The reputation of North Yorkshire as a raptor persecution hotspot is well known. Here’s yet another victim to add to the long, long list….
This buzzard was found injured at Dunnington (a village to the east of York) on 29 September 2017. It was taken to the vets where an x-ray revealed shotgun pellets lodged in the bird’s head and wing. Based on the extent of its injuries, the bird was euthanised.
Anybody with information about this crime, please contact PC Jez Walmsley at Malton Police Station (Tel. 101).
Images courtesy of Jean Thorpe.
Raptor Persecution UK 
repeat repeat repeat. I long for the day when I read a story about a keeper or other general xxxxx with a gun getting a decent jail sentence. Getting sick of hearing the usual “police are asking for information”.
It’s just depressing isn’t it – on so many levels. Just got to keep doing what we can.
No wish to moan but……vets do seem rather quick to pull the trigger.I used to rescue sick foxes, but had to be very clear with vets that they were not to be euthanased before discussion.
Are there not a Hawk/ Raptor centres which could rehab these birds. Got to say the injuries on this bird don’t look fatal, and the bird looks bright.
If the vet was Mark Naguib, he’s well known for his surgical ability, particularly for treating raptors with gunshot injuries in North Yorkshire. If it was Mark, and Mark’s opinion was that this bird would not make a decent recovery sufficient for release to the wild, it would have been a well-informed opinion.
Funny that no grousemoors there! I thought all bird crimes were carried out on grousemoors!
Maybe, just maybe it flew off the grouse moor whilst having a broken wing! Right of course it did!
Billy Smithers, for your information, the main species which are illegally shot and killed on grouse moors are Hen Harriers, Golden Eagles and Peregrines, although Buzzards also feature, as well as Short-eared Owls and even Merlins. Nobody is claiming that it’s only grouse moor gamekeepers who are culpable of wildlife crime; it is probably rife throughout the so-called profession, and most Buzzards are actually killed in pheasant shoot areas. It seems highly likely that the vast majority of casualties are never found or detected.
Billy, the whole shooting industry is like a cancer in our countryside – add onto that badger diggers, badger cull, fox hunting and hare coursing. However, grouse moors are no go areas for raptors (and any natural predator) in general.
Does anyone know exactly where this Dunnington is?
There is a Dunnington within the York boundary on the edge of both North and East Yorkshire. Presumably that is the one as the other is in East Yorkshire.
Noted that Jean Thorpe was involved – her images. No way would this bird have been PTS if she’d thought that it had a chance. Apart from the head wound, that’s clearly a badly smashed wing and the question has to arise as to what would be done wit the bird if it didn’t fully recover. It would hardly stand a chance in the wild and there’s a limit to how many less than 100% fit birds can be kept alive in captivity – not that I’m in favour of doing this anyway. Think ‘Quality of Life’.
Buzzards are disappearing here in glos. There was a red kite but that has also gone. surrounded by contracted shooters to kill our badgers, cub hunting going on and the prospect of the Hunt being out killing foxes and disturbing all our wildlife for months ahead is truly and EXTREMELY DEPRESSING. I live in the countryside, it’s all silent out there. walk in the woods and it’s the same. tragic.
Add to that the 5,000 volunteers being recruited by the Wildlife Trusts to go out slaughtering Grey Squirrels, and it’s turning into a massacre out there. In addition a certain shooting organisation well known to readers of RPUK is exploiting the squirrel cull to recruit new members in the most cynical way possible, by running training courses – for school children (!) – in how to shoot squirrels with air rifles. In other words, breeding a whole new generation of shooting enthusiasts to swell the numbers already disturbing our countryside and killing our wildlife. The future looks bleak for getting rid of grouse shooting, in part thanks to the national conservation advisory bodies and the Wildlife Trusts. Apparently the RSPB is in on it too, encouraging the ill-advised squirrel cull. It’s a crazy world, a real mess.