Gun magazine sparks magpies row

Magpies eat other birds

A shooting magazine has sparked a row after offering £500 to the shooter who kills most magpies by the end of July.

They are pests and need to be killed to protect songbirds and other wildlife, Sporting Shooter's contributing editor Charlie Jacoby claims.

But the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) labelled Mr Jacoby's views "bonkers".

The organisation accused the magazine of relying on "superstition and prejudice" instead of sound science.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Jacoby said the RSPB is wrong to try to protect all birds.

"This ends up with a mono-culture of scavengers and road-kill and we want to see songbirds," he said.

"We put forward this prize because, at a ground level, when you see magpies destroyed you will see songbirds come back."

He said shooting magpies is legal for licensed shooters such as landowners and gamekeepers.

Andre Farrar, spokesman for the RSPB, said the magazine's argument was "complete rubbish".

"The magpie is a perfectly natural part of the British landscape," he said.

"It is a predator and therefore it does eat baby birds and it does it in a very public, very obvious way.

"That puts it at great risk when people are thrashing around looking for scapegoats for why there have been declines in other birds."

Mr Jacoby said his magazine's readers belong to a liberal tradition which believes you can do what you like until society says you cannot.