title: Agriculture in the United Kingdom

text: Most British farm animals are bred for a particular purpose, so for example, there is a sharp division between cattle bred for the beef trade—early-maturing cattle are best to increase yield, and those that store fat marbled within the muscle rather than as layers outside are preferred for the flavour—and those bred for dairy, where animals with a high milk yield are strongly preferred. Nevertheless, because dairy cattle must calve to produce milk, much of the British beef output is from surplus dairy herd calves.


title: Agriculture in the United Kingdom

text: There are about 17,000 dairy farms in the UK, largely in the west. Average herd size is 86 cows in England, 75 in Wales and 102 in Scotland. Most cows are milked twice a day, and an average dairy cow yields 6,300 litres a year. The most important dairy cattle breed is the ubiquitous British Friesian, which has largely replaced the Dairy Shorthorn in British dairy herds thanks both to its high milk yield and the relatively high quality of the beef it produces.


title: Agriculture in the United Kingdom

text: The UK once produced roughly as much beef as it ate, but this changed in 1996 because of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). The BSE crisis led to regulations preventing animals more than 30 months old from entering the food chain, which meant cull cows could no longer be sold for beef. Just under 6 million cattle over this age were destroyed. A Calf Purchase Aid Scheme, under which a further nearly 2 million calves were slaughtered, ended in 1999. In 2002, the UK produced 72% of the beef it ate. Important beef cattle breeds include the Hereford, which is the most popular British beef breed, and the Aberdeen Angus. The once-widespread Beef Shorthorn is now a relatively uncommon sight.


title: Agriculture in the United Kingdom

text: Cows require significant areas of grassland to raise. Dairy cows need 0.4 to 0.5 hectares per cow, including the area needed for winter silage; suckler beef cows can need up to a whole hectare each. The UK produces very little veal, and UK law requires that animals are kept in daylight in groups with bedding and access to hay, silage or straw. This produces "pink" veal which grows more slowly and is less desirable to the continental customer.


title: Agriculture in the United Kingdom

text: Over 41,000 farms in the UK produce sheep, but more than half of breeding ewes are on hill or upland farms suitable for little else. National Parks and heather moors such as the Lake District, the Pennines and Snowdonia in Wales are dominated by sheep farms, as are the Scottish Highlands. In the lowlands, pockets of sheep farms remain. Romney Marsh (which gave its name to the Romney sheep) and The Downs in Kent are famous for their sheep. Sheep farming in Wales encompasses both upland and lowland areas.


title: Agriculture in the United Kingdom

text: The number of sheep farmed in the UK peaked in 1998 at 20.3 million, as a result of the Sheepmeat Regime, a relatively generous EU support initiative first begun in 1980. Numbers declined following the 2001 outbreak of foot and mouth, and the UK temporarily lost its place as Europe's largest producer of lamb, although this was recovered later. (Although it is Europe's largest producer, the UK is nevertheless a net importer of lamb, often from New Zealand.)


title: Agriculture in the United Kingdom

text: Nowadays many ewes are housed indoors for lambing, which costs more but facilitates earlier lambing with lower mortality and replacement rates. It also rests and protects the grassland, leading to better early growth and higher stocking rates. Sheep are also important in helping to manage the landscape. Their trampling hinders bracken spread and prevents heather moor from reverting to scrub woodland. Wool production is no longer economically important in the UK, and nowadays, sheared fleeces are often treated as a waste product.


title: Agriculture in the United Kingdom

text: Pig farming is concentrated in Yorkshire and East Anglia. About 4,600 farms produce pigs, and the UK is 90% self-sufficient in pork, but only about 40% self-sufficient in bacon and ham, which reflects a traditional British preference for these cuts. Nowadays many pig farms in the UK breed intensively farmed hybrids of types like the Large White, British Landrace, Welsh or British Saddleback, and formerly popular breeds like the Cumberland and Small White are extinct. Wild boar are sometimes farmed. They are currently covered under the Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976 and farmers need permission from their local authority to keep them.


title: Agriculture in the United Kingdom

text: The UK pig herd is declining, and there are now some individual pig farms in the US that have more sows than there are in the UK as a whole. Pigs often used to be kept indoors throughout their lives, but welfare concerns and increased costs have led to more outdoor units, and by 2002 30% of sows were outdoors. In many countries sows are kept tethered in individual stalls, but this system was banned in the UK in 1999 on animal welfare grounds. Indoor sows are housed in groups. Each sow produces an average of 24 piglets a year and will be pregnant or lactating for 340 days a year. This intensive production wears the sows out, and about 40% of them need to be replaced each year.


title: Agriculture in the United Kingdom

text: A major byproduct of pig production is slurry. One sow and her piglets can produce ten tonnes of slurry a year. Because regulations limit how much slurry can be loaded onto a given area of land, this means that each sow with her progeny will manure at least 0.8 hectares. This is a problem because pig manure is mildly toxic, owing to the use of copper as a growth enhancer.


title: Agriculture in the United Kingdom

text: The UK has about 73,000 goats, mostly as milk producers; this number is relatively small by EU standards. Venison production in the UK is mainly from red deer, with a few fallow deer as well, but there are only about 300 venison-producing farms. As noted above, there are about 26,500 farms with chickens. However, more than half the UK's eggs come from fewer than 400 flocks, mostly with more than 50,000 birds each. Other livestock and poultry farmed on a smaller scale include game birds, ducks, geese, turkeys, ostriches and rabbits. In this way, the UK produce annually 22 million turkeys.


title: Agriculture in the United Kingdom

text: Farmers wanting to move their livestock outside their own farms must obey the Disease Control (England) Order 2003, the Disease Control (Wales) Order 2003 or the Disease Control (Interim Measures) (Scotland) Order 2002, as applicable. This means a farmer needs a licence from the Local Authority to move livestock. There are also minimum "standstill" periods once livestock has been moved, so for example, a farmer buying new cattle and moving them onto his farm must then wait six days before taking other cattle to market. Most livestock must be identified. Each individual cow must have a "passport" issued by the British Cattle Movement Service. Other farm animals such as sheep, goats or pigs must have a herd mark.


title: Agriculture in the United Kingdom

text: Designated notifiable diseases under the Diseases of Animals Act include anthrax, foot-and-mouth disease, fowl pest, bovine tuberculosis, BSE, scrapie, swine vesicular disease, Aujeszky's disease, bovine leukemia virus, rabies and warble fly. Under the Zoonoses Order conditions that can be transmitted to humans, such as brucellosis or salmonella, must also be notified.


title: Agriculture in the United Kingdom

text: The United Kingdom suffered outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease in 1967 and 2001, with a less serious outbreak in 2007. There was also an outbreak of bluetongue in 2007. The most serious disease to affect British agriculture was BSE, a cattle brain disease that causes a similar disease in some humans who eat infected meat. It has killed 166 people in Britain since 1994.


title: Agriculture in the United Kingdom

text: A current issue is the control of bovine tuberculosis, which can also be carried by badgers. It is alleged that the badgers are infecting the cows. A scientific report for the government recommended a selective cull of badgers, which immediately met with opposition from other scientists. The government is currently consulting on this issue. As of 16 September 2011, a total of 27 online petitions had attracted 65,000 signatures opposing the plan.


title: Agriculture in the United Kingdom

text: Animal welfare legislation affecting UK agriculture includes the Animal Welfare Act 2006, the Welfare of Farmed Animals Regulations 2007 and the Welfare of Animals (Transport) Order 1997. The UK has a good reputation for animal welfare, and there are several codes of practice.


title: Agriculture in the United Kingdom

text: Animal welfare as an issue is increasingly important to the European Union. Although welfare-conscious husbandry can have economic benefits to the farmer, because a happy animal puts on weight more rapidly and will reproduce more easily, the mere fact that an animal is gaining weight or reproducing does not necessarily indicate a high level of animal welfare. Generally there is a tension between the minimum acceptable level of animal welfare for the consumer, the price of the product, and an acceptable margin for the farmer. This tension is resolved by food labelling that enables the consumer to select the price they are prepared to pay for a given level of animal welfare. So for example, many consumers prefer to buy free range eggs even where these are more expensive than eggs from battery hens. Nowadays, there are various welfare assurance schemes in response to consumer pressure. The use of battery cages in now illegal in the European Union, due to the severe impacts the cages can have on the well-being of hens.


title: Agriculture in the United Kingdom

text: Organic farming is farming without chemical fertilisers, most pesticides, genetic modification, or the routine use of drugs, antibiotics or wormers. In the United Kingdom it is supported and encouraged by the Soil Association. The Food Standards Agency says that organic food offers no additional nutritional benefits over the non-organic kind, though the Soil Association disputes this. However, there are definite benefits in terms of on-farm conservation and wildlife. In the UK as in most of northern Europe, organic crop yields can be 40%–50% lower than conventional, more intensive farming and labour use can be 10%–25% higher.


title: Agriculture in the United Kingdom

text: The Organic Aid Scheme egg came into effect in 1994, providing grants to fund farmers wishing to convert to organic farming. By the end of 1997 about had been converted under the scheme, at a cost of £750,000. In 2000 it increased to , and between 1996 and 2000, the number of organic farms increased from 865 to 3500. The global market for organic food is worth £1.2 billion a year and is increasing. The UK's share of the European organic farming market is about 10%.


title: Agriculture in the United Kingdom

text: Biofuels are fuels derived from biomass. They can be used in their pure form to power vehicles, but most commonly they are blended with traditional fuels such as diesel. In 2003, the European Union saw biofuels as an answer to several problems: climate change, energy security and stimulating the rural economy, and agreed the Biofuels Directive to see that production was kickstarted. In 2008, the Gallagher Review expressed concern about the effects of the biofuels initiative and identified the conversion of agricultural land to biofuels production as a factor in rising food prices. The current recommended option is that farmers should use marginal or waste land to produce biofuels and maintain production of food on prime agricultural land.


title: Agriculture in the United Kingdom

text: The Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation ("RTFO") obliges fuel suppliers to see that a certain proportion of the fuel they sell comes from renewable sources. The target for 2009/10 is 3.25% by volume. This presents a potentially useful source of revenue for some farmers.


title: Agriculture in the United Kingdom

text: Biofuel crops grown in the UK include oilseed rape (which is also grown for other purposes), short-rotation coppices such as poplar or willow, and "miscanthus". Unfortunately biofuels are quite bulky for their energy yield, which means processing into fuel needs to happen near where the crop is grown; otherwise, most or all of the benefit of biofuels can be lost in transporting the biofuel to the processing area. Such local processing units are not generally available in the UK, and further expansion of this market will depend on politics and industrial finance.


title: Agriculture in the United Kingdom

text: About half of all farmers in the United Kingdom supplement their income through diversification. On average diversification adds £10,400 to a farm's revenue.


title: Agriculture in the United Kingdom

text: Since time immemorial, sporting rights over farmland for hunting or trapping game have had commercial value; nowadays, game shooting, deer stalking and fishing are important features within the UK economy. Fox hunting previously went on, but has been banned in the United Kingdom since February 2005.


title: Agriculture in the United Kingdom

text: There are a huge number of ways of diversifying. Farmland may, for example, be converted to equestrian facilities, amenity parkland, country clubs, hotels, golf courses, camping and caravan sites. Farmers open shops, restaurants and even pubs to sell their products. The Farm Diversification Benchmarking Study, which was commissioned by DEFRA and carried out by Exeter University in conjunction with the University of Plymouth, found that 65% of full-time farming businesses had diversified, but in the June census of the preceding year (2003), the estimate was 19% of full-time farming businesses. The large discrepancy is probably because the census data excluded the letting or subletting of buildings. The most common kinds of diversification are probably letting of barns as warehouses and storage, letting of former farm labourers' cottages (whether as holiday cottages or on longer leases) and farm shops. The number of farm shops in the UK increased by more than 50% between 1999 and 2003.


title: Agriculture in the United Kingdom

text: There is grant funding available for diversification schemes, as well as other initiatives to improve competitiveness in the farming sector, through the Rural Development Programme for England. The scheme runs until 2013, is managed through Defra and has been delivered to date through Regional Development Agencies. Expenditure on the Rural Development Programme for England will remain around £3.7 billion for the 2007–13 programme period, compared with the original planned budget of about £3.9 billion.


title: Agriculture in the United Kingdom

text: It was first suggested that farmers could be paid for "producing countryside" in 1969, but the real beginning of positive agri-environmental policy came with the Agriculture Act 1986. The Countryside Stewardship Scheme and local equivalents were run by the Countryside Commission and the Countryside Council for Wales from 1991 until 1996, when they came under ministry control. Nowadays schemes to encourage farmers to think about wildlife conservation and to farm in an environmentally friendly way abound, though actual payments to farmers to support this are comparatively modest.


title: Agriculture in the United Kingdom

text: When EU subsidy regime changes in 2013, farmers will receive a greater proportion of their payments from "management of natural resources and climate action." This forms one of the three "principal objectives" of the reformed Common Agricultural Policy which is under consultation until March 2012.


title: Agriculture in the United Kingdom

text: In the 1930s land with vacant possession cost an average of £60 per hectare. In 1996 it cost £8,795 per hectare. In the same period retail prices rose by a factor of 35, but agricultural land prices rose by a factor of well over 100. The most extreme change was in 1972, during which year the price per acre more than doubled. Today farming land remains scarce and much in demand, and the market continues to rise. Thus the only option for someone who lacks capital for land purchase but wants to farm is to rent land as a tenant farmer. Rents increased by 24% in the year to 25 March 2011. The average across all farms in England, Wales and Scotland is now £70/acre, up from £57/acre; dairy farms cost £80 per acre on average, and arable farms now cost £99 per acre.


title: Agriculture in the United Kingdom

text: Historically tenant farmers, as peasants or villeins, had been exploited and starting in 1875, successive governments enacted legislation to protect them. This trend culminated in the Agricultural Holdings Act 1986, which consolidated and built on a century-long trend in the law. This Act was so onerous towards landlords that they were reluctant to let land. It became so hard to obtain a tenancy that the farming industry supported reform, which was enacted in the Agricultural Tenancies Act 1995. Nowadays most new tenancies in England and Wales are Farm Business Tenancies under the 1995 Act, but the 1986 Act tenancies that are still in force may allow for succession, and can sometimes be passed down through up to two generations of tenant. The most common route of entry into farming is to succeed to a holding, whether as owner or tenant, so a person's ability to farm is often determined by their family background rather than their skills or qualifications.


title: Agriculture in the United Kingdom

text: It is an objective of public procurement in the UK "to support our agricultural industry", at the same time as "providing value for money within public procurement".


title: Agriculture in the United Kingdom

text: Local government authorities have powers under the Smallholdings and Allotments Act to buy and rent land to people who want to become farmers. Fifty County Councils and Unitary Authorities in England and Wales offer tenancies on smallholdings (called "County Farms") as an entry route into agriculture, but this provision is shrinking. Between 1984 and 2006, the amount of land available as County Farms shrank from to , a reduction of 30%. The number of tenants on these smallholdings shrank by 58% in the same period to about 2,900. County Farms yielded an operational surplus of £10.6 million to local authorities in the financial year 2008–9. Some local authorities dispose of County Farms to obtain capital receipts. Somerset County Council proposes to sell 35 of its 62 County Farms.


title: Proto-Dravidian language

text: Proto-Dravidian is the linguistic reconstruction of the common ancestor of the Dravidian languages. It is thought to have differentiated into Proto-North Dravidian, Proto-Central Dravidian, and Proto-South Dravidian, although the date of diversification is still debated.


title: Proto-Dravidian language

text: As a proto-language, Proto-Dravidian is not itself attested in historical records. Its modern conception is based solely on reconstruction. It is suggested that the language was spoken in the 4th millennium BCE, and started disintegrating into various branches around 3rd-millennium BCE.


title: Proto-Dravidian language

text: The origin and territory of the Proto-Dravidian speakers is uncertain, but some suggestions have been made based on the reconstructed Proto-Dravidian vocabulary. The reconstruction has been done on the basis of cognate words present in the different branches (Northern, Central and Southern) of the Dravidian language family.


title: Proto-Dravidian language

text: According to , the botanical vocabulary of Proto-Dravidian is characteristic of the dry deciduous forests of central and peninsular India. For the Southern Dravidians, this region extends from Saurashtra and Central India to South India. It thus represents the general area in which the Southern Dravidians were living before the separation of branches.


title: Proto-Dravidian language

text: According to Franklin Southworth (2005), the Proto-Dravidian vocabulary is characteristic of a rural economy based on agriculture, animal husbandry and hunting. However, there are some indications of a society more complex than a rural one:


title: Proto-Dravidian language

text: This evidence is not sufficient to determine with certainty the territory of the Proto-Dravidians. These characteristics can be accommodated within multiple contemporary cultures, including:


title: Proto-Dravidian language

text: Proto-Dravidian contrasted between five short and long vowels: "*a", "*ā", "*i", "*ī", "*u", "*ū", "*e", "*ē", "*o", "*ō". The sequences "*ai" and "*au" are treated as "*ay" and "*av" (or *"aw").


title: Proto-Dravidian language

text: The alveolar stop "*ṯ" developed into an alveolar trill in many daughter languages. The stop sound is retained in Kota and Toda. Malayalam and Sri Lankan Tamil still retains the original (alveolar) stop sound in gemination ("ibid") and after a nasal. In Old Tamil it took the enunciative vowel "-u" like the other stops. In other words, "*ṯ" (or "*ṟ") did not occur word-finally without the enunciative vowel.


title: Proto-Dravidian language

text: Velar nasal "*ṅ" occurred only before "*k" in Proto-Dravidian (as in many of its daughter languages). Therefore, it is not considered a separate phoneme in Proto-Dravidian. However, it attained phonemic status in languages like Malayalam, Gondi, Konda and Pengo because the original sequence "*ṅk" was simplified to "*ṅ" or "*ṅṅ".


title: Proto-Dravidian language

text: The glottal fricative "*h" has been proposed by to account for the Old Tamil Aytam ("Āytam") and other Dravidian comparative phonological phenomena.


title: Proto-Dravidian language

text: The Northern Dravidian languages Kurukh, Malto and Brahui cannot easily be derived from the traditional Proto-Dravidian phonological system. proposes that they branched off from an earlier stage of Proto-Dravidian than the conventional reconstruction, which would apply only to the other languages. He suggests reconstructing a richer system of dorsal stop consonants:


title: Proto-Dravidian language

text: Below are some crop plants that have been found in the Southern Neolithic complex of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, along with their Proto-Dravidian or Proto-South Dravidian reconstructions by . In some cases, the proto-form glosses differ from the species identified from archaeological sites. For example, the two Southern Neolithic staple grasses "Brachiaria ramosa" and "Setaria verticillata" respectively correspond to the reconstructed Proto-Dravidian forms for "Sorghum vulgare" and "Setaria italica" as early Dravidian speakers shifted to millet species that were later introduced to South India.


title: Tupolev Tu-28

text: The Tupolev Tu-28 (NATO reporting name Fiddler) was a long-range interceptor aircraft introduced by the Soviet Union in the 1960s. The official designation was Tu-128, but this designation was less commonly used in the West. It was the largest and heaviest fighter ever in service.


title: Tupolev Tu-28

text: In the 1950s, the Soviet Union sought means to defend against nuclear-armed American bombers possibly penetrating its borders (especially its long and vulnerable northern border). Contemporary interceptors, such as the Yakovlev Yak-28P, were able to cover a radius of just a few hundred kilometers flying from northern Soviet bases like Talagi and Savatiya; the newly developed surface-to-air missiles had even shorter range. Considering both, the sheer numbers required to defend a 5,000 km air front were economically impossible to maintain. This left the Soviet Union able to provide a modern air defense only for selected valuable areas. The PVO decided to cover the entire territory, but with a looser defence. In 1955 it placed a requirement for a large area-defense interceptor, that would achieve it with sparse airbases. The PVO requirement called for a supersonic aircraft with enormous fuel tanks for both a good patrol time and long range, a capable radar, and the most powerful air-to-air missiles possible. The first attempt, although unsuccessful, was the Lavochkin La-250, a 30-tonne interceptor prototype which was the last of the Lavochkin design bureau's aircraft.


title: Tupolev Tu-28

text: Iosif Nezval of Tupolev Design Bureau led development of the new interceptor aircraft. The work began in 1958, based on an existing single prototype of the unsuccessful Tu-98 supersonic bomber. The military designation of the interceptor was at first Tu-28, but it was changed in 1963 to Tu-128, identical to the designation used by the OKB.


title: Tupolev Tu-28

text: The Tu-128 had a broad, low/mid-mounted swept wing carrying the main landing gear in wing-mounted pods, and slab tailplanes. Two Lyulka AL-7F-2 turbojet engines were mounted in the fuselage. The two-man crew of pilot and navigator were seated in tandem.


title: Tupolev Tu-28

text: The Tu-128, with its maximum weight of 43 tonnes, was the heaviest fighter to enter service. It was an interceptor with high wing loading, unsophisticated but reliable avionics and poor visibility. It was not an agile aircraft, intended only to combat NATO bombers like the B-52, not engage in dogfights with smaller aircraft.


title: Tupolev Tu-28

text: The interceptor made its initial public appearance in the 1961 Tushino air parade. Western experts, unaware that the bulge on the belly carried testing instruments, mistook it for a large ventral radar for a mixed interceptor/AWACS role. The production version lacked the bulge and had a large nose radome housing a radar, known as RP-S "Smerch", having a detection range of about 50 km (31 mi) and a lock-on range of about 40 km (25 mi).


title: Tupolev Tu-28

text: Armament of the Tu-128 was four Bisnovat R-4 air-to-air missiles (known as K-80 during development; NATO reporting name AA-5 'Ash'). Usually two of them were R-4Rs with semi-active radar homing and two were R-4T infrared-homing missiles, with the former on the outer pylons and the latter on the inner underwing pylons. There was no internal weapons bay.


title: Tupolev Tu-28

text: Development of various projects designated Tu-28A, Tu-28-80, Tu-28-100, Tu-138, and Tu-148 were proposed by the Tupolev Design Bureau but all were abandoned.


title: Tupolev Tu-28

text: The Tu-128's only publicly reported combat operation was the destruction of NATO reconnaissance balloons. The aircraft remained in service until 1990. Through the 1980s, units armed with the Tu-128 converted to the Mikoyan MiG-31, which features much more advanced sensors and weapons.


title: Second Bill of Rights

text: The Second Bill of Rights or Bill of Economic Rights was proposed by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt during his . In his address, Roosevelt suggested that the nation had come to recognise and should now implement, a second "bill of rights". Roosevelt argued that the "political rights" guaranteed by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights had "proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness". His remedy was to declare an "economic bill of rights" to guarantee these specific rights:


title: Second Bill of Rights

text: These rights have come to be known as economic rights; although not to be enshrined within the constitution, the hope of advocating the policy was that it would be 'encoded and guaranteed by federal law'. Roosevelt stated that having such rights would guarantee American security and that the United States' place in the world depended upon how far the rights had been carried into practice. This safety has been described as a state of physical welfare, as well as "economic security, social security, and moral security" by American legal scholar Cass Sunstein. Roosevelt pursued a legislative agenda to enact his second bill of rights by lending Executive Branch personnel to key Senate committees. This tactic, effectively a blending of powers, produced mixed results and generated a backlash from Congress which resulted in passage of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946. This Act provided funding for Congress to establish its own staffing for committees.


title: Second Bill of Rights

text: In the runup to the Second World War, the United States had suffered through the Great Depression following the Wall Street Crash of 1929. Roosevelt's election at the end of 1932 was based on a commitment to reform the economy and society through a "New Deal" program. The first indication of a commitment to government guarantees of social and economic rights came in an address to the Commonwealth Club on September 23, 1932, during his campaign. The speech was written with Adolf A. Berle, a professor of corporate law at Columbia University. A key passage read:


title: Second Bill of Rights

text: Throughout Roosevelt's presidency, he returned to the same theme continually over the course of the New Deal. Also in the Atlantic Charter, an international commitment was made as the Allies thought about how to "win the peace" following victory in the Second World War. The US' commitment to non-interventionism in World War II ending with the 1941 Lend-Lease act, and later Pearl Harbor attacks, resulted in the mobilisation of the war state. The generous terms of the act, in conjunction with the economic growth of the US were key in allowing the US to establish new global order with the help of Allied powers in the aftermath of war. This motivation to establish a new global order provided the infrastructure for the implementation of an international standard of human rights, seen with the Second Bill of Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Akira Iriye's proposition that the US desired to transform the post war Pacific after their own image is representative of the wider desire to raise global standards to that of the US, feeding into ideals of American Exceptionalism. The effect of wider democratisation and social reform is divulged upon in Francis Fukuyama's "The End of History and the Last Man."


title: Second Bill of Rights

text: Roosevelt presented the to the public on radio as a fireside chat from the White House: Today I sent my Annual Message to the Congress, as required by the Constitution. It has been my custom to deliver these Annual Messages in person, and they have been broadcast to the Nation. I intended to follow this same custom this year. But like a great many other people, I have had the "flu", and although I am practically recovered, my doctor simply would not let me leave the White House to go up to the Capitol. Only a few of the newspapers of the United States can print the Message in full, and I am anxious that the American people be given an opportunity to hear what I have recommended to the Congress for this very fateful year in our history — and the reasons for those recommendations. Here is what I said ...


title: Second Bill of Rights

text: He asked that newsreel cameras film the last portion of the address, concerning the Second Bill of Rights. This footage was believed lost until it was uncovered in 2008 in South Carolina by Michael Moore while researching the film "". The footage shows Roosevelt's Second Bill of Rights address in its entirety as well as a shot of the eight rights printed on a sheet of paper.


title: Kit Malthouse

text: Christopher Laurie "Kit" Malthouse (born 27 October 1966) is a British politician and businessman who served as Secretary of State for Education from 6 September to 25 October 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, he previously served as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster from July to September 2022. He has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for North West Hampshire since 2015.


title: Kit Malthouse

text: Malthouse served on the Westminster City Council from 1998 to 2006 and was Deputy Council Leader from 2004 to 2006. He served as a Conservative member of the London Assembly for West Central from 2008 to 2016. He represented the City of Westminster, the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. He served under then-Mayor of London Boris Johnson as Deputy Mayor for Policing from 2008 to 2012 and Deputy Mayor for Business and Enterprise from 2012 to 2015.


title: Kit Malthouse

text: Malthouse was elected as Member of Parliament for North West Hampshire at the 2015 general election. Following the 2018 cabinet reshuffle, Malthouse was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Work and Pensions by Prime Minister Theresa May. After Dominic Raab was appointed Brexit Secretary, Malthouse served as Minister of State for Housing and Planning from 2018 to 2019. In July 2019, after Johnson succeeded May as Prime Minister, Malthouse was appointed Minister for Crime, Policing and the Fire Service. In the 2020 cabinet reshuffle, he was appointed Minister of State for Crime and Policing at the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice, before being promoted to Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster during the July 2022 government crisis.


title: Kit Malthouse

text: Christopher Laurie Malthouse was born in the Aigburth suburb of Liverpool on 27 October 1966, the son of Susan and John Christopher Malthouse. He was educated at Sudley County Primary, a state school, and Liverpool College, then an independent school. He studied politics and economics at Newcastle University.


title: Kit Malthouse

text: Malthouse trained to be a chartered accountant at Touche Ross & Company, qualifying in 1995. He then left and worked as Finance Director of the Cannock Group. He led the management buyout of the part of that group called County Holdings and became chairman of the company.


title: Kit Malthouse

text: Malthouse's first run for office was to represent the constituency of Liverpool Wavertree in the 1997 general election. The seat, which had been recreated after being abolished following the 1979 general election, was easily won by Labour candidate Jane Kennedy, who took 29,592 votes (64.4%). Malthouse came third with 4,944 votes (10.8%), behind Liberal Democrat candidate Richard C. Kemp.


title: Kit Malthouse

text: Malthouse was elected to Westminster council in May 1998, representing St George's ward in the Pimlico area of central London. Following boundary changes, he was re-elected in May 2002 for Warwick ward, which is also in Pimlico. Malthouse was appointed as Chief Whip of the Conservative Group, and following a change of leader to Sir Simon Milton, he was appointed Chairman of the Social Services Committee. Two years later, he was elected Deputy Leader of the Council and became Cabinet Member for Finance.


title: Kit Malthouse

text: He retired from Westminster City Council at the May 2006 local elections. Malthouse challenged the results of the 2001 population census, which he said seriously underestimated the population of the City of Westminster. Following a two-year battle with the Office for National Statistics, the City of Westminster population was revised upwards by 10% and a review of future census methodology was commissioned.


title: Kit Malthouse

text: Malthouse argued against the introduction of the London congestion charge, opposing it on the grounds that the idea should not be first introduced in the most populous city in England, and that London was already one of the most expensive cities to live in.


title: Kit Malthouse

text: As Deputy Leader of Westminster Council, Malthouse was responsible for agreeing to a £12.3 million settlement with Shirley Porter over the £27 million surcharge, eventually raising to £42 million in costs and interest, imposed on her as a result of the Homes for Votes gerrymandering fraud scandal.


title: Kit Malthouse

text: On 26 March 2007, he was selected as the Conservative candidate for the London Assembly seat of West Central. The Assembly elections took place on 1 May 2008, and Malthouse received 53% of the vote. He was appointed Deputy Mayor for Policing two days later.


title: Kit Malthouse

text: Malthouse was appointed Deputy Mayor of London for Policing by Mayor Boris Johnson with effect from 6 May 2008. In October 2008 he was appointed Vice Chairman of the Metropolitan Police Authority by Johnson. Malthouse was a member of the board of the Association of Police Authorities, and the London Regional Resilience Forum. He was also involved in the Ministerial Steering Group of the London Criminal Justice Partnership.


title: Kit Malthouse

text: Malthouse has introduced Met Forward, the Authority's strategic mission for London's police. Alongside the Mayor of London and the then Deputy Commissioner of Metropolitan Police, Malthouse released ‘Time for Action’ on 3 November 2008 in response to escalating concerns about youth violence in London. Malthouse campaigned against dangerous dogs across London. He also campaigned for changes to the dangerous dogs legislation to introduce tougher punishments and worked with the CPS to reduce the long delays in the court process to reduce the kenneling costs.


title: Kit Malthouse

text: Malthouse campaigned against the presence of prostitution cards in telephone kiosks across London. He also devised the 2010 program 'The Way Forward – a plan for London to tackle violence against women and girls'. In March 2012, Malthouse was urged to resign by Labour MP Chris Bryant for reportedly saying too many police resources were allocated to the investigation into press phone hacking.


title: Kit Malthouse

text: While Deputy Mayor of London, Malthouse expressed concerns about the growing numbers of foxes and said: "People are afraid to let their small children play outside because of them. They are more and more worried about the number of foxes as numbers continue to grow." Following his election to Parliament, he stated that he would vote to repeal the Hunting Act 2004, which bans the hunting of foxes with dogs.


title: Kit Malthouse

text: On 4 July 2014 it was announced that Malthouse would be selected as the Conservative candidate in the 2015 general election for the North West Hampshire constituency. The seat had been occupied by Sir George Young since 1997, who announced in 2013 that he would retire in 2015. In March 2015 Malthouse resigned his position as Deputy Mayor of London to concentrate on his parliamentary campaign; the office remained vacant until 2016. He won the seat in North West Hampshire with a majority of 23,943.


title: Kit Malthouse

text: In March 2016, Malthouse was asked by Andover's MS Society to step down from his role as a patron. The charity felt he was no longer suitable for the role as he had recently voted to cut ESA to the same level as JSA for those in the Work Related Activity Group (WRAG).


title: Kit Malthouse

text: He served as Minister of State for Family Support in 2018 and Minister of State for Housing and Planning from 2018 to 2019. Malthouse was credited as the convener of an agreement between two Conservative party factions on Brexit which aimed to rewrite the Irish backstop. The House of Commons voted down the agreement in March 2019 after EU negotiators criticised it as unrealistic. On 27 May 2019, Malthouse announced that he was standing in the Conservative Party leadership election to replace Theresa May. On 4 June 2019, Malthouse announced that he was withdrawing from the contest.


title: Kit Malthouse

text: In July 2019, Prime Minister Boris Johnson appointed Malthouse to the position of Minister for Policing, succeeding Nick Hurd.


title: Kit Malthouse

text: In addition to his role as Minister of State for Policing, Malthouse took on additional responsibilities as a Minister of State at the Ministry for Justice.


title: Kit Malthouse

text: In July 2022, Malthouse was appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. In July 2022, Malthouse chaired a COBRA meeting of the civil contingencies committee to discuss the escalating heat waves in the United Kingdom. After the meeting, he stated "if people don’t have to travel, this may be a moment to work from home."


title: Kit Malthouse

text: In September 2022, he was appointed Secretary of State for Education, serving in that role until shortly after Liz Truss resigned on 25 October 2022.


title: Kit Malthouse

text: Malthouse married Tracy-Jane Newall in 1996, and they had a son before divorcing in 2005. He married Juliana Fahra in 2007, and they have one son and one daughter together.


title: Kit Malthouse

text: Maltouse was sworn in as a member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council on 20 September 2021 at Balmoral Castle, giving him the honorific prefix of "The Right Honourable" for life.


title: Waqt (1965 film)

text: Waqt () is a 1965 Indian Hindi-language drama film directed by Yash Chopra, produced by B. R. Chopra and written by Akhtar Mirza and Akhtar-Ul-Iman. It made it onto the BFI's long list of films in consideration for their top ten of Indian films award. The film stars Sunil Dutt, Raajkumar Pandit, Shashi Kapoor, Sadhana Shivdasani, Sharmila Tagore, Balraj Sahni, Achala Sachdev, Rehman Khan and Madan Puri in lead roles. It pioneered the concept of films with multiple stars, starting a trend followed by other films. The film took the top spot at the box office in 1965. The plot of this movie re-introduced the lost and reunite formula in Bollywood, originally featured in the 1943 Ashok Kumar, Mumtaz Shanti starrer "Kismet" (fate). A happy family separated by "Waqt" (time) goes through a series of trials trying to reunite. The film was later remade into the Telugu as "Bhale Abbayilu" (1969) and in Malayalam as "Kolilakkam" (1981).


title: Waqt (1965 film)

text: It is still considered one of the blockbuster movies of actress Sadhana. The film contains the popular Hindi songs "Hum Jab Simat Ke", sung by Mahendra Kapoor and Asha Bhosle, "Waqt se din aur raat", sung by the legendary Mohammed Rafi, "Aage Bhi Jaane Na Tu", sung by Asha Bhosle and "Ae Meri Zohra Jabeen", sung by Manna Dey, composed by Ravi and picturised on Balraj Sahni and Achala Sachdev.


title: Waqt (1965 film)

text: Lala Kedarnath Prasanta (Balraj Sahni) is a wealthy businessman living with his wife Laxmi (Achala Sachdev) and three little sons, who were born on same date, same month but few years apart each other. On their birthday, Lala Kedarnath is visited by Pandit Uday Shankar (Badri Prasad), a well-known astrologer who advises him not to be proud of his wealthy lifestyle or be too optimistic about the future as the actions of "time" is unpredictable. Lala Kedarnath ignores his advice and is busy making plans of becoming even more wealthier. That night, as he is discussing his future plans with Laxmi, a sudden earthquake takes place and the whole town crumbles, knocking Lala Kedarnath unconscious. After regaining consciousness, he discovers that his house is destroyed and his family is gone. The eldest son Raja ends up in an orphanage while the middle-born son Ravi is adopted from the streets by a rich couple. Elsewhere, the youngest son Vijay is still with Laxmi who thinks Lala Kedarnath died in the earthquake and the two continue living in poverty. Lala Kedarnath traces Raja to the orphanage only to learn that he has fled as the manager (Jeevan Dhar) ill-treated him. Frustrated, he chokes the manager to death and is arrested by the police. As the police drive away with Lala Kedarnath, Raja is shown running on the streets alone.


title: Waqt (1965 film)

text: Several years later, Raja Chinnoy (Raajkumar Pandit) is shown as a sophisticated thief working for a criminal named Chinnoy Seth (Rehman Khan). He steals the expensive necklace of a beautiful rich girl named Meena Mittal (Sadhana Shivdasani) but returns it to her upon learning that it was her birthday gift. He falls in love with her and decides to give up crime for her. However, things take a turn when a spoilt rich boy named Ravi Khanna (Sunil Dutt) enters Meena's life and attempts to woo her. Meanwhile, Lala Kedarnath is released from jail and is informed by his neighbour that his long-lost wife Laxmi is in Delhi. He travels there but is informed that her son Vijay (Shashi Kapoor) has taken her to Mumbai for a treatment as she is diagnosed with cancer. He arrives over there in order to search for his family. Elsewhere, Meena falls in love with Ravi and the two decide to get married, infuriating Raja. On the night before their engagement, he enters an asleep Ravi's house to murder him but finds his childhood photograph. Upon seeing it, Raja realises that Ravi is his long-lost brother and leaves from his house. Ravi and Meena's marriage is finalized. However, Meena's parents tell Ravi's foster parents that they wish to break off Meena's engagement upon discovering that Ravi is of unknown parentage and religion. Heartbroken, Ravi leaves his house after an argument with his foster sister Renu Khanna (Sharmila Tagore) over dating Vijay who works as a chauffeur for Chinnoy Seth in order to arrange money for Laxmi's surgery. Raja learns about Ravi's problem and decides to reveal their relation at a party organized by Chinnoy Seth. However, Chinnoy Seth's drunk employee Balbir Singh (Madan Puri) misbehaves with Meena over there and Raja gets into a fight with him, causing the party to get cancelled. Later that night, Balbir gets into a fight with Chinnoy Seth in a drunken state and in self-defense, Chinnoy Seth ends up stabbing Balbir fatally from his knife. He decide to frame Raja for the murder in order to cover up his crime. Vijay witnesses Chinnoy Seth dragging Balbir's corpse to Raja's house but is shut up with the promise of money for Laxmi's surgery. Raja is arrested by the police and he asks Ravi to defend him as a lawyer, to which, he agrees. During the procedure of the court case, Chinnoy Seth lies that Vijay woke him up to inform him about Balbir's murder and that he witnessed Raja hiding the corpse in the wardrobe. Vijay also gives a false statement that he witnessed Raja dragging Balbir's corpse to his house. Lala Kedarnath appears in the court as well for catching Raja on the streets when he attempted to flee from the police. Vijay ends up confessing Chinnoy Seth's true intentions after he is confronted by Ravi over his mother's illness. Chinnoy Seth, brainwashed by Ravi, blurts out the truth in the courtroom and is convicted for Balbir's murder. Raja is proved innocent and Lala Kedarnath thanks Ravi for his deeds. Laxmi subsequently arrives in the court to apologise to Raja on behalf of Vijay. Lala Kedarnath spots her over there and has an emotional reunion with her. She even introduces Vijay as his youngest son to him. He narrates to them that he had traced his eldest son to an orphanage but he had already fled from there. Raja overhears him and realises that he is his father. He introduces himself as his eldest son and Ravi as his middle-born son to Lala Kedarnath. The two emotionally reunite with Lala Kedarnath with Laxmi and Vijay. Ravi's marriage is also fixed with Meena again. In the end, they all build a rich house and live happily thereafter.


title: Chamberlain (office)

text: A chamberlain (Medieval Latin: "cambellanus" or "cambrerius", with charge of treasury "camerarius") is a senior royal official in charge of managing a royal household. Historically, the chamberlain superintends the arrangement of domestic affairs and was often also charged with receiving and paying out money kept in the royal chamber. The position was usually honoured upon a high-ranking member of the nobility (nobleman) or the clergy, often a royal favourite. Roman emperors appointed this officer under the title of "cubicularius". The Chamberlain of the Holy Roman Church enjoys very extensive powers, having the revenues of the papal household under his charge. As a sign of their dignity, they bore a key, which in the seventeenth century was often silvered, and actually fitted the door-locks of chamber rooms. Since the eighteenth century, it has turned into a merely symbolic, albeit splendid, rank-insignia of gilded bronze. In many countries there are ceremonial posts associated with the household of the sovereign.


title: Chamberlain (office)

text: Historically, many institutions and governments – monasteries, cathedrals and cities – also had the post of chamberlain, who usually had charge of finances. The Finance Director of the City of London is still called the Chamberlain, while New York City had a chamberlain who managed city accounts until the early 20th century.


title: Chamberlain (office)

text: From the Old French "chamberlain, chamberlenc", Modern French "chambellan", from Old High German "Chamarling, Chamarlinc", whence also the Medieval Latin "cambellanus, camerlingus, camerlengus"; Italian "camerlingo"; Spanish "camerlengo", compounded of Old High German "Chamara, Kamara" [Latin "camera", “chamber”], and the German suffix "-ling".


title: Chamberlain (office)

text: Around the year of 2012, The Grand Chamberlain of The l, Alauddin bin Abu Bakar, on emergency broadcast had announced the divorce between the Sultan and his third wife.


title: Chamberlain (office)

text: "Ober-Kammerherr" or "Kammerherr" (}. Historically, "postelnichiy" (постельничий) was the ceremonial post at the court of a Grand Duke. Later, in 1772, at the court of the Tsar the German term "Kammerherr" was introduced. The "Ober-Kammerherr" was responsible for the audiences granted to members of the Royal Family. Since the beginning of the 18th century, the "Ober-Kammerherr" was the most senior appointed official of the Russian Imperial Court associated with the household of the sovereign. The most notable figures were:


title: Chamberlain (office)

text: In Sweden there are ten serving chamberlains () and four serving cabinet chamberlains (kabinettskammarherrar) at the royal court. The chamberlains are not employed by the court but serve during ceremonial occasions such as state visits, audiences, and official dinners.


title: Chamberlain (office)

text: In Thailand the head of the Bureau of the Royal Household is titled the Lord Chamberlain (เลขาธิการพระราชวัง). He has several Grand Chamberlains as his deputy, usually in charge of a specific portfolio.


title: 2004 Pitcairn Islands sexual assault trial

text: In the Pitcairn sexual assault trial of 2004 seven men living on Pitcairn Island faced 55 charges relating to sexual offences against children and young people. The accused represented a third of the island's male population and included Steve Christian, the mayor. On 24 October, all but one of the defendants were found guilty on at least some of the charges. Another six men living abroad, including Shawn Christian, who later served as mayor of Pitcairn, were tried on 41 charges in a separate trial in Auckland, New Zealand, in 2005.


text: The trial was repeatedly punctuated by legal challenges from island residents, who denied the island's colonial status, and with it the United Kingdom's judicial authority. Defence lawyers for the seven accused men claimed that British sovereignty over the islands was unconstitutional: HMS "Bounty" mutineers, from whom almost all of the current island population is descended (together with Polynesians), had effectively renounced their British citizenship by committing a capital offence in the burning of the "Bounty" in 1790, they said. According to the Public Defender of the Pitcairn Islands Paul Dacre (who was appointed in 2003), islanders still celebrated this act annually by burning an effigy of the "Bounty" in a symbolic rejection of British rule. The defence maintained that the UK never made a "formal" claim to Pitcairn, and never officially informed the islanders that British legislation, such as the Sexual Offences Act 1956, was applicable to them.


text: In a judgment delivered on 18 April 2004, the Pitcairn Supreme Court (specially established for the purpose of the trial, consisting of New Zealand judges authorised by the British government) rejected the claim that Pitcairn was not British territory. This decision was upheld in August 2004 by the Pitcairn Court of Appeal, endorsing the claim of Deputy Governor Matthew Forbes that Pitcairn was British territory. A delay of the trial until the United Kingdom's Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) decided on an additional appeal was rejected. The trial started on 30 September 2004. Verdicts were delivered on 24 October 2004, with all but one of the defendants convicted on at least some of the charges they were facing. Those found guilty were sentenced on 29 October 2004.


text: The remoteness of Pitcairn (which lies about halfway between New Zealand and Peru) had shielded the tiny population (47 in 2004) from outside scrutiny. The islanders had for many decades tolerated what others classify as sexual promiscuity, even among the very young, claimed to be in line with traditional values of their Polynesian ancestors. This included a corresponding tacit acceptance of behaviour which in the UK would be considered child sexual abuse. Three cases of imprisonment for sex with underage girls were reported in the 1950s.


text: In 1999 Gail Cox, a police officer from Kent, UK serving a temporary assignment on Pitcairn, began uncovering allegations of sexual abuse. When a 15-year-old girl decided to press rape charges in 1999, criminal proceedings (code-named "Operation Unique") were set in motion. The charges include 21 counts of rape, 41 of indecent assault, and two of gross indecency with a child under 14. Over the following two years, police officers in Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom interviewed every woman who had lived on Pitcairn in the past 20 years, as well as all of the accused men. Pitcairn Public Prosecutor Simon Moore (an Auckland Crown Solicitor who was the first lawyer appointed to the position by the British government for the purposes of the investigation) held the file.


text: Australian Seventh-day Adventist pastor Neville Tosen, who spent two years on Pitcairn around the turn of the millennium, said that on his arrival, he had been taken aback by the conduct of the children. But he had not immediately realised what was happening. "I noticed worrying signs such as inexplicable mood swings," he said. "It took me three months to realise they were being abused." Tosen tried to bring the matter before the Island Council (the legislative body which doubles as the island's court), but was rebuffed. One Councillor, Tom Christian, told him, "Look, the age of consent has always been twelve and it doesn't hurt them."


text: A study of island records confirmed anecdotal evidence that most girls bore their first child between the ages of 12 and 15. "I think the girls were conditioned to accept that it was a man's world and once they turned 12, they were eligible," Tosen said. Mothers and grandmothers were resigned to the situation, telling him that their own childhood experience had been the same; they regarded it as just a part of life on Pitcairn. One grandmother wondered what all the fuss was about. Tosen was convinced, however, that the early sexual experience was very damaging to the girls. "They can't settle or form solid relationships. They did suffer, no doubt about it," he said emphatically.


text: Tosen opined that accounts of the Pitcairners' past transformation by Christianity, once popularised in missionary tracts, told only one side of the story. He noted that 13 of the original settlers were murdered, many in fights over women, before John Adams, the sole surviving mutineer, pacified them with the help of the Bible. "This is the island that the gospel changed, but the changes were only superficial," he said. "Deep down, they adhered to the mutineers' mentality. They must have known that their lifestyle was unacceptable, but it was too entrenched."


text: In 1999, a New Zealander visiting the island, Ricky Quinn, was sentenced by island magistrate Jay Warren to 100 days in prison for underage sex with a 15-year-old Pitcairn girl.


text: In 2002, the Queen-in-Council made the Pitcairn (Amendment) Order 2002, which paved the way for a trial based on Pitcairn law to be held in New Zealand in 2004. However, in 2004 the accused won a legal battle to be tried in Pitcairn. Three judges, several prosecution and defence lawyers, other court staff, and six journalists travelled from New Zealand to the island in late September for the seven-week trial. Their arrival doubled the number of people on the island during their stay. Witnesses living abroad gave evidence remotely by a video satellite link-up.


text: The forty-five islanders were ordered to surrender their twenty or so guns, both in view of the heightened emotions and to avoid hunting accidents "because the island's population will swell by about 25 during the trial."


text: In 2004 the biographer Diana Souhami visited Pitcairn, attempting to travel incognito, but her cover was blown early in her stay. Before she was told to leave the island, she gathered enough material for her next book, "Coconut Chaos".


text: Pitcairn's 47 inhabitants, almost all of whom are interrelated, were bitterly divided by the charges against what constituted most of the adult male population. Many Pitcairn Island men blamed the British police for persuading the women involved to press charges. Some of the women agreed. Sources close to the case said that several women withdrew their charges due to family pressure.


text: On 28 September 2004, Olive Christian, wife of the accused mayor, daughter of Len Brown and mother of Randy Christian, both of whom were also among those accused, called a meeting of thirteen of the island's women, representing three generations at her home, Big Fence, to "defend" the island's men. Claiming that underage sex had been accepted as a Polynesian tradition since the settlement of the island in 1790, Olive Christian said of her girlhood, "We all thought sex was like food on the table." Carol Warren's two daughters also said that they had both been sexually active from the age of 12, with one of them claiming that she started having sex at 13, "and I felt hot shit about it, too." They and other women present at the meeting, who endorsed their view that underage sex was normal on Pitcairn, stated emphatically that all of the alleged rape victims had been willing participants.


text: Charlene Warren, who withdrew charges against a Pitcairn man, claimed that detectives had offered her money to testify; when pressed, she clarified that the money referred to statutory "compensation for victims of crime." Some women came up with a conspiracy theory that the trial was part of "a British plot to jail the [community's] able-bodied men and 'close' the island." "They've picked on all the viable young men, the ones who are the backbone of this place," said one, Meralda Warren. Not all women on the island were such defenders. Some present at the Big Fence meeting sat "silent and appeared ill at ease," giving reporters the impression that they did not hold the same views.


text: Many of the islanders boycotted the trial. "It's better for me not to know who's charged with what, so that I can still look them in the face as mates," one islander said. "We still have to work together to keep this place going." While many islanders remain fearful that the outcome of the trial could sound the death-knell of the tiny state, others expressed optimism that it could mark a new beginning for Pitcairn as people previously excluded from the power structure would find themselves needed and appreciated for their skills and contributions in a new way. Many Pitcairners felt unfairly treated; for instance, Mike Warren said the whole trial was a "setup" from the start. Former Pitcairn resident Reeve Cooze expressed the sentiments of many islanders on Radio New Zealand when he declared, "The Pitcairn people have been bullied."


text: Four days later on 4 October, a former islander, in a written statement read out by police, (name withheld) alleged that Mayor Steve Christian had raped her twice in 1972 when she was 12, once in bushland and once in a boat moored at Bounty Bay. She said that he used adolescent girls as his personal harem. "Steve seemed to take it upon himself to initiate all the girls, and it was like we were his harem," she stated. She had not informed her parents or others in the community, she said, because she "knew nothing would be done about it because of previous experience on the island." On the same day, another woman alleged that she had been raped twice as a school girl by Steve Christian. She had been a virgin at the time of the first rape, she said.


text: Postmaster Dennis Christian was the first defendant to plead guilty at the trial, the following day. He pleaded guilty to two charges of sexual assault against a 12- to 14-year-old girl from 1972 to 1974, when he was 16 to 18, and one charge of indecent assault against another 12-year-old girl in the early 1980s, when he was in his late 20s. Detective Inspector Rob Vinson of Kent Police, who had conducted the investigation, described the confession as a "significant development." Pitcairn public prosecutor Simon Moore expressed relief that the two women had been spared having to testify in public. Crown prosecutors said that they would not offer evidence for a fourth charge against Christian, as the victim wished to withdraw it and it would not affect the sentence. Christian was remanded on bail pending the completion of all seven trials.


text: On the next day (6 October), the prosecution produced a videotape of a police interview with Steve Christian, conducted at Auckland Central police station in New Zealand in 2000. Christian denied "breaking in" four girls in their early teens or younger. (He was later accused by a fifth woman of having raped her in a similar fashion.) Christian agreed that it "could be the case" that he had sex with one girl of 13 and another of 15. He said he could not recall the specific incidents but admitted to two other sexual relationships with girls under 16, both of whom, he insisted, had consented. He emphatically denied ever having forced sex on anybody. Christian pleaded not guilty to all charges of rape and indecent assault.


text: The trial continued on 7 October with the appearance of Jay Warren, 48, the former Magistrate of Pitcairn, and Terry Young, 45. Warren held the office of Magistrate, which had since been renamed mayor, for most of the 1990s. The 48-year-old Warren was accused of indecently assaulting a 12-year-old girl in 1983. The woman (name suppressed), who was 33 at the time of the trial, testified by video link from New Zealand, where she lived, that Warren had accosted her while she was body-surfing with friends in Bounty Bay after school. The woman says she was wearing flippers, and managed to swim away. In reply to a question from Paul Dacre, the public defender, she told the court that she felt unable to tell anybody on the island about what had happened at that time. Warren denied the charge.


text: The same woman told the court that she had also been abused by Terry Young, who was accused of one rape and seven indecent assaults over a period of almost 20 years. The woman, one of four of Young's alleged victims, told the court that in 1981, when she was 10, Young had groped her as she emerged from the toilet block at the island's school. She had been attending a community event that evening. The court was told that Young had confessed this incident to the police. He had also confessed to having molested another 10-year-old girl during a tag game at a communal dinner (an incident he told the police had happened "accidentally"), and another girl of 13 or 14 while she was a passenger on his quad-bike. His principal victim was a girl he allegedly molested regularly over a number of years, from the time she was 7. His confessions to the police notwithstanding, Young formally denied all charges against him in court.


text: On 8 October, Dave Brown, brother-in-law to Mayor Steve Christian, became the second defendant to plead guilty. Brown, a 49-year-old tractor driver, pleaded guilty to two charges of indecently assaulting a 14-year-old girl in the mid-1980s, and to a charge of molesting a 15-year-old girl during a spear-fishing trip in 1986.


text: The court listened to an interview recorded on Pitcairn in 2000, in which Brown, when asked if he had been in love, replied to police: "Yes, I was. We got closer and closer," was his view of himself and the 13-year-old girl, with whom he had repeated sexual contact over a long period in the mid-1980s. He was then in his early 30s, and married with children. Their first sexual encounter had taken place in undergrowth behind the general store after he met her in the village square. About a month later, they had sex again when they met after swimming. According to Brown's account to police, after the second sexual encounter, the girl had said that she enjoyed the sexual encounters and wanted more of it. Seeing each other more than once a month was difficult, however; greater frequency would make it difficult to keep, what Brown characterised as, an "affair" secret. Despite being confronted by his wife, Lea, and despite being asked by the island's police officer on behalf of the girl's mother to leave her alone, Brown renewed his sexual contacts with the girl after a six-month interval. "She didn't want to let go and neither did I," Brown said. The sexual contact continued until the girl left the island at the age of 16. At the beginning of the police investigation in 2000, the woman was one of many complainants, but she withdrew her allegations against Brown before the trial.


text: In the video, Brown told the police that it was "a normal part of Pitcairn life" for adult men to have sex with girls of 12 or 13. "It didn't seem wrong," he said. Most islanders, including his parents, had started having sex at a young age, and each generation had followed the one before it, he contended. He said, however, that he had rethought the widespread acceptance of underage sex, and had concluded that it was not appropriate. Of his own conduct with the 13-year-old girl, he said, "I regret it now. Times are changing. Things are moving forward, and obviously what we did then was not normal." Brown pleaded not guilty to twelve additional charges. These included forcing a five-year-old girl to give him oral sex, and indecently assaulting a girl of six or seven in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the only church on the island.


text: As the trial resumed four days later on 12 October, plaintiffs testified about the alleged misdeeds of Mayor Steve Christian. One of his alleged victims told the court that he went to her house the night his first son was born, and asked her for sex —she refused. Royal Warren, who assisted with the birth, provided Christian with an alibi: he had, she said, been present throughout his wife's labour.


text: In the separate trial of Terry Young, a former resident of Pitcairn Island accused him of raping her repeatedly in her early teens. The first rape she could remember took place in 1978, when she was 12, but he had begun assaulting her indecently much earlier, she said. The rapes and assaults continued until she was 15, she testified, when she left to go to New Zealand for her education. In a video link from New Zealand, the 38-year-old woman broke down in tears as she described an abusive childhood in which she was regularly beaten at home, treated as a slave by her parents, and raped and assaulted by Young and other older men on the island; she felt unable to tell anyone about these acts. Most of the rapes took place in secluded areas where she went to collect firewood (her chore); she could not tell her mother that she did not want to go, for fear of being beaten.


text: The woman said that at first, she had tried to object to the rapes. After a while, however, she had come to realize that there was nothing she could do about it: Young would simply carry on what he was doing. She concluded it was easier to submit. The woman said she had been too ashamed to tell anyone, even her schoolteacher, who was from New Zealand. In the twenty years between her departure from Pitcairn and her being interviewed by police, she had told nobody about the abuse that had gone on, not even her husband.


text: Another islander told the court that she had caught another of the seven defendants, who was then in his 30s, having an affair with her 13-year-old daughter. She had told him to leave her alone. Once, she had caught him trying to climb in through her daughter's window.


text: Defence lawyers representing the seven accused presented their final submissions on 21 October. Much of the day was dominated by the defence of Randy Christian, the 30-year-old son of Mayor Steve Christian. The younger Christian was accused of five rapes and seven indecent assaults against four women between 1988 and 1999. He was also alleged to have targeted a five- or seven-year-old girl from 1989 or 1991 onwards and to have abused her continuously over the following decade. He admitted to having sex with an under-age girl of 11 or 12.


text: Defence lawyer Allan Roberts claimed that Christian's relationship with the child had been consensual. The girl, who was 20 at the time of the trial, was the one who sparked off the police inquiry four years previously when she told her mother of the abuse she had suffered. Her mother in turn told Gail Cox, the visiting British police officer. That was the first the outside world knew of the prevalence of sexual abuse on Pitcairn. Roberts, however, produced love letters written by the girl before Christian left Pitcairn for Norfolk Island, to support his claim that she had been infatuated with Christian. According to Roberts, this infatuation continued after Christian left the island. He said that in her statement to police, she confessed to "having a crush on Randy even though he is no longer on the island."


text: He called her "a cold and cruel and vengeful liar who would stop at nothing to draw attention back to herself ... a woman scorned," whose complaint to the police was nothing other than revenge for his having abandoned her.


text: Public prosecutor Simon Moore rejected this defence, charging that Christian had exploited their ten-year age gap and his superior physical strength for his own advantage. While admitting that for a girl to have a crush on an older man was nothing out of the ordinary, and that there were few unattached young men available, Moore maintained that Christian had taken advantage of the girl's naivety, ignorance, and innocence. "He flattered her, he played her and he lured her into situations where he could do as he wished," Moore said. He added that, after reading a leaflet about sexual harassment distributed by Constable Cox, the girl had realized that Christian's treatment of her was unacceptable. The court was told that during the period in question, Christian had two girlfriends of legal age. One was a pest control officer who came to Pitcairn to rid the island of rats.


text: On 24 October 2004, the Pitcairn Supreme Court convicted six of the seven accused on 35 of the 55 charges. Only Jay Warren, the former Magistrate (1990–1999) was acquitted on all counts. See the "defendants" section below for details. Chief Justice Charles Blackie ridiculed Mayor Steve Christian's claim that his relationship with one of his victims had been consensual. "She was young, naive and vulnerable," Blackie said. "She was secreted into the bushes and there the accused took advantage of her. There had been no affection, kissing or romantic connection. She did not want it to happen."


text: The controversy over the trial continued. On 26 October 2004, prosecutor Simon Moore told Radio New Zealand that the charges and the verdicts were only the tip of the iceberg, accounting for only one-third of the cases police learned about when they began their investigations. He said that more charges were due to be laid involving people now living in Australia and New Zealand, but he declined to provide further details citing "extensive name suppression orders in place." Moore said that some of these victims had indicated an interest in returning to Pitcairn. But, they would have had to be satisfied that justice had been done and that the island was a safe place for their families.


text: Auckland lawyer Christopher Harder, who represented one of the accused, appealed for mercy in view of the social devastation he said would be caused by the imprisonment of most of the island's able-bodied men. He proposed that the men make a public apology and pay compensation to their victims, instead of facing imprisonment, which, he said, could mean the end of the microstate.


text: Professor John Connell of the University of Sydney said that if the men were imprisoned, they would have to be released temporarily whenever needed to man the longboat, without which the island could not connect with the outside world. "It would be a punishment for the whole community" if they were not, said the South Pacific scholar. Some islanders expressed fears that without the convicted men, there would not be enough who could handle the longboat. Others, less connected with the case, noted that the defendants had prevented other islanders from becoming more skilled at handling the boats. This was another example of the "power and control" problems which existed on the island. Public Defender Paul Dacre called on the court to impose sentences in keeping with the unique circumstances of the island society. "We are talking about 50 people living on a rock, not 50 million in England," he said.


text: Pending sentencing on 27 October, lawyers for the six convicted pleaded for clemency, arguing that it was essential for the survival of the dependency. Only two of the six expressed regret. Dennis Christian e-mailed his principal victim to apologize and expressed his "deep remorse," the court was told, and Dave Brown made a statement through his lawyer that he "regretted any distress caused." His father, Len Brown, refused to apologize for his own offences; his lawyer, Allan Roberts, told the court that to do so would be "fraudulent."


text: The Pitcairn Supreme Court handed down sentences tailored, said Chief Justice Charles Blackie, to the unique conditions of Pitcairn Island, on 29 October. Dennis Christian and Dave Brown were sentenced to community service, apparently in recognition of the remorse they had shown at the trial.


text: Mayor Steve Christian, Randy Christian, and Len Brown were all sentenced to prison terms ranging from two to six years. (See the defendants for details.) Elaborating on Chief Justice Blackie's statement, Bryan Nicholson of the British High Commission in New Zealand said, "The penalties were tailored to Pitcairn and take into account the unique isolation, population of less than 50, and the dependence of manpower." None of the sentences were carried out until 2006, pending a ruling by the Privy Council on the legal validity of British sovereignty and judicial authority on Pitcairn.


text: Bryan Nicolson, a spokesman for the British High Commission in New Zealand, announced on 30 October that Governor Richard Fell had formally dismissed Steve Christian from the mayoralty, and his son, Randy, from the chairmanship of the powerful Internal Committee. The dismissal followed Christian's refusal to resign when asked to do so by Deputy Governor Matthew Forbes. Christian's conviction and dismissal left the islanders with a power vacuum. On 8 November 2004, the Island Council named Christian's sister, Brenda, interim mayor pending elections scheduled for 15 December 2004. The position was won by Jay Warren.


text: Brian Michael John Young was found guilty in January 2007 of rape and indecent assault. In December, he was sentenced to six years and six months in prison. He was ordered to be transported to Pitcairn to serve out his sentence.


text: The six convicts began their appeal in the Pitcairn Supreme Court, in Papakura, New Zealand, on 18 April 2005. Defence lawyers argued that as Pitcairn's colonial rulers had never enforced British law, the six men convicted of sex crimes could not have known that their acts were illegal, a claim rejected as "extraordinary" by public prosecutor Simon Moore. If true, he said, Pitcairn had been "a zone of criminal immunity", an enclave where serious crimes could be committed with impunity. The proceedings were relayed live to the Adamstown courthouse, on Pitcairn, by a video linkup. About twenty locals, including the accused, watched the hearing.


text: Crown prosecutors produced numerous old documents to refute the defence that British law had never been enforced on Pitcairn, or that the Pitcairners had never known that they were subject to it. According to the documents, the islanders had, over a period of many years, sought British advice and intervention in cases related to adultery, abortion, kleptomania, attempted murder (including a 1936 case in which a husband and wife tried to kill each other), and the theft of women's underwear. Crown Prosecutor Simon Mount said the charges had been referred to British authorities because they were too serious to be dealt with locally, and proved that Pitcairners were fully aware of British law and of its applicability to them.


text: Betty Christian, the Island Secretary, broke ranks with many of her fellow Pitcairners, testifying at the Pitcairn Supreme Court hearing in Papakura that the islanders were aware that they were British subjects and that British law was applicable to them. She also flatly contradicted the defence that sexual activity at a young age was considered "normal" on Pitcairn, saying that Pitcairn's values were no different from those of any other modern society.


text: On 24 May 2005, the Auckland court rejected the appeal of the six convicted men. It carried over their bail until their further appeal could be heard by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, in 2006. Former Pitcairn resident Shawn Christian, 29, then living in Australia, announced a legal challenge to the validity of New Zealand lawyers' and judges' participation in a trial in a British colony on 27 November 2005. "They are saying it should have been English judges and English lawyers doing the trial," said New Zealand lawyer Fletcher Pilditch. Christian appeared to have the support of others awaiting trial. Shawn Christian, whose alleged offences (three rapes) are said to have happened between 1994 and 1996, is the younger son of former Mayor Steve Christian.


text: An additional appeal brought by the Public Defender was heard by the Court of Appeal on 31 January 2006. The basis of the appeal was the validity of the laws applied to the accused, with the defence arguing that British law had not been ratified on Pitcairn. "We are arguing whether the English legal system applies to these people. That is it in a nutshell," defence lawyer Allan Roberts said. The Pitcairn Court of Appeal dismissed this claim. Randall Christian's appeal against conviction of indecent assault of a girl aged under 13 was upheld, but that decision did not affect his sentence of six years on other charges. The men appealed to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London. The Privy Council terminated the appeal abruptly in July 2006, saying that the argument that Pitcairn has always been self-governing was unrealistic. The final appeals for all six men failed on 30 October 2006.


text: Another defendant, Shawn Christian, who was tried and convicted after being extradited to New Zealand, was elected mayor of Pitcairn in 2013.


text: As of March 2009 only one prisoner, Brian Young, was still being held in the island's prison, all the others having been granted home detention status. It was reported on 23 April 2009 that Brian Young had been released on house arrest having served just over two years of his original sentence of six and a half years. It is purported that the now empty prison will be turned into a guest house.


title: African sacred ibis

text: The African sacred ibis (Threskiornis aethiopicus) is a species of ibis, a wading bird of the family Threskiornithidae. It is native to much of Africa, as well as small parts of Iraq, Iran and Kuwait. It is especially known for its role in the religion of the Ancient Egyptians, where it was linked to the god Thoth. The species is currently extirpated from Egypt.


title: African sacred ibis

text: It is very closely related to the black-headed ibis and the Australian white ibis, with which it forms a superspecies complex, so much so that the three species are considered conspecific by some ornithologists. In mixed flocks these ibises often hybridise. The Australian white ibis is often called the sacred ibis colloquially.


title: African sacred ibis

text: Although known to the ancient civilisations of Greece, Rome and especially Africa, ibises were unfamiliar to western Europeans from the fall of Rome until the 19th century, and mentions of this bird in the ancient works of these civilisations were supposed to describe some type of curlew or other bird, and were thus translated as such. In 1758, Linnaeus was convinced that the ancient authors were describing a cattle egret ("Bubulcus ibis"), which he thus described as "Ardea ibis". Following the work of Mathurin Jacques Brisson, who calls it "Ibis candida" in 1760, in the 12th edition of his Systema Naturae of 1766 Linnaeus classifies it as "Tantalus ibis". These were also unfamiliar birds that did not occur in Europe at the time, in English in these times called the 'Egyptian ibis' by Latham, and the 'emseesy' or 'ox-bird' by George Shaw.


title: African sacred ibis

text: In 1790, John Latham provided the first unambiguous modern scientific description of the sacred ibis as "Tantalus aethiopicus", mentioning James Bruce of Kinnaird who called it 'abou hannes' in his writings describing his travels in Sudan and Ethiopia, and also described "Tantalus melanocephalus" of India.


title: African sacred ibis

text: In 1842, George Robert Gray reclassified the bird under the new genus "Threskiornis", because the type of the genus "Tantalus" was designated as to be the wood stork, also formerly known as the wood ibis or wood pelican, and Gray decided these birds could not be classified in the same genus.


title: African sacred ibis

text: In a comprehensive review of plumage patterns by Holyoak in 1970, it was noted that the three taxa were extremely similar and that the Australian birds resembled "Threskiornis aethiopicus" in adult plumage and "T. melanocephalus" in juvenile plumage, he thus proposed they all be considered part of a single species "T. aethiopicus". At the time this was generally accepted by the scientific community, however in 'The Birds of the Western Palearctic' compendium of 1977, Roselaar advocated splitting the group into 4 species, recognising "T. bernieri", based again on the then known geographical morphological differences.


title: African sacred ibis

text: In 1990, Sibley & Monroe, in the general reference 'Distribution and Taxonomy of Birds of the World' followed Roselaar in recognising four species, which they repeated in 'A World Checklist of Birds' of 1993.


title: African sacred ibis

text: This taxon being split from "T. melanocephalus" and "T. molucca" was further advocated by another morphological study by Lowe and Richards in 1991, where, like Holyoak, they looked at plumage again but used much more skins, but unlike him concluded that the differences were such to merit separate species status for the three taxa, especially as they could find no intergradation in morphological characters in possible contact zones in SE Asia. They also cite purported differences in courtship displays between the Australian and Asian birds. Based on these characteristics they recommended the Malagasy birds be considered a subspecies of "T. aethiopicus".


title: African sacred ibis

text: In 2003, Birdlife International elected to adopt the narrow taxonomic concept as advocated in Sibley & Monroe 1993.


title: African sacred ibis

text: An adult individual is long with all-white body plumage apart from dark plumes on the rump. Wingspan is and body weight . Males are generally slightly larger than females.


title: African sacred ibis

text: The bald head and neck, thick curved bill and legs are black. The white wings show a black rear border in flight. The eyes are brown with a dark red orbital ring. Sexes are similar, but juveniles have dirty white plumage, a smaller bill and some feathering on the neck, greenish-brown scapulars and more black on the primary coverts.


title: African sacred ibis

text: This bird is usually silent, but occasionally makes puppy-like yelping noises, unlike its vocal relative, the hadada ibis.


title: African sacred ibis

text: The sacred ibis breeds in Sub-Saharan Africa and southeastern Iraq. A number of populations are migrant with the rains; some of the South African birds migrate 1,500 km as far north as Zambia, the African birds north of the equator migrate in the opposite direction. The Iraqi population usually migrates to southwestern Iran, but wandering vagrants have been seen as far south as Oman (rare, but regular) and as far north as the Caspian coasts of Kazakhstan and Russia (before 1945).


title: African sacred ibis

text: It was formerly found in North Africa including Egypt, where it was commonly venerated and mummified as a votive offering to the god Thoth. For many centuries until the Roman period the main temples buried a few dozen of thousands of birds a year, and to sustain sufficient numbers for the demand for sacrifices by pilgrims from all over Egypt, it was for some time believed that ibis breeding farms (called "ibiotropheia" by Herodotus) existed. Aristotle mentions in c. 350 BC that many sacred ibises are found all over Egypt. Strabo, writing around 20 AD, mentions large amounts of the birds in the streets of Alexandria, where he was living at the time; picking through the trash, attacking provisions, and defiling everything with their dung. Pierre Belon notes the many ibises in Egypt during his travels there in the late 1540s (he thought they were an odd type of stork). Benoît de Maillet, in his "Description de l'Egypte" (1735) relates that at the turn of the 17th century, when the great caravans travelled yearly to Mecca, great clouds of ibises would follow them from Egypt for over a hundred leagues into the desert to feed on the dung left at the encampments. By 1850, however, the species had disappeared from Egypt both as a breeding and migrant population, with the last, albeit questionable, sighting in 1864. An examination of the genetic diversity among mummified ibises suggested that there was no reduction in genetic diversity as would be caused if they were bred in captivity and further studies on isotopes suggest that the birds were not just wild caught but came from a wide geographic range.


title: African sacred ibis

text: The species did not breed in southern Africa before the beginning of the 20th century, but it has benefited from irrigation, dams, and commercial agricultural practices such as dung heaps, carrion and refuse tips. It began to breed in the early 20th century, and in the 1970s the first colonies of ibises were recorded in Zimbabwe and South Africa. Its population for example expanded 2-3-fold during the period between 1972 and 1995 in Orange Free State. It is now found throughout southern Africa. The species is a common resident in most parts of South Africa. Local numbers are swollen in summer by individuals migrating southwards from the equator.


title: African sacred ibis

text: Elsewhere in Africa it occurs throughout the continent south of the Sahara, but it is largely absent in the deserts of southwestern Africa (i.e. the Namib, the Karoo, the Kalahari) and probably the rainforests of the Congo. In west Africa it is fairly uncommon across the Sahel, except for the major floodplain systems. It can commonly found breeding along the Niger, in the Inner Niger Delta of Mali, the Logone of C.A.R., Lac Fitri in Chad, the Saloum Delta of Senegal, and other localities in relatively small numbers such as in The Gambia. It is common across eastern Africa and southern Africa. Large numbers can be found in the Sudd swamps and Lake Kundi in Sudan in the dry season. It is fairly widespread along the upper Nile River, and is quite common around Mogadishu, Somalia. In Tanzania there are a number of sites with 500 to 1,000+ birds, totalling some 20,000 birds.


title: African sacred ibis

text: The bird is also native to Yemen; in 2003 it bred in large numbers on small islands near Haramous and along the Red Sea coast near Hodeidah and Aden, where it was often found at waste-water treatment plants. It has been recorded nesting on a shipwreck in the Red Sea. It is also seen as a vagrant on Socotra.


title: African sacred ibis

text: With the Yemen Civil War and famine, there have been no new census reports on the species in Yemen, though an estimate of approximately 30 mature individuals was given in 2015.


title: African sacred ibis

text: The species was fairly common in Iraq in the first half of the 20th century, but by the late 1960s it had become very scarce, with the population thought to number no more than 200 birds. The population was thought to have suffered greatly during the draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes of southeastern Iraq starting in the late 1980s, and feared to have disappeared entirely, but it has continuously been observed breeding in a colony in the Hawizeh Marshes (a part of the Mesopotamian Marshes) as of 2008, numbering up to 27 adults. It is also native to Kuwait, where it occurs as an extremely rare migrant, with only two known sightings, the last being a flock of 17 in 2007.


title: African sacred ibis

text: There are no records of the bird in Iran before the 1970s, however small numbers were found overwintering in Khuzestan in 1970. Since the 1990s numbers appear to have slowly increased to a few dozen.


title: African sacred ibis

text: The first African sacred ibises brought to Europe were two imported from Egypt to France in the mid-1700s. In the 1800s the first escapes were sighted in Europe (in Austria, Italy). In the 1970s it became fashionable for many zoos in Europe and elsewhere to keep their birds in free-flying colonies, which were allowed to forage in the area but would return to roost in the zoo every day. As such feral populations were established in Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, the Canary Islands, Florida, Taiwan, the United Arab Emirates and possibly Bahrain.


title: African sacred ibis

text: Some studies indicate that the introduced populations in Europe have significant economic and ecological impacts, while others suggest that they constitute no substantial threat to native European bird species.


title: African sacred ibis

text: In Europe, the African sacred ibis is included since 2016 in the list of Invasive Alien Species of Union concern (the Union list). This implies that this species cannot be imported, bred, transported, commercialized, or intentionally released into the environment in the whole of the European Union.


title: African sacred ibis

text: In France the African sacred ibises have become established along its Atlantic coast following the feral breeding of birds which were the offspring of a large free-flying population originating from the Branféré Zoological Gardens in southern Brittany. The first successful breeding was in 1993 at two sites, the Golfe du Morbihan and Lac de Grand-Lieu, and respectively from Branféré. By 2005 the Atlantic French breeding population was estimated at 1,100 pairs and winter censuses led to an estimated total population of up to 3,000 birds. A separate population originated from a zoo at Sigean on the Mediterranean coast of France and by 2005 the colony at the Étang de Bages-Sigean was estimated at 250 pairs. A cull was begun and by 2011 the population had fallen to 560–600 pairs. By January 2017 the eradication programme had lowered the number of birds in roosts in western France to 300–500 birds and the Lac de Grand-Lieu was the only regular breeding site in the region; as the programme has progressed the birds have become warier and the reduced numbers mean the effort and cost per bird has increased and complete eradication may never be achieved. The population near Sigean was eradicated by killing and capturing the birds with only a few remaining in the Camargue.


title: African sacred ibis

text: This species is not considered established in mainland Spain. The Barcelona Zoo kept a small free-flying population which bred in the zoo and at least once in 1974 in the surrounding city park. Between 1983 and 1985 they had increased to 18 birds, but these subsequently declined to 4–6 pairs in the 1990s and the birds were permanently caged by the end of the 1990s (the zoo still has some). In 2001 the remaining birds in the surroundings were culled, thus ending the occurrence of the species in the 'wild' in the area. However, in the early 2000s vagrants most probably from France were recorded in northern Catalonia, and sporadic observations throughout the year have been recorded since then along the Mediterranean and Cantabrian coasts. There were a total of about twenty approved records of sightings between 1994 and 2004. As of 2009, birds entering Spain from France are shot.


title: African sacred ibis

text: The population in Italy may have been introduced from the zoo Le Cornelle which has kept a free-flying group since the early 1980s, or possibly from Brittany, but this is unclear. The first pair was seen breeding in the nearby heronry at Oldenico, in Lame del Sesia Regional Park in Novara, NW Italy, in 1989. By 1998 there was a colony of 9 pairs and 48 birds there; by 2000 there were 24–26 pairs, and by 2003 there were 25–30 breeding pairs. A second colony appeared in 2004 at another nearby heronry at Casalbeltrame. These birds would mostly feed in the rice fields in the area, but would also migrate elsewhere during the summer, with the population at the roosts increasing in the winter. In 2008, the number of breeding ibis was estimated at 80–100 pairs, and at least 300 birds. That same year, six individuals, consisting of three pairs, were observed roosting at a heronry in Casaleggio. By 2009 they were said to be one of the most characteristic animals of the rice-growing area of Novara and Vercellese. In 2010 the species was reported attempting to breed in the Po Delta, northeast Italy. By 2014 reports of individuals and small flocks were recorded in various areas from the Po Valley down to Tuscany. Outside the Piedmont Region, cases of possible nesting are reported in Emilia-Romagna, Veneto and Lombardy. As of 2017 there do not seem to be coordinated control efforts in Italy.


title: African sacred ibis

text: In the Netherlands, sacred ibises were introduced from three sources; primarily from the free-flying flock at the aviary zoo Avifauna, and another group of 11 birds which escaped from a private bird trader in Weert when a tree fell on their enclosure sometime between 1998 and 2000 which would all return to their cage each winter. Furthermore, in 2000 a group of sacred ibises escaped from a zoo near Münster, some of which apparently crossed the border into Overijssel, as the colours of their rings closely matched. The free-flying Avifauna flock numbered 12 in 2001, 30 in 2003, and an estimated maximum of 41 birds escaped the zoo eventually. There had been sightings throughout the country for many years, but in 2002 successful breeding was first reported in a nature reserve some 40 km from Avifauna.


title: African sacred ibis

text: By 2007 the feral population in the Netherlands had increased to 15 pairs breeding at three locations, including in a tree just outside the zoo. Pairs would regularly move from the zoo to the nature reserve in the summer and vice versa. The next year, in 2008, the tree outside the zoo was cut down, and free-flying birds were recaptured, clipped and caged. 2008/2009 was also a cold winter and many birds died. By 2009 37 birds had been recaptured and by 2010 there were no more birds breeding in the wild. The birds in Weert were halved in number after the 2008–2009 winter and had disappeared somewhere between 2011 and 2015. As of 2016 a few birds survive, some still attempting to breed in Overijssel, and handful sightings of less than three reported. Possible vagrants from France have also been noted (by their rings) after 2010.


title: African sacred ibis

text: The sacred ibis is not considered invasive on the Canary Islands. It is kept in zoos on Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, two of which kept their collections free-flying. In 1989, the first ibis was seen in the wild. In 1997, the first pair was seen breeding outside a zoo, the population reached a maximum of 5 pairs between then and 2005, and 30 pairs is given by Clergeau & Yésou in 2006 (though this last number is untrustworthy). The birds are divided between the islands Lanzarote (near Arrecife in an old heron colony) and Fuerteventura (in the zoo near La Lajita but free-flying). On both islands, these birds have remained very near to the zoos. The breeding is 'controlled'. There is disagreement regarding the origin of other records, especially during the migratory period. Ibises have been seen on all four of the islands where there are zoos that keep them.