It would appear there’s more to Buzzardgate #2 than first meets the eye.
Apart from the scandalous decision by Natural England (acting on behalf of DEFRA) to issue a licence to a gamekeeper to destroy the nests and eggs of a native species (buzzard) to protect a non-native species bred for sport shooting (pheasant) (see here for previous blog entry on this), further information has come to light.
At this stage we are unwilling to publish the information or reveal how the information can be found. We are seeking legal advice and will come back to the subject if we’re able once the legalities have been clarified.
In the meantime, we would like to ask two important questions, one of Natural England (who worked with this gamekeeper over a period of years and subsequently issued his licence), and one of the National Gamekeepers Organisation (who submitted the licence application on behalf of one of their members). We would encourage blog readers to also ask these questions as we believe they are of public interest:
1. To Janette Ward (janette.ward@naturalengland.org.uk), Director of Regulation at Natural England, who endorsed the issue of this licence:
Question: Did this gamekeeper have an un-spent work-related conviction at the time of his application?
2. To Lindsay Waddell (info@nationalgamekeepers.org.uk), Chairman of the National Gamekeepers Organisation:
Question: Bearing in mind the NGO’s published Disciplinary Procedure (see here), did this gamekeeper have an un-spent work-related conviction at the time of his application and has he ever been suspended or expelled as a member of the National Gamekeepers Organisation?
Raptor Persecution UK 
Reblogged this on pictishbeastie.
Surely there must be an audit trail of the years of working with the keeper? There must be a record of the site visits, letters full of advice and internal e-mail exchanges. A FOI request…even if they decide to redact the names and places…would be very informative.
Does anyone know if the RSPB are doing anything about this? One million plus members could do a lot!
PS. e-mails sent!
[Ed: Thanks!]
If what seems to be being alleged here is true…and I can see why you are being careful on legal grounds..then it confirms what we have always thought – that certain organisations don’t see crimes against wildlife by gamekeepers as anything other than a temporary nuisance, until they get round the legalities by licensing those crimes.
[Ed: we’re definitely not making any allegations. We’re simply posing reasonable & legitimate questions that we believe are in the public interest. We’ll comment further when we hear what NE & NGO have to say].
Nothing would surprise me – the whole case stinks to high heaven. The likes of the RSPB etc. should use this whole episode to put manners on the like of NE, NGA etc. and bury once for all the possibility of DEFRA or anyone else further undermining both EU and UK bird protection laws on behalf of those who still think the world is flat when it comes to raptors.
I too find the practice of illegal persecution abhorrent, but despite the strong feelings promoted by the nest destruction, we must look at both sides of the argument. In many if not most areas of Britain populations of ground nesting birds and others have remarkably decreased in recent years. While obviously this is due to many factors such as loss of habitat and predation by foxes, feral cats etc, I know from both personal experience and by reading scientific studies by the GWCT that the high density of buzzards (and other raptors) has had a massive impact. While I am not condoning any raptor persecution, “Jimmy” could do well to remember that the world is indeed not flat when it comes to raptors, and the protection of one species ie raptors to the detrement of any other species such as grey partridge, plover etc is as much a blinkered view as those who illegally persecute birds of prey
What studies are these?? – Have U ever been to Eastern Europe where raptor numbers and species are far higher than most of the UK??. Grey Partridge, Quail, and many wader populations are far healthier too in these countries compared to here. You will also notice that the numbers of crows and foxes are much lower thanks to a balance ecosystem where raptors fulfill their roles as top predators just the same as Lions, Tigers etc.
Bumble bee, butterfly numbers have also plummeted in the UK – are raptors responsible for that too?
97% of our wildflower meadows have been lost since the 30’s = massive decline in the availiable food and habitat for farmland birds, not to mention the millions of litres of pesticide used in the countryside. Of course its convienent for the pheasant botherers to blame all this on evil “raptors” for their own ends
You mention Plovers and Grey Partridge, Golden Plover are still being shot for sport despite their numbers falling, Lapwing nests and Partridge nests are plundered by corvids or ploughed in every year by the farmers, despite their numbers falling grey partridge are still being shot for sport. Here’s a solution, leave the buzzards alone, they eat young crows and magpies and chase the adults off there territories in spring, they’ll reduce corvid numbers for you. They do the same to sparrow hawks, they see them as competition, they’ll reduce sparrow hawk numbers too, that will help the songbird numbers shooting men always seem so worried about. If the buzzards are getting too common, its because gamekeepers eradicated its main predator, the Goshawk. The Goshawk top trumps the buzzard, it see’s them as competition, the same is true of Peregrines and Ravens, if the gamekeepers would leave the Golden Eagles alone they would reduce the numbers of these smaller predatory birds too. The proof I have of this being so is millions of years of evolution, the proof your offering is scant pickings plucked from the pages of shooting times magazine, the sunday sport more reputable journalists working for them than shooting times. The problem as I see it is caused by ignorance, gamekeepers used to kill any predatory animal or bird and hang them up for the boss to show him they were doing their job well. It was expected of them. A lot of gamekeepers today are aged 60 plus and were brought up when this was still partially acceptable, they cant change their spots. Many who own Pheasant and Grouse shoots are money folk from the cities who are totally clueless about wildlife, but they know how to make money. The problem with them though is if they made a thousand pounds from their shoot they’d be unhappy they hadn’t made two thousand pounds, your dealing with the needy greedy. These people are worlds apart from normal shooting folk, yet they continue to drag them down with their blatant disregard of the law. Finally a couple of questions for you, when you’ve come off a pheasant/grouse shoot on a decent day, have you ever heard anyone say I wish we’d shot more? How is it we can wrap whole buildings in cheap plastic netting when were doing construction work on them, whole orchards in netting to prevent damage by birds, large areas of lakes in netting to protect fish stocks from predators, zoo’s can construct massive aviaries to house exotic species yet gamekeepers and shoot managers cant cover a release pen to protect their stock, preferring instead to persecute predators because they always have done and it’s the easy way out
http://www.shootingtimes.co.uk/news/538610/Buzzard_control_licence_issued.html
The gamekeeper in question certainly had some interesting things to say on the subject of wildlife crime
Yep tory policy….we are all in this together.
There are so many admissions in this ST articles!
What surprises me is that the complaint related to losses after release….and that the losses included wild grey partridge. Raptors can no longer eat wild prey.
Well, I received a reply from Natural England, stating that they are not going to release the information and providing a link to a PDF file on their website. I must also add that this page has only been added to the website today, possibly as a result from the plethora of requests from people enraged by the decision.
Anyway, the link to the page is http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/Images/2018_response_RD_tcm6-36002.pdf for anyone that wants a read, but there really is a sinister side to all of this. With the information provided in this PDF, I am quite happy to believe that this gamekeeper does indeed have a criminal record, and this record clearly involves work-related crime. If he didn’t have a record for wildlife-related offences, then Natural England would simply say so, but instead we have this subterfuge as they try to enforce a cover-up. And why refuse to release any information on this gamekeeper’s criminal activities considering he is unnamed? It really does stink of corruption from the top down and I truly hope the RSPB are in a position to take this further in a court of law.
Still haven’t heard anything from the National Gamekeepers Organisation. I wonder why?