Essential pest control in Wales will be allowed to continue after Judge Jarman QC rejected the claims of Wild Justice on 18 January 2021.
Wild Justice had asserted that general licences GL001, GL002 and GL004 were not lawful but in the High Court judgement all three of these claims were refused.
Led by Mark Avery, Chris Packham and Ruth Tingay, the campaigning body had issued a legal challenge on 1 January 2020 against the three general licences named. They are available for the purpose of preventing serious damage or disease to crops or livestock, protecting public health and conserving certain species of wild birds. Wild Justice claimed that Natural Resources Wales (NRW) was “not doing its job properly” and looked at the extent to which the licences specified the circumstances in which they can be used.