garden Wildlife Health and the Canadian Wildlife Health Co-operative.
Thanks for getting this far!
If you’ve made it this far, you may be interested in the following documents, from CWHC in Canada. The same disease problems exist in North America, and CWHC cooperated with GWH when researching Trichomonosis.
Thanks as wlays for your support!
Kind regards,
Dick
