A reward of £1,000 has been offered to anyone with information about a buzzard which was found with horrific leg injuries.
The bird was found, alive, on 21st January 2015 on the Sledmere Estate in Yorkshire. One of its feet was missing, causing Humberside Police and the RSPB to suspect it was a victim of illegal trapping.
The leg damage was so severe the buzzard had to be euthanised.
Bob Elliot, RSPB’s Head of Investigations said: “Setting spring traps in the open is a criminal practice, which harms birds of prey in the most horrible way. These devices are the raptor equivalent of a land mine – deadly and indiscriminate. I would urge anyone with information about this incident to contact the police immediately“.
This bird was initially taken to Jean Thorpe’s Ryedale Rescue facility – we recently blogged about Jean’s work (here) and mentioned that she was fundraising to help support her efforts in this raptor persecution blackspot – you can still donate HERE.
RSPB press release here
ITV news article here
Raptor Persecution UK 
Thankyou for highlighting this horrific injury to one of our wild birds of prey.
I despair sometimes as this is not the only bird of prey found dead or dying at Sledmere.
Bastards !!!
What a terrible thing to happen to any bird, these people deserve to be severely dealt with, reminds me of a buzzard I found about 5 years ago, it was still flying but only just, I caught it carried it back miles to my car and took it to a wildlife hospital in Cumbria, it had a shotgun pellet lodged in its forehead, luckily it did survive.killing buzzards seems to be an almost accepted thing by a lot of people.
drop the almost,
Mankind, in particular shooting estates owners and their gamekeepers, are by far the most bloodthirsty and cruel animals on the planet. They have the audacity to call certain wildlife vermin!
Seems to be a lot of this type of persecution recently
No, it’s always been very bad for wildlife, especially so-called protected Raptors, it’s just that now there are more and more people out there, roaming about in what was once their exclusive private domains. People are now observing first hand some of the illegal and downright disgusting things they get up to, having said that, it’s just the very small tip of a very large iceberg of illegal wildlife killing that is actually found and reported !!!
Sorry – I meant the way this bird was injured
Buzzards are the only bird of prey I see on anything like a regular basis, I wonder for how much longer?
Pure evil. It brings on a bad taste to the mouth.
I do no what you are all waiting for. The answer is out there in the form of a great host of environmentalists, conservationists, animal welfarists, so just add a suffix “ISTAS” and you have the general idea what is needed in this country! A revolution to clear this keech from dominating our landscape, who have enforced their ways for far too long, and indeed everywhere else in the world where people of their frame of mind have gained control.
Programme on Sky last week about the conservation of the Lynx in Spain. The usual mob were making its survival tough with their laying down of poisoned bait and snares. There was also the removal of eggs from raptors and vultures. However, wildlife rangers were doing a good job trying to prevent such crimes.
African wildlife is being blootered with trophy shooting, poaching, ranches supplying the exotic meat trade with a company right here in Scotland being the main supplier of Zebra, Ostrich, Wildebeeste etc meats, and the removal of tribal peoples from their traditional lands to make way for shooting estates for rich Middle East, USA and European hunters. Scotland is part of a great world wide killing spree and it is centred in those at the top, and that is why we have made little progress here. We need a more informed and inspired political class, as what we have got is lacklustre, and have conned us with investigations and reports, which have really got us nowhere controlling the shooting estates and their minions. Who or What is going to cut the Gordian Knot and free people of our humane frame of mind, to get action?