Environment Secretary, Owen Paterson, whose role includes responsibility for wildlife, has got himself into a spot of bother having proudly announced the killing of grey squirrels on his estate in Shropshire. Although he has done nothing illegal, this was something of a PR own goal.
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Tory colleagues visiting his estate were somewhat shocked to be shown photographs of him holding a squirrel trap in each hand with the dead animals’ heads inside the trap with their bodies and bushy tails hanging limply below. Unfortunately for Mr Paterson, the national press has siezed on the story renaming him ‘the squirrel killing Minister for wildlife’. Read the national press coverage: Bad news for Mr Patterson maybe, but every cloud has a silver lining. Kania – the maker of the traps used by the North Shropshire MP, and many within the professional pest control industry – could hardly have had better publicity. |