A fascinating article has appeared on the Shooting Times website today, written by regular columnist Lindsay Waddell, who also just happens to be the Chairman of the National Gamekeepers’ Organisation.
His opening words are these:
“Protection of predators and persecution of sporting estates are bad for birdlife“.
His rationale for this statement appears to be that there are no takers for the lease of what he calls a ‘prestigious moor’ (hmm, wonder what makes it a ‘prestigious’ moor?) and that soon it may be lost to conifer plantation and wind turbines, and all of this is due to the ‘relentless persecution of estate owners and those employed as gamekeepers‘.
What he doesn’t say is how he defines ‘the relentless persecution’ of estate owners and gamekeepers. Is he defining media reports as ‘persecution’? Perhaps he thinks that any publicity about the discovery of a poisoned golden eagle on a sporting estate with a long history of similar incidents is ‘persecution’ of the estate owner? Or maybe he thinks that the publication of video footage showing a gamekeeper bludgeoning buzzards to death with a fence post is ‘persecution’ of the gamekeeper? Or perhaps any commentary about yet another gamekeeper being charged with yet another alleged wildlife crime is ‘persecution’ of the gamekeeping industry?
Ironically, he goes on to suggest that had this level of ‘persecution’ been directed at any other group of workers, they would have had some form of legal redress available! Funny that – we have long argued that had any other group of workers been caught carrying out the type of sustained & widespread criminality that is regularly taking place on some sporting estates, the criminals would have been locked up a long time ago and the ‘business’ forced to close.
What Lindsay fails to grasp, even though it’s really not that hard, is that if the illegal killing of raptors, by many gamekeepers on many sporting estates, would stop, then the game-shooting industry may be viewed a lot more favourably than it is now. Unfortunately, the illegal killing continues, and organisations like the National Gamekeepers’ Organisation don’t help matters when they refuse to expel members who have been convicted of wildlife crimes (e.g. see here).
There’s some other guff at the end of his article about how predators are apparently eating all the prey and the conservation agencies should stop protecting predators blah blah blah….
In the meantime, watch this space for some more reports about dead raptors that have been discovered on sporting estates up and down the country having been poisoned/shot/trapped/bludgeoned…reports that the game-shooting industry would rather you didn’t know about.
Shooting Times article here
Raptor Persecution UK 
Sounds rather like saying that exposing crime is bad for criminals.
Reblogged this on Brittius.com.
I used to think that Lindsay was at the intelligent end of the keepering spectrum, unfortunately he seems to have fallen foul of “Hogwash.” Shooting estates and their employees are quite clearly not being persecuted, conservationists are quite legitimately demanding that the widespread illegal killing of protected predators stops, were that to happen, whilst there would still be some management issues to solve, much of the so called pressure would stop. Vicarious liability, something that Scotland has and we in England would like is an attempt to bring to book or dissuade the commissioners of the persecution to stop. As to predators destroying their food sources it is utter crap (go read some proper ecology Lindsay try some Ian Newton !.) The North Pennine and Bowland SPAs are notified for breeding Hen Harrier neither contain any, the NP SPA is also designated for breeding Peregrine yet none are successful within it. That is the real and shocking truth of it plus the rapid disappearance of Short Eared Owls, Goshawks and Eagles from sporting estates. If as Lindsay claims an estate tenancy is wanting of a tenant because of VL then surely that is tantamount to an admission that without raptor persecution driven grouse shooting is untenable. May be that’s why they are really feeling the pressure and coming out with this nonsense.
“The Government and its agencies should stop giving grants and aid to any conservation body which cannot show that its management is doing what it should be, which is, quite simply, producing more recruits into bird populations than are being taken out.”
This is the bit that grabs my attention and surely one of the biggest hypocrisies of the year! Surely the same should apply to any land owner! I don’t see many recruits to the harrier population this year?
Showing their true colours. That at least, is great.
Yeah. Nasty Predators, they don’t deserve our protection. Like all creatures that savagely hunt down and kill other creatures for their own personal gratification…..
Typical nonsense from the Shooting TImes – opionated baseless rubbish, I’ve never once read an article in it by any raptor expert thats qualified in the field. Their insight into the issue rarely extends beyond quoting the usual guff from the likes of the SGA.
This man has been in the game long enough that he must know the true extent of the killing and still he talks about “persecution” of the killers. All credibility as a mediator long gone.
Have they ever considered that persecution of wildlife, (including Raptors) is bad for wildlife. The one thing that would help preserve wildlife throughout the UK is the reduction in the prevalent illegal wildlife persecution that takes place on nearly all the so-called sporting estates.
Usual garbage, before social media no one could put up a reasonable argument, now thanks to it people are beginning to realise just how ridiculous and hypocritical these statements are when they see the other side of the coin. He refers to the Pine Marten and the Capercaillie
“It has already been shown that the pine marten is a major predator of the capercaillie, but what is being done to redress the balance? “
Yet fails to mention that Scottish Land Owners wont allow Deer to be culled so that the fences protecting the forests can be removed, (a major cause of Capercaillie mortality) because they make money from stalking.
He harks on about the benefits of predator control, the same edition of the lads mag had an article on how to attract more woodpeckers on your shoot, erm has no one ever told them woodpeckers eat young birds, the same birds they claim are disappearing due to Raptors.
“My guess is that if it were any other group of workers who had been treated in this manner then they would have some form of legal redress available”
No, you’d probably be surprised to know that any other business that routinely flouted the law in this manner would have been closed down long ago, your living in a different era. Instead of fronting up to his responsibilities as a leader of an organisation and trying to drag it out of the Victorian era it is so clearly stuck in and set about modernising his industry, he pulls the victim card and continues preaching the same old shite about how everyone owes them a debt of gratitude for saving the countryside from itself