No chance

I think 20 a tail is not wholly unreasonable.Traps cost between 40 and 60 and taking your time into checking and moving traps nobody's making money out of this.Setting aside 2 million a year for tails for 3 years is small money if you see where government grants are concerned.

Eventually they will have to deal with the mink problem and if you look across the sea at UK they sometimes spend huge amounts hiring in companies on their rspb sites.

I think in new Zealand's case they have a population that look upon their native flora and fauna as unique and worth saving.We have a population that freaks out when a few deer are culled in the phoenix park and god help anyone who suggests ridding grey squirrel from Ireland or sika for that matter.

I'm in Kildare and gun clubs are getting smaller and older,fox shooting around here used to be a thing,not anymore very few do it.I agree that clubs with active members are doing their bit.I just think a few euro might get some young lads interested, maybe not but might be worth a go.With regards eradication I'd say we'll never see that unless some disease like RHD for mink appears.

Ive got some footage myself this year on trail cams. What I've noticed is that, where otter and pine marten are present , mink were present, but didn't stay out of the water for long. It's as If the presence of otter, and maybe even marten, left the mink uneasy, so maybe as you've said, the mink are spending more time on the drains and ditches.

Yeah loads of lads I'd say are in no gun clubs and I myself am not as I'm not really interested in pheasant shooting and am not stuck for land.If we could get non shooters involved to do a bit of conservation it would be great but we'll always struggle to convince them when the outcome for the animal is death even though removing it in turn is helping the native wildlife.

If you look at our government bodies detailed with looking after our wildlife the curlew birds fate is a great example.They hire people just before nesting season to protect nests from ground and flying predators till just at the end of fledgling season which is pointless.They should hire people all year to heavily hit certain nesting sites 365 days with no let up.But it seems for either lack of money or looking bad they only offer short contacts that suits nobody.

Off topic really but government bodies really need to talk to people on the ground instead of well meaning people who are stuck in what they read is best practice which in theory is usually next to useless.

Sounds like the usual ."Somthing must be done,but we have no money for the people that are doing it anyway off their own bat".Excuse from Noonan.