Today’s Daily Telegraph newspaper (Sat 12/03/2011) carries the story of wealthy heiress Sigrid Rausing, the owner of Coignafearn Estate in the Monadhliath mountains, who accuses lairds and their gamekeepers of killing golden eagles in Scotland because they believe it is a “victimless crime”.
In an intelligent and well informed attack on Victorian attitudes to land ownership and management, Dr Rausing told The Daily Telegraph that many owners of sporting estates took the view that “they own the land, and no one has the right to interfere”. She went on to say, ” On the other hand most landowners are in receipt of quite substantial grants. There is no reason why the public should pay grants to landowners whose philosophy of land management is hostile to the whole idea that the public has a right to intervene.”
Sigrid Rausing, a philanthropist and publisher who is the daughter of Hans Rausing, the Swedish billionaire whose father built the Tetra Pak packaging empire, is a breath of fresh air in Scottish highland estate ownership. When she took over the estate one of her first actions was to ban the estate keepers from killing raptors and introduce policies at Coignafearn to incorporate a “traditional model of a sporting estate within a conservation model” to prove it is possible to “transcend the hostility between the two ways of viewing land ownership.”
Dr Rausing certainly has not let the grass grow under her feet since she has taken over at Coignafearn as far as encouraging eagles is concerned. Four artificial golden eagle eyries have been built in locations where the birds used to breed and two have been “built up” by immature eagles, but so far no breeding pair has returned. Dr Rausing has stated the most likely reason is that “individuals have flown over the estate boundary and been killed on other estates”. She added: “The food supply and habitat on Coignafearn is excellent for eagles, with plenty of red grouse, blue hares and red deer grallochs. We also protect blue hares on the estate. At any one time, probably up to ten to 12 juvenile, immature and sub-adult golden eagles might be present on the estate.”
Sigrid Rausing, we applaud your enlightened attitude and congratulate you on your actions to encourage a truly balanced habitat on your estate .
Telegraph article here – http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scotland/8376111/Tetra-Pak-heiress-accuses-lairds-of-killing-golden-eagles.html
Raptor Persecution UK 
A few more like her, especially in the Monadhliaths and similar areas where there are suitable territories and plenty of food for raptors, then we might start to see a change for the better. I said might, unfortunately for everyone like her there are 20 or more who would rather see all the Raptors put to death with any means at their disposal.
nirofo.
What an amazing woman – also very brave, speaking out in public despite who her near neighbours are. I heard the ‘official’ 2010 persecution map will be published next week and I bet there’ll be a big red dot not very far from her estate.
What’s betting the ‘official’ 2010 persecution map misses the real targets by a mile, doesn’t name estates or owners and only lists a small fraction of the locations where illegal Raptor persecution is rampant.
nirofo.