The first thing to learn is a quick duck biology lesson which are important to topics mentioned in this post which will become clear.
Note the throat area- Oesophagus, or sometimes referred to as “pharynx” and hence “pharyngeal” to mean it emanates from this area.
Cloaca is the only orifice of birds from which they reproduce and also excrete material- in crude terms- the duck’s arse.
In 2021/22 there were outbreaks of “Avian flu” across the country which are still ongoing and as yet unexplained by the likes of DEFRA as to why this should be the case. Science so far up until now has gone into lockdown on this subject and answers by all accounts- particularly as to why it appears to affect larger birds like geese and swans and very much less so smaller birds like ducks which share the same waters, the same food and presumably ingest the same contaminated material coming out of one another’s backsides.
In Sandwell, I first noted ill and dead geese in Tipton. The comatose way in which this council operated I have looked at previously, an inaction which certainly led to more deaths, just as the inaction to do anything about botulism in Smethwick claimed more lives there.
I called for a number of measures, practical interventions which were ignored, largely it seems because some unnamed “experts” knew better- well did they fuck.
The dead birds being picked up and taken for post mortem were a small fraction of the ones that died or that the RSPCA rounded up still alive and put down- some of these were not even AI cases, but birds which could not outrun their boat and were not in perfect condition.
Of those which were sampled by the Animal and Plant Health Agency at Shrewsbury, an FOI request revealed that just over half of the birds that SMBC sent off even tested positive for AI. WHICH MEANS THEY DID NOT DIE FROM THIS CAUSE, YET THE REAL CAUSE WAS NOT INVESTIGATED FURTHER.
This therefore means that despite dozens of deaths, only 6 out of 13 birds tested positive for AI in Sandwell during this period. The rest were just fucked off without a care by SERCO et al and DEFRA did not care either. It is also the case that a positive test does not imply that AI was the cause of death.
These deaths subsided over the Spring and into Summer, despite the doom and gloom of other local authorities like Staffordshire who want to eradicate wild birds from Chasewater so that water-based activities can exist there.
Then in September, I noticed a few suspicious deaths of smaller birds in one location. One of these birds had a broken wing, and so I suspected either powerlines or foul play. Then by chance I noticed two pieces of shite firing catapults in this same location, and thus it became clear as to the likely cause of deaths of these birds.
With this in mind, we actively retrieved a number of birds, some decomposed but others still fairly fresh, and approached Sandwell Council to take them to Shrewsbury. All I can say is at first, they were not interested, but I insisted they had a duty of obligation as I considered that a wildlife crime had taken place on one of their sites. They were sent clear evidence of individuals I had taken pictures of, which I also sent to West Midlands Police and the RSPCA.
Three birds were taken by SMBC to the APHA at Shrewsbury. These were a coot, and a male and female mallard. For the purposes of this post, I will refer to the duck as “Alice”.
The coot which was retrieved from off an island was in good condition and tested negative for avian flu, at both ends.
Due to blood being found in the head and air sacs this bird likely died as a result of trauma injuries- I.E it had been killed by catapult.
The drake mallard found dead between two islands was also tested for avian flu which was not detected. It also had injuries to the head and blood in the lungs. I.E IT WAS ALSO KILLED BY CATAPULT.
And this is where the issues begin. The female duck “Alice” was found dead off the same island as the coot. No avian flu was detected in the oral swab, and yet her arse detected it. I am stumped as to how this can be the case, and this offers the view to myself that this testing process is both flawed and also open to misrepresentation of results.
As a result of the “positive” test, the APHA were forced by health and safety rules, set by, I have yet to find out which body, from any further examination. I have no doubt whatsoever as a result of the other two birds, that there would have been trauma injuries found on Alice, suggesting she too had been killed by the pathetic white trash scum with catapults.
Public Health England has not existed since October 2021, and so I am not sure why this oversight was present in this report.
Alice did not appear on the Government APHA statistics for the week in question, and if you view the APHA confirmed list of avian flu cases in wild birds, you can see that for yourself in that the last confirmed case in the borough of Sandwell in 2022 was in week three- JANUARY 2022. We are now in week 45 as of writing.
Despite this, someone in Sandwell council was responsible for putting out a press release via their press office. This lie states that
“Bird flu is currently affecting wild birds across the UK, including in Sandwell.”
This was picked up by The Birmingham Mail, without any context of the circumstances as to why the birds were picked up to start with- I.E A WILDLIFE CRIME, or the fact that two other birds had been killed which there was direct evidence of from post mortem. Alice had not received a post mortem, and this was not mentioned either. Nor was it mentioned that the positive test had only been found at one end, and that this was not the confirmed cause of death, but probably incidental. Even worse, the paper used a picture of the RSPB Forge Mill Lake sign, which connotes to the public that avian flu had been “confirmed” there- IT HAD NOT IN THE PRESENT TIME, AND SO THE ARTICLE IS MISLEADING HAVING BEEN MISLED BY THE SMBC PRESS OFFICE. Alice and the other two dead birds were NOT found on this site.
In two months, there have been no further dead or ill birds found at this site, and no outbreak of avian flu has occurred either.
Despite being in full knowledge of the results, the circumstances and the issue with catapults, someone on Sandwell council then went ahead with putting up more signs that had been placed in parks and open spaces from the previous year. There is no context as to why, no confirmation that any NEW cases have been found, and so the public is being misled as to the circumstances of the case. THE COUNCIL ARE MISLEADING THE PUBLIC WITH THESE SIGNS.
“Detected in wild birds” The truth is- a mere handful, and was this their real cause of death?
“The public should avoid contact with wild birds, including their feathers and waste.”
Compare and contrast the messaging with the situation at Smethwick Hall Park and false signs about human waste being “mud”. This was long after children had been playing in the water and the silt after a confirmed contamination with human faeces that had happened before and is still happening due to combined sewer overflows being, shit. Were any of them sick after this, they would not have known the cause?
More multi agency fake statements after Severn Trent Water had turned down the SMBC application to remove all the contaminated silt.
After a year of trying to press this authority for information, coming up with practical suggestions as to how they could stop avian flu and limit any spread, the council are not interested with communicating anything of substance in return back to me. They do not want to stop avian flu, they want to spread it in people’s minds as though it is endemic, which it is not. Much of my contact with birds is as a result of their mismanagement of angling over the last 25 years, and despite communicating much of this to councillors and senior officers, they have failed to ever engage in the matter either. I will not stop helping injured birds, handling them, least of all from a fraudulent “public health” message being promoted by certain individuals and organisations.
I have no confidence that the officers or current leadership of the council will change tack on this, indeed it is quite obvious they do not care about the wildlife in Sandwell or what the public knows to be the truth of the matter. Perhaps if they used their time detecting scum who kill birds on their sites, they may not have any more dead birds, but this is the council who murdered 220 geese in cold blood because of a then corrupt parks officer with vested personal interests for doing so in 2013-14, so what do you really expect if you can spread a false message that they are dying from something else?