Latest news with #Rambo-style
West Australian
3 days ago
- Politics
- West Australian
Animal activists slam NSW plan to pay bounty hunters for feral animal kills
A controversial plan to introduce bounty killings for feral animals and expand hunting rights would 'turn NSW into a South African game park', opponents have claimed. The NSW government came under fire this week after Premier Chris Minns floated the idea of paying shooters for bounties for feral animals, including cats and pigs. The proposal forms part of sweeping reforms proposed by the NSW Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party to hunting rights, including a new minister for hunting. NSW Animal Justice Party MLC Emma Hurst said the Bill would 'take us backward' and bounty killings as a means of population control did not work. 'We know even just from research that these bounty programs don't work, but of course it also allows for extreme animal cruelty,' Ms Hurst said. 'There's no proper sort of oversight or accountability into these programs. It's encouraging a bloodbath for animals. 'The argument that's put forward by the Shooters (party) is that these animals are introduced. 'Therefore, we can do whatever we sort of want to them and we should ignore what animal cruelty is happening to them. 'They have the ability to feel pain and fear and we shouldn't be encouraging some kind of extreme Rambo-style killing spree on these animals within the communities.' Ms Hurst said the Bill, which seeks to open up Crown land to hunting, would 'essentially turn NSW into a South African game park' and waste taxpayer money. She urged for more species-specific control measure for feral animals in NSW, including the use of immunocontraceptive darting that is used overseas. Several feral and invasive species are active in the state, including feral pigs, deer, and camels as well as wild dogs and feral cats. Shooters MLC Rod Borsak said the Bill was about incorporating NSW's about 200,000 licensed hunters into 'the conservation hunting paradigm'. 'The whole idea is to try and develop a system of co-operation … something that brings the recreational hunting side of things into the conservation paradigm,' he said. He went on to add that bounties would 'increase the incentive to farmers and to conservation hunters to go out there and target the animals that we think are important'. Mr Borsak stressed the possibility of bounties to target feral cats that attack native fauna and are 'impossible' to control under the government's current 'instruments'. The long-term Legislative Council representative dismissed the notion that the bounty plan would result in a 'free for all', citing longstanding regulation and safety measures. 'There's a whole lot of rules around all this stuff that has been tried and true for the last 20 years,' Mr Borsak said, referencing concerns about firearms safety. 'Anyone trying to run a scare campaign is moaning in the face of the evidence of what's actually occurred in two or three million hectares of public land in the last 20 years.' Under the plan, a $1m 'pot' would be available for feral pig snouts, which Mr Borsak said could sell for $15-30, with another $1m pool for wild dogs, foxes, and cats. Mr Borsak described hunting as a 'mainstream' activity that 'really benefits rural and regional NSW primarily, and we really should be recognising that'. Under the Bill, spotlighting and the proposed use of thermal scopes would not be allowed on Crown land, including state forests. Nor would the hunting bounty scheme – or any hunting at all – be allowed within national parks in NSW. The proposal was panned by the Invasive Species Council, whose chief executive Jack Gough wrote to Environment Minister Penny Sharpe and Agriculture Minister Tara Moriarty. 'I am writing to urge you to reject the latest attempt by the NSW Shooters Party to undermine effective feral animal control in NSW,' Mr Gough said. 'This time through an attempt to secure government funding for bounties. 'Australia's long history of failed bounties has demonstrated they are expensive, ineffective and undermine genuine feral animal control programs.' The council raised concerns that the scheme could be abused by way of fraud, and feral animal control was 'very different from ad hoc killing'. While dismissing the plan, the council has lauded the successes of aerial culling into reducing the population of feral horses in the Snowy Mountains. While significantly different in purpose, planning, and practice, the shooting of brumbies in the Kosciuszko National Park has been equally divisive. A recent state government report found the population of brumbies in the park could be as low as 1500, down from 13,000 to 22,000 last year. Mr Gough welcomed the report as a 'turning point', with the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service releasing images of ecological recovery in the park. Ms Hurst questioned the government's earlier numbers and suggested alternatives, like darting, were also available. 'The problem that we have is that there's always this messaging pushed out there that it has to be done urgently and it has to be done as quickly as possible,' she said. 'Of course what happens is when you kill a whole lot of animals in any one system they breed back up pretty quickly, so it's always going to be a Band-Aid solution. 'It is not going to work in the long term.'
Perth Now
3 days ago
- Politics
- Perth Now
Why Aussie state wants bounty hunters
A controversial plan to introduce bounty killings for feral animals and expand hunting rights would 'turn NSW into a South African game park', opponents have claimed. The NSW government came under fire this week after Premier Chris Minns floated the idea of paying shooters for bounties for feral animals, including cats and pigs. The proposal forms part of sweeping reforms proposed by the NSW Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party to hunting rights, including a new minister for hunting. NSW Animal Justice Party MLC Emma Hurst said the Bill would 'take us backward' and bounty killings as a means of population control did not work. 'We know even just from research that these bounty programs don't work, but of course it also allows for extreme animal cruelty,' Ms Hurst said. 'There's no proper sort of oversight or accountability into these programs. It's encouraging a bloodbath for animals. 'The argument that's put forward by the Shooters (party) is that these animals are introduced. 'Therefore, we can do whatever we sort of want to them and we should ignore what animal cruelty is happening to them. 'They have the ability to feel pain and fear and we shouldn't be encouraging some kind of extreme Rambo-style killing spree on these animals within the communities.' NSW Shooters, Fishers and Farmers have proposed a bounty system for feral animals. Credit: News Regional Media Ms Hurst said the Bill, which seeks to open up Crown land to hunting, would 'essentially turn NSW into a South African game park' and waste taxpayer money. She urged for more species-specific control measure for feral animals in NSW, including the use of immunocontraceptive darting that is used overseas. Several feral and invasive species are active in the state, including feral pigs, deer, and camels as well as wild dogs and feral cats. Shooters MLC Rod Borsak said the Bill was about incorporating NSW's about 200,000 licensed hunters into 'the conservation hunting paradigm'. 'The whole idea is to try and develop a system of co-operation … something that brings the recreational hunting side of things into the conservation paradigm,' he said. He went on to add that bounties would 'increase the incentive to farmers and to conservation hunters to go out there and target the animals that we think are important'. Mr Borsak stressed the possibility of bounties to target feral cats that attack native fauna and are 'impossible' to control under the government's current 'instruments'. The long-term Legislative Council representative dismissed the notion that the bounty plan would result in a 'free for all', citing longstanding regulation and safety measures. 'There's a whole lot of rules around all this stuff that has been tried and true for the last 20 years,' Mr Borsak said, referencing concerns about firearms safety. 'Anyone trying to run a scare campaign is moaning in the face of the evidence of what's actually occurred in two or three million hectares of public land in the last 20 years.' NSW Animal Justice Party MLC Emma Hurst said the Bill would 'take us backward'. NewsWire / Simon Bullard. Credit: News Corp Australia Under the plan, a $1m 'pot' would be available for feral pig snouts, which Mr Borsak said could sell for $15-30, with another $1m pool for wild dogs, foxes, and cats. Mr Borsak described hunting as a 'mainstream' activity that 'really benefits rural and regional NSW primarily, and we really should be recognising that'. Under the Bill, spotlighting and the proposed use of thermal scopes would not be allowed on Crown land, including state forests. Nor would the hunting bounty scheme – or any hunting at all – be allowed within national parks in NSW. The proposal was panned by the Invasive Species Council, whose chief executive Jack Gough wrote to Environment Minister Penny Sharpe and Agriculture Minister Tara Moriarty. 'I am writing to urge you to reject the latest attempt by the NSW Shooters Party to undermine effective feral animal control in NSW,' Mr Gough said. 'This time through an attempt to secure government funding for bounties. 'Australia's long history of failed bounties has demonstrated they are expensive, ineffective and undermine genuine feral animal control programs.' The council raised concerns that the scheme could be abused by way of fraud, and feral animal control was 'very different from ad hoc killing'. While dismissing the plan, the council has lauded the successes of aerial culling into reducing the population of feral horses in the Snowy Mountains. While significantly different in purpose, planning, and practice, the shooting of brumbies in the Kosciuszko National Park has been equally divisive. A recent state government report found the population of brumbies in the park could be as low as 1500, down from 13,000 to 22,000 last year. Mr Gough welcomed the report as a 'turning point', with the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service releasing images of ecological recovery in the park. Ms Hurst questioned the government's earlier numbers and suggested alternatives, like darting, were also available. 'The problem that we have is that there's always this messaging pushed out there that it has to be done urgently and it has to be done as quickly as possible,' she said. 'Of course what happens is when you kill a whole lot of animals in any one system they breed back up pretty quickly, so it's always going to be a Band-Aid solution. 'It is not going to work in the long term.'
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- Yahoo
Polish drug dealer avoids deportation because he ‘doesn't speak the language'
A convicted Polish drug dealer has avoided being deported because he claims he cannot speak Polish. Nikodem Lopata, who came to Britain at the age of four, was arrested when he was 16 years old for dealing cocaine. He was convicted of cannabis offences aged 18, and three months after that he was caught with more than £1,000 of crack cocaine and heroin while carrying a 'Rambo-style' knife. The Polish national was sentenced to four and a half years in prison in a Young Offenders' Institution and was told by the Home Office that he would be sent back to the country of his birth. However, after being released, Lopata appealed the decision under article eight of the European Convention on Human Rights saying that it would breach his right to a family life. He claimed that he could not speak Polish and had no close family or friends living in Poland anymore, which would mean it would be very difficult for him to reintegrate into Polish society. Despite his 'unenviable list of convictions', judges found in his favour, rejecting the Home Office's argument that he should be forced to leave the UK. The case, disclosed in court papers, is the latest example exposed by The Telegraph where migrants or convicted foreign criminals have used human rights laws to remain in the UK or halt their deportations. They include an Albanian criminal who avoided deportation after claiming his son had an aversion to foreign chicken nuggets, and a Pakistani paedophile who was jailed for child sex offences but escaped removal from the UK as it would be 'unduly harsh' on his own children. The Upper Tribunal of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber in Manchester was told that Lopata – now 22 and who settled in Crewe, Cheshire – came to Britain from Poland in 2006. Summing up the case, Judge Greg Ó Ceallaigh noted: '[He] has an unenviable list of convictions given his young age.' In 2019, when 16, he got a community order for supplying cocaine, followed in 2021 by a fine and six points on his licence for possession of cannabis and motoring offences. A year later, he was convicted of possessing a knife, class A drugs and dangerous driving. Stopped by police, he was searched and found with 80 wraps of heroin and crack cocaine, a further seven grams of heroin, a small bag of cannabis, a large knife described by police as 'Rambo-style' and £673 in cash. The drugs were worth up to £1,340. After being threatened with deportation following his sentencing to 54 months custody, a lower tier tribunal upheld his human rights appeal on the basis that he had spent his 'formative years' in the UK and had built friendships outside of his family. 'It was accepted that [he] would have little physical family support in Poland given that his mother and uncles are resident in the UK, and he do[es] not appear to have had any contact with his father,' the court was told. Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, appealed the ruling, arguing there needed to be 'very compelling circumstances' not to deport foreign criminals sentenced to four years in prison. The Home Office rejected claims that there would be 'very significant obstacles' to his reintegration into Poland and that he did not speak Polish, an argument which it said was 'not adequately reasoned'. Andrew Mullen, for the Home Office, described the finding that Mr Lopata did not speak Polish to be 'very odd' and said it was difficult to imagine a 'much more serious offence' than one involving Class A drugs. However, the Upper Tribunal judges ruled that Judge Ali had carried out a 'detailed analysis' of Lopata's case. 'In our view, the conclusion of the [first tier tribunal] that Mr Lopata did not speak Polish was one properly open to him on the facts. The fact that he visited Poland for a week-long holiday when he was nine does not further the Secretary of State's case in this regard,' they said. 'The [first tier tribunal's] conclusion in substance was that a person who had lived in the United Kingdom since the age of four, who does not speak Polish and would have little or no family support in Poland, would face very significant obstacles to reintegration into Poland. In our view this is a conclusion that was adequately reasoned.' Upholding the original decision, Judge Ó Ceallaigh ruled that Lopata's appeal against the Secretary of State's decision to refuse his human rights claim was allowed. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
28-02-2025
- Telegraph
Polish drug dealer avoids deportation because he ‘doesn't speak the language'
A convicted Polish drug dealer has avoided being deported because he claims he cannot speak Polish. Nikodem Lopata, who came to Britain at the age of four, was arrested when he was 16 years old for dealing cocaine. He was convicted of cannabis offences aged 18, and three months after that he was caught with more than £1,000 of crack cocaine and heroin while carrying a 'Rambo-style' knife. The Polish national was sentenced to four and a half years in prison in a Young Offenders' Institution and was told by the Home Office that he would be sent back to the country of his birth. However, after being released, Lopata appealed the decision under article eight of the European Convention on Human Rights saying that it would breach his right to a family life. 'Difficult to reintegrate into Polish society' He claimed that he could not speak Polish and had no close family or friends living in Poland anymore, which would mean it would be very difficult for him to reintegrate into Polish society. Despite his 'unenviable list of convictions', judges found in his favour, rejecting the Home Office's argument that he should be forced to leave the UK. The case, disclosed in court papers, is the latest example exposed by The Telegraph where migrants or convicted foreign criminals have used human rights laws to remain in the UK or halt their deportations. They include an Albanian criminal who avoided deportation after claiming his son had an aversion to foreign chicken nuggets, and a Pakistani paedophile who was jailed for child sex offences but escaped removal from the UK as it would be 'unduly harsh' on his own children. The Upper Tribunal of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber in Manchester was told that Lopata – now 22 and who settled in Crewe, Cheshire – came to Britain from Poland in 2006. Summing up the case, Judge Greg Ó Ceallaigh noted: '[He] has an unenviable list of convictions given his young age.' In 2019, when 16, he got a community order for supplying cocaine, followed in 2021 by a fine and six points on his licence for possession of cannabis and motoring offences. A year later, he was convicted of possessing a knife, class A drugs and dangerous driving. Stopped by police, he was searched and found with 80 wraps of heroin and crack cocaine, a further seven grams of heroin, a small bag of cannabis, a large knife described by police as 'Rambo-style' and £673 in cash. The drugs were worth up to £1,340. After being threatened with deportation following his sentencing to 54 months custody, a lower tier tribunal upheld his human rights appeal on the basis that he had spent his 'formative years' in the UK and had built friendships outside of his family. 'It was accepted that [he] would have little physical family support in Poland given that his mother and uncles are resident in the UK, and he do[es] not appear to have had any contact with his father,' the court was told. Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, appealed the ruling, arguing there needed to be 'very compelling circumstances' not to deport foreign criminals sentenced to four years in prison. The Home Office rejected claims that there would be 'very significant obstacles' to his reintegration into Poland and that he did not speak Polish, an argument which it said was 'not adequately reasoned'. Andrew Mullen, for the Home Office, described the finding that Mr Lopata did not speak Polish to be 'very odd' and said it was difficult to imagine a 'much more serious offence' than one involving Class A drugs. However, the Upper Tribunal judges ruled that Judge Ali had carried out a 'detailed analysis' of Lopata's case. 'In our view, the conclusion of the [first tier tribunal] that Mr Lopata did not speak Polish was one properly open to him on the facts. The fact that he visited Poland for a week-long holiday when he was nine does not further the Secretary of State's case in this regard,' they said. 'The [first tier tribunal's] conclusion in substance was that a person who had lived in the United Kingdom since the age of four, who does not speak Polish and would have little or no family support in Poland, would face very significant obstacles to reintegration into Poland. In our view this is a conclusion that was adequately reasoned.' Upholding the original decision, Judge Ó Ceallaigh ruled that Lopata's appeal against the Secretary of State's decision to refuse his human rights claim was allowed.
BBC News
27-02-2025
- BBC News
Middlesbrough teenager arrested after Cleveland Police find 'Rambo' knife
A teenager found with what police described as a "Rambo-style" knife has been 18-year-old was a passenger in a car stopped by police at Birchington Avenue in Grangetown, near Middlesbrough, in the early hours of is due to appear at Teesside Magistrates' Court having been charged with possession of a knife in a public place and intent to supply Class A driver of the car, a 44-year-old man, was also arrested after failing a roadside drugs test and being found not to have a valid driving licence. Cleveland Police also said a 33-year-old man had been arrested and was in custody after a BMW was stopped in Linthorpe Road, Middlesbrough, on large knives and suspected Class A drugs were found, the force man failed a drugs test and the vehicle was found to be uninsured. Follow BBC Tees on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
