Today is the inglorious 12th, the start of the four-month grouse shooting season in the uplands of northern England and Scotland. Today, and for many days to come, ridiculously rich people will dress up in clownish outfits and head for the moors in the hope of shooting dead some birds. Many will pay an estimated average of £15,000 for the experience. I wonder how many of them will enjoy the sight of a hunting hen harrier or a golden eagle quartering across the moor? Very few, infact probably none of them because scientific evidence shows that hen harriers and golden eagles have been exterminated on most grouse moors in the UK, with just a few notable exceptions. Has anyone been convicted? One person was once convicted for killing a hen harrier, and that’s it. Nobody has ever been convicted for killing a golden eagle (someone was once taken to court a few years back but the case was dropped). Even though several dead eagles and the UK’s biggest stash of the poison they died from were all found on a sporting estate last year, still nobody has ever been convicted.
Four years ago today, this golden eagle (pictured) was found dead in Peebleshire. She was one half of the last breeding pair of golden eagles in the Borders. She had been poisoned by the banned pesticide Carbofuran and was found dead under her nest tree. Her death caused outrage and triggered the thematic inspection into the prevention, investigation and prosecution of wildlife crime in Scotland (read the resulting 2008 ‘Natural Justice’ report here). This report highlighted the problems that stand in the way of effective wildlife crime law enforcement in Scotland. Four years later, many of the same problems still exist. Nobody has been charged with the illegal killing of that female golden eagle in Peebleshire and according to a report by the Wildlife Incident Investigation Scheme, the case is now closed.
Since the year she was killed (2007), how many other protected raptors have suffered the same fate? The following have all been confirmed poisoned in Scotland over the last four years – the vast majority of them were found dead on grouse moors:
8 golden eagles, 3 sea eagles, 63 buzzards, 25 red kites and 8 peregrines.
These numbers do not account for birds that were trapped, shot, or had their heads smashed in with a shinty stick while their broken legs were pinned in an illegal spring trap. Nor do they account for the ‘missing’ birds – including over 2,000 hen harriers.
Today, the grouse-shooting industry will have filled the media with stories about how ‘great’ grouse moors are for conservation, how ‘great’ grouse shooting is for the economy, how ‘great’ grouse-shooting is for biodiversity. Fortunately, the general public are becoming wise to the propaganda.
Raptor Persecution UK 
Pity the national press won’t publish an article like this, but then I doubt they would dare. Or would they, I dare them to do it !!!
nirofo.
If these were true facts, then the national press WOULD have published an artial like this!
Welcome Robin. Perhaps you’d like to expand by explaining which of the facts you think are untrue?
What’s the truth got to do with it when it comes to the press, you only have to look in the “Shooting Times” to see the rubbish that’s put out about our indiginous birds of prey and the effect they’re having on the introduced or pampered game birds and how they are systematically wiping out our song birds. You all know the real truth, why won’t you admit it instead of trying to hoodwink the general public into believing you’re the saviours of the countryside.
nirofo.
Thanks,
“ridiculously rich people will dress up in clownish outfits and head for the moors in the hope of shooting dead some birds. Many will pay an estimated average of £15,000 for the experience”
I’m not ‘rich’, have never dressed as a clown and never paid anywhere near your estimated average of £15,000…
“These numbers do not account for birds that were trapped, shot, or had their heads smashed in with a shinty stick while their broken legs were pinned in an illegal spring trap. Nor do they account for the ‘missing’ birds – including over 2,000 hen harriers.”
Where are the shot, trapped birds? How can you lay the blame for ‘missing’ birds at the feet of the grouse shooting industry? The birds are missing so therefore you have no proof they have come to any harm, and if they have, who caused them harm….
Sorry, but your accusations seem a bit empty…
Thanks Robin. You’ve got me on the clownish outfits – it was a gratuitous comment although one that I stand by – to me, the outfits are clownish. The estimated average of £15,000 was a direct quote from Robert Rattray, a partner at the sporting agency CKD Galbraith, reported in many national newspapers yesterday (google it and see). This figure is actually quite generous. According to a press release put out this week by the Scottish Land and Estates organisation, ‘shooting enthusiasts pay up to £70,000 to shoot on Scotland’s moors’: http://www.scottishlandandestates.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=389:chefs-toast-the-golden-grouse-on-the-glorious-twelfth&catid=71:national&Itemid=107
I assume these figures are bandied about to impress upon the general public just how important grouse shooting is to the economy. From what you say though, these figures are inflated and untrue, so perhaps grouse shooting isn’t any more important to the economy than say wildlife tourism?
To find details of the confirmed shot and trapped birds, please see earlier postings on this blog. Each incident is supported by documentary evidence, often in the form of a police press statement either before or after a conviction. Are you saying that the police or other reporting agencies tell lies?
Re: the missing 2000+ hen harriers. If you look at the species’ distribution and compare this with a map of grouse moors, you’ll see a direct correlation between areas where harriers are missing and those that are managed as grouse moors. Who else, if not the grouse shooting industry, do you think is involved with causing these gaps in the distribution? A rogue element of the Ramblers Association?
I notice you didn’t argue with the facts I gave about the number of confirmed poisoned raptors discovered over the last four-year period. The majority of these (although not all) were found on grouse moors. Why should anyone believe that hen harriers are not included in this illegal carnage?