Mole catcher Peter sees some light in his fight

Reporter: Janice Barker
Date online: 09 March 2010

AN Oldham mole catcher has won a first battle in his David and Goliath fight with European Union rules.

Peter Brown, from Shaw, petitioned European bosses claiming that the ban on strychnine poisoning of moles has ruined his business and is unlawful. And now the Petitions Committee has told him his claim is going to be investigated.

The letter arrived yesterday but it will not stop Mr Brown once again staging a one man demonstration outside Euro-MP Chris Davies’s office in Stockport tomorrow.

Mr Brown’s long campaign against the ban has so far failed and his more recent attempts to seek compensation for losing his livelihood have also met no success.

But he is determined to succeed and will stage the protest outside Mr Davies’s office because of the North-West Liberal Democrat Euro-MP’s support for the ban.

Already Mr Brown’s appeal to the EU Ombudsman has been turned down.

But he is not giving up and has petitioned the European Commission for help.

He says the banning of strychnine poison in 2006 by a European Directive has destroyed his one-man business clearing moles for farmers.

No manufacturer was willing to pay millions of euros to provide scientific data supporting strychnine’s continued use and he says other methods, such as trapping and gassing, are too time-consuming and can leave the moles in agony.

He also says the European Union’s own study into the impact of the directive was flawed, because small companies and farmers were excluded from consultations.

The letter from the Petitions Committee says his complaint falls in the “severe” category and it has asked the European Commission to conduct a preliminary investigation into “aspects of the problem”.

The UK Independence Party is supporting Mr Brown, and he has also been invited to travel to the EU in Brussels by North-West Tory MEP Sir Robert Atkins.