It was good to see a feature on raptor persecution on Tuesday’s edition of Countryfile Summer Diaries.
Well done to experts Ian Thomson (RSPB Scotland) and David Anderson (Forest Enterprise Scotland) for telling it how it is.
Available to watch on BBCiPlayer for 29 days (starts at 15.33) – click HERE
And….cue calls from the nasty brigade for everyone involved to be sacked, for Chris Packham to be sacked (he must have been involved, right?), and for the satellite tagging of raptors to be banned (although woodcock studies can continue because their sat tags aren’t exposing the rampant criminality that persists within the game-shooting industry).
Raptor Persecution UK 
Griste to the mill.
National Trust has just announced swingeing changes to trail hunting activities on its land.
Bean by bean the sack fills (Greek proverb)
lets hope the NT actually implement something that doesnt result in business as usual for these criminals
And cue the tired old rhetoric from the BASC – ‘any deliberate targeting of birds of prey is something we strongly condemn, and it’s down to the actions of a few individuals’ otherwise Gamekeepers are wonderful conservationists’ Yawn.
They still haven’t responded to the marsh harrier incident, nor have their associated organisations.
About time the truth was brought to the public, the pressure needs to increase until something is done
Public awareness could now increase quite considerably – Its important that information is gained by the public from a trusted source, such as Countryfile. Public support or involvement arising from that is more likely to have an immediate effect on politicians especially. This could see also result in parts of the larger shooting fraternity becoming, quite correctly, less defensive of the “driven grouse” division.
Countryfile is not trusted by me; its a soap opera of sham
Peter – I’m sure it’ll be subject to opinion and editing just as most other progs. – It still broadcasts to the wider audience.
Whatever one’s views of Countryfile might be, it’s watched by a lot of people. What it needs now is for the item to be screened on the main programme on a Sunday evening when, surely, there will be a much bigger audience.
public awareness could be made all the more prominent if the government agency (natural england) who we fund through our taxes and have been running a hen harrier “recovery” project for 15 years actually released the findings of this long term study to the public. Unless they do this what is the point in them putting further tags on harriers at £3k a pop? in my opinion this is with holding evidence on organised crime
I presume that the piece did not involve Countryfile’s hagiographer-in-chief to the gamekeepers, Matt Baker?
The killers and criminals still get their propaganda in without questioning or scrutiny.
Doug
Finally been shamed into doing something, have they? Is this the main Sunday night show, or one of the wee frippery shows that nobody watches?
in my opinion, BASC et al NOT publicly condemning the Marsh Harrier persecution on Denton Moor demonstrates how uninterested and uncommitted they are to solving conflicts in the uplands. they are like a bunch of children who stamp their feet when they dont get everything their own way. When grouse shooting is licensed and then in years to come banned when this bunch of halfwits still cant obey the law they will only have themselves to blame. the few days after the Marsh Harrier video was published would have been a great opportunity for the various organisations (and extremest pressure groups such as the countryside alliance) to public say how they do not condone raptor persecution (even if they dont mean it). by saying nothing shows them to be like a boxer on the ropes – nothing to throw back.
would be very interested to see if the shooting syndicate/keepers involved on the moor where the Marsh Harriers were knobbled are members of the moorland association, BASC, NGO etc etc. by continuing their membership if they are shows even more their contempt for our wildlife
Agree 100% that the shooting folk should not be killing bird of prey, but the look of the tag being fitted suggest that these would not be very reliable. Surprised that more than 30% do not fall off, look like something a school student would make
well if they do fall off they will still transmit so they can be retrieved, which is another strong indicator that birds tags are ceasing to transmit because they are illegally killed. if the tags were a problem (and the same tags on migrant montagu’s harriers show approx 95% success rate) then why are Natural England not looking into why the tags are failing or simply getting another supplier?? it is NE that are failing not the tags
Simon,
Have a read of this recently published review. Studies from around the world show these tags have 98% reliability.
Click to access analyses-of-the-fates-of-satellite-tracked-golden-eagles-in-scotland.pdf
If we take the null hypothesis that all the disappearances are sudden tag failures, then we need to look at possible causes.
if it is generally faulty tags then the failures would be randomly distributed across the areas where the birds populate – Not the case
If it is a poor techniques at a particular nesting sites, this could be easily identified from the log data – Not the case
It looks like certain terrain and land use causes tag failure, going from the clustering found in the recent study on Golden Eagles.
Therefore there is something going on in these areas that is causing sudden tag failures. Any Ideas?
No doubt the problem that the MA, CA, NGO, BASC et al have here is that they’re in the unaccustomed position of being unable to refute the evidence as pure hearsay and unproven. Faced with hard evidence of attempted persecution of a Schedule 1 species and removal of eggs from the nest, they don’t know what to do – little realising that their failure to condemn the crime suggests that they condone it.
That is exactly the point, by not condemning what is irrefutably a crime or in fact several crimes at the Denton Moor Marsh Harrier nest, the cabal of shooting support organisations have given tacit support to the crime and the criminals. They are fast off the mark when it comes to refuting and rubbishing circumstantial evidence but when presented with this all we get is silence. Several of these organisations are members of PAW, particularly of RPPDG ( Raptor persecution priority delivery group) perhaps we should be insisting that PAW and PAW Scotland take note of this statement from NERF
“In relation to Hen Harrier persecution it is clear that the greatest potential source of information
is to be found from within the shooting industry. NERF expects the representatives of the
industry to work tirelessly with their members to assist both local Police Forces and the NWCU
to build the intelligence picture and assist with prosecuting offenders when they are put before
the courts.
NERF proposes that members of the RPPDG who cannot demonstrate compliance with this
action should forfeit their position on the Group.”
Although this was said in reference to Hen Harrier persecution it applies to ALL raptor persecution.Time these organisations either stepped up to the mark and did the right thing or were cast into oblivion.
Any gamekeeper suspected of raptor destruction by any means should have his gun license suspended until proved otherwise. If proven not only should it be a lifetime ban but their boss (who always get away scotfree) should also be prosecuted because by doing nothing to stop it they are just as guilty!
Especially when the gun is actually used to commit the crime
Interesting that the grouse shooting lobby was allowed the ‘last word’ by way of their familiar crocodile tears statement. Next time Country File (in whatever form) runs a segment telling us what a wonderful job gamekeepers or shooting estates are doing or has an item on Mountain Hares which strangely omits any mention of the mass culling of the species will they offer a similar opportunity to RPUK (or others)?