The following words and images are from Jean Thorpe, a lady who runs Ryedale Wildlife Rehabilitation in North Yorkshire:
“Juvenile buzzard found at Westerdale, North Yorkshire grouse moors [in the North York Moors National Park], with a leg missing. Put to sleep, x-rayed, shotgun shot in the leg. This young bird barely out of the nest was targeted and maimed by shooting and caught in a Fenn trap. The bird had frantically tried to get free, badly abrading its flight and tail feathers, the leg was trapped at the joint and the bird was freed after severing its leg from the trap at the joint. This is the reality of grouse shooting in North Yorkshire”.
It’s not just the reality of grouse shooting in North Yorkshire. This is the reality of driven grouse shooting across northern England and Scotland. Inside the ‘safety’ of a National Park? It doesn’t matter. Remove all predators, by whatever means, and at any cost.
Its barbaric.
The grouse shooting industry is out of control. It needs closing down.
Please, sign the e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting HERE
Raptor Persecution UK 
These damn Buzzards will do anything to discredit the grouse shooting industry …..
That’s great then, because the sooner the idiot land owners, managers and gamekeepers get brought to justice the better to try and educate you clowns, the Harriers, Buzzards, etc etc that you trap shoot or poison don’t hunt your grouse they’re mainly carrion eaters along with worms and small mammals, and these birds Co existed way before you greedy bastards on grouse moors decided to start shooting them in the hope of continually lining your pockets through illegally persecuting Schedule 1 birds of prey, I’m hoping your brought to justice and jailed like the gamekeeper clown in Scotland, as for you gamekeepers are you really that bloody stupid that if you get caught you think your employer will back you, maybe you can ring him from prison and ask………. I cannot wait to see you lot in court
No doubt planted there by the RSPB, like all the others.
did the rspb shoot the buzard then plant it,iam afraid, that each wildlife atrocitie,brings the death of grouse shooting that bit closer.
Oh yeah, no doubt about it…Keep lying to yourself. And wtf is wrong with British hunters anyway? I see them shooting birds you can’t even eat all the time. Why would you do that? It is just plain retarded.
Carrie, Your head need looking at, like the rest of the people who get pleasure on shooting any thing that flies
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The sooner this barbaric industry is stopped the better.Am dreading the start of the horrific business in ‘Scotland.Was there any sighting of a white curly haired Italian?
my god someones in for a stern telling off by yorkshire police if they go in and confess what they have done
Wouldn’t like to be in his shoes if he does. NY Police will be looking to make up for their previous blunder!
Spring traps appear to have well and truly replaced poisoning……….horrible, primitive and barbaric criminals.
Let’s wait for the deniers claims that we are all jumping to conclusions.
Coincidentalty that injury is likely to contain minute rust particles which could be retrieved forensically by the police forensic services. I suggest the carcass be made available to the police with an allegation that it has been illegally killed.
It’s never ending, from National Park to National Park, from England to Scotland, from grouse moor to grouse moor, crime after crime, criminals with guns, criminals with traps, criminals with poison. It’s disgraceful that our society allows these barbaric, sick criminals to perpetrate their sadistic practices.
Yet another Disgraceful Episode on these Grouse Shooting Estates, no doubt this will be swept under the carpet,or blamed on a Third Party ! Sooner we get a Ban the better,and Consign driven grouse shooting to the History Books !
Gamekeepers are fast becoming known as the most despicable, barbaric and outright cruel workers in the UK. In the last few years I have learnt to hate the very word GAMKEEPER.
Yes, it sticks in the gullet doesn’t it! Makes you start thinking of direct action!
Gamekeepers are just doing what they are employed to do – protect the grouse. This is not to say that they’re not despicable, and culpable in terms of the law but there should be a much bigger focus on their employers.
This government is unlikely to take notice of petitions, although I have signed, and shared and tweeted many times. There are too many vested interests in the Tories’ ‘old boy network’.
You are definitly correct about the
Goverment not taking much notice of petitions and the cameradie of the old boys tory club
Goverments dont take much notice of the electorate full stop only time they are interested in man in the street
Is when they are pedaling their
Propoganda to win your vote usually
Every five years and as you say its all about cash
They will be setting the spring traps to clear the moors for the 12th.
Doubtless it will be blamed on yet another ‘rogue keeper’. Seems as though there are lots of them about! The Grouse Industry is currently shooting itself in the foot with such frequency that it’s becoming a health hazard to itself. Maybe their shotgun permits should all be revoked for their own safety.
It’s not just the Red Grouse shooting estates though is it, it’s also widespread in the Pheasant and Partridge shooting areas throughout the whole of the whole UK. The fact is wherever there’s game shooting there’s illegal Raptor Persecution taking place alongside it, and it’s not just the few “rogue gamekeepers” they’d like you to believe, it’s the large majority of them. In fact I wouldn’t trust any one of them any further than I could see him where so-called protected birds of prey are concerned, full stop.
The people who shot this bird will never be brought to book and so it will continue with the rich getting away with employing keepers to kill everything that gets in their way.
Well said Nirofo. I couldn’t agree more. I feel sorry for the ‘sicko’ who did this deed. If the fantastically efficient NY police get hold of him, they will no doubt really make him suffer. Poor soul, they will probably throw the full force of the law on him – by giving him 100 lines saying “I must not kill protected birds of prey”!! They will also probably send him on a training course to teach him how not to get caught! If there is a God up there, can you please start hitting the employers before it’s too late? Nearly forgot. Thank you Jean for all your great work. You are a star – and a long-serving one at that. Pity you live and work in a raptor ‘black hole’ area! It must be soul-destroying.
This is barbaric and should be brought to an end, as if the few birds of prey we have make that much of an impact on the grouse. The hobnobs and their pet gamekeepers are out of date, uneducated in the ways of raptors and so far up their own backsides it’s unbelievable.
Remove the Subsidies,remove the Tax breaks.Send the Estate Owner to Jail with his underlings. This is Vandalism on a Corporate scale . Such cruelty must be met with the full force of the law. Its time to shut them down.
Hi Tudor well put and if i may say so these
I would send them out to The ME they would make good
Fodder for the Barbarians
Out their to disposed of society as to kill to eat but it should not be done
For sick peaples sadistic pleasure
There is no sport in it as the cant get off the ground you could probably could use a [Ed: rest of comment deleted]
Just spent a couple of days at Boltby near Thirsk on the SW corner of the North York Moors. Over a period of two days in the area including walking 7 Miles on or near the Cleveland Way I only saw one adult Buzzard. I would have expected young birds to be on the wing but there was a deathly silence. The habitat looked good for Common Buzzard but the negative observations said it all.
The buzzards once prolific here have been cleaned out by the gamekeepers. I haven’t seen a single bird since probably early March this year. I know who is doing it and will take direct action against the bastard soon.
although some gamekeepers are culprits it is the landowner that drives the situation by demanding more birds to shoot. inevitably the bamekeeper pays the cost (as well as the bird) and the landowner walks away scot free…
Disgraceful that commercial gain is put above humane treatment of other creatures
The national parks are useless. They won’t do anything either yet they work hand in hand with many estate managers.
Write to your MP. Moaning in here is preaching to the converted
As a photographer I love to photograph Bird Of Prey in our National Park. What has always shocked me with The North York Moors National park is the sheer lack of numbers of birds of prey.
If you take a road trip anywhere in the country you wont fail to see Buzzards and similar birds in big numbers. Then you come to our national park, and you barely see any. You have to put in a lot of leg work to find a Buzzard On the North York Moors despite some habitat that is better than perfect.
I believe this article highlights the problem in North Yorkshire. I believe its time the National parks Authority got tough. In a recent case in The Peak district a local shoot was banned from shooting in there because their Game Keepers were found to be harming Birds Of prey.
Evidence is always the key, but Im sure if you present the National Park with evidence they will have to act. I would encourage anyone with a camera to capture images of Birds Of prey everytime they see one. Also if you see any game keepers out on the land then just have a look at what they are doing.
if you suspect foul play then photograph them. You are not breaking the law by doing so. That one bit of evidence you collect may just be enough to catch someone in the act and bring a much needed prosecution in this area.
As a local photographer, the local Gamekeepers can be 100% sure I have my eye and my camera on them every-time I see them working. If I see any wrong doing i wont hesitate to photograph them and hand in the evidence to the law and as many press outlets as will take the story. Your money wont buy me and this has to be stopped.