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New UK animal welfare minister backed seal and wild bird culls

www.theguardian.com New UK animal welfare minister backed seal and wild bird culls

Robbie Douglas-Miller, who was made a baron last week, had complained about impact on salmon stocks

New UK animal welfare minister backed seal and wild bird culls

Downing Street is facing calls to explain why it has appointed a wealthy, unelected shooting enthusiast as its animal welfare minister after it emerged he has backed the culling of seals and wild birds.

Robbie Douglas-Miller, who was last week given a peerage to allow him to become minister in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), owns a grouse moor in Scotland and has argued for the relaxation of rules on shooting wild birds that prey on salmon.

He is also on the board of a fishery which applied to obtain a licence to kill seals in 2021; last year he gained a licence to kill wild cormorants and sawbill ducks.

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