[Bagor]

Originally Posted by Suzles

I agree that it was a shame that the mink were released from fur farms. Even more of a shame being that the mink were brought into England in the first place to be harvested for their pelts (see a connection to the seals here).

Connection? What connection? Do you get a connection between hunting moose in their natural habitat and farming cows for beef? There's no connection at all. One is an exotic species being farmed, the other is an animal being hunted in the wild.

Originally Posted by Suzles

The loss of habitat has still hit the water rat (or vole) just as hard.

So, that's ok then. That makes everything ok.

Loss of habitat had been identified as a problem and a recovery plan was in action. Then the geniuses at ALF decided they'd introduce a predator to mess things up. Fact is there would be significantly more individuals and populations of water voles if it wasn't for those dimwits.

Originally Posted by Suzles

The otter, which was hunted by man to near extinction, in England is now having something of a resurgence.

Seriously, where exactly is it that you get your information that you throw out as fact?

The Otters decline was due to bioaccumulation of endocrine disrupting chemicals, being ingested by fish and then the otters.

A range of evidence suggests that these declines were related to the use of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) including organochlorine pesticides (OCs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) (e.g. Jefferies and Hanson 2000, Roos et al 2001, Simpson et al 2000 ). Many EDCs biomagnify and bioaccumulate in the aquatic food chain. Fish-eating aquatic mammals such as otters may therefore be particularly vulnerable to the impact of EDCs, due to their position at the top of the food chain, their dependence on aquatic food sources, and their habitat being located in areas influenced by industry and agriculture. EDCs have been shown to impair reproductive function of mustelids, and this has been suggested as the major reason behind the Eurasian otter’s decline (Fossi and Marsili 2003).

http://www.otterproject.cf.ac.uk/#Background

How about instead of throwing out random statements you provide a link where it suggests that hunting was the main reason for the otter's decline. In other words .... refute my link.