Animal charities in row over ruddy duck cull

Britain's leading bird charity is embroiled in a furious row over its role in persuading the Government to shoot thousands of ducks.

At the urging of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) ministers have agreed to cull Britain's entire population of ruddy ducks, which were introduced from North America in the 1940s by the late conservationist, Sir Peter Scott to his reserve at Slimbridge on the Severn estuary.

The RSPB – which has long pressed for the cull because the duck breeds with an endangered species, threatening its survival – is braced for protests, and some cancelled subscriptions, from its members. Animal rights activists have accused the society of "disgusting zealotry".

The decision to exterminate the ducks, which is expected to take six years and cost the taxpayer £5m, has been taken after years of agonising by ministers, advised by a special working group which includes English Nature, the Wildlife Trusts and Sir Peter Scott's Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, as well as the RSPB. The bird charity says that the group was unanimous in signing the ducks' death warrants.

The ruddy ducks – attractive birds with chestnut plumage, whose males are blessed with an 8in penis – have sealed their fate by being too successful as holiday lotharios. During cold weather in Britain they join other tourists in flying south to Spain, where the native population of rare white-headed ducks is only too keen to mate with them.

The hybrid offspring of these illicit unions are flourishing, while fewer and fewer pure-blood white headed ducks are being born, threatening the survival of the species. To try to save it, the Government has already shot 2,500 ruddy ducks, half of Britain's population, and it has now decided to finish off the remaining flocks.

Dr Graham Wynne, the RSPB's director, said yesterday: "I, like a lot of our members, really, really wish we did not have to do this. But we think that there is no alternative if we are going to save the white-headed duck."

But Andrew Tyler, director of Animal Aid, says the RSPB's position is "grotesque and hypocritical" and accuses it of trying to "impose a kind of genetic uniformity on nature. It should be called the Royal Society for the Protection of Some Birds."

He added that the cost of the cull meant it would be cheaper to fly all the ruddy ducks back to America in business class.