Teesmouth Bird Club

I'm absolutely fuming at finding an animal that has suffered so badly when there seems to be no need, am I alone in thinking why is there so much barbed wire everywhere on land occupied by wildlife, especially nature reserves?.

Totally agree with you Keith, seems a bit Ironic, putting various balls on overhead lines to help prevent damage to birds, then surrounding the same areas with barbed wire, the mind boggles.

I have seen more than one Sand Martin caught on a barbed wire fence at Teesmouth and I've been told a few years ago another deer suffered the same fate on Greenabella. Also someone said over the weekend they have seen deer, little egret and cormorant killed by barbed wire fences at Spurn.

When they were building Saltholme and I saw them using barbed wire I expressed my concerns to Dave Braithwaite but he did not think it was an issue and now there are miles of barbed wire all over Saltholme. Perhaps the RSPB need to revise there handbook on how they construct reserves so they really are 'giving nature a home' without littering their home with death traps?

If you do a quick search on Google you can find loads of pictures the same as above ie:-

http://www.400smilesaday.co.uk/Deer09.6.jpg
https://jimcoda.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/mule-deer-1-caught-in-fence-larry-thorngren.jpg?w=640
http://mikehanback.typepad.com/mikehanbackcom/images/2008/02/20/fence_buck.jpg
https://img0.etsystatic.com/027/1/6167700/il_340x270.657654124_ipir.jpg

There are also plenty of pictures of other wildlife and birds billed by barbed wire including lots of owls and BoP's and bats.

Stockton Borough Council removed all the barbed wire from their country parks after a dog was injured, someone with sense for a change.