Following last week’s announcement of Wild Justice’s raptor forensic fund, which aims to provide financial assistance to support police officers investigating the illegal persecution of raptors in the UK (see here), the fund has been boosted by further contributions.
The Northern England Raptor Forum (NERF) has made a substantial donation of £1,000 to support the fund.
In a press release issued to announce its support, NERF said,
‘Unfortunately every one of our member groups has experience of raptor persecution within their own study areas. Many of us have also been involved in cases where the search for forensic evidence, vital to support the case, was not pursued because of lack of funding thereby resulting in the investigation being abandoned prior to trial. We believe that this initiative will make a very significant impact on the investigation of raptor related criminal cases‘.
Steve Downing, NERF’s Chair said:
“As a former Wildlife Crime Officer I fully appreciate the complex decision making process that is used to assess competing applications for funding the forensic analysis of potential exhibits. Every application for forensic funding is justifiable, however it is understandable why some crimes take precedence over cases of raptor persecution. This raptor related forensic analysis fund is a very valuable tool that will make a tremendous difference in the battle to detect wildlife crime and Wild Justice is to be commended for introducing the scheme“.
To read NERF’s full press statement, which is excellent by the way, please visit here
In addition to NERF’s donation, the fund has also received a substantial donation from an individual member of the public who wishes to remain anonymous.
If anyone else would like to contribute to this new fund, please get in touch with Wild Justice by emailing admin@wildjustice.org.uk and entering ‘Raptor Forensic Fund’ as the subject header.
Thank you
As many of you will be aware, the launch of this fund has caused quite a bit of criticism from one individual in particular, who has used the pseudonym ‘EXWCO’ [ex-wildlife crime officer] to hide his identity whilst making some thinly-veiled accusations and threats. For those who haven’t read these, have a look at the comments thread on the previous blog post about this fund (here).
‘EXWCO’ has now revealed his identity and we’ll be examining this individual’s motivations and credibility later today.
Raptor Persecution UK 
Great that NERF is on board with this, perhaps it will encourage other organisations to contribute. Intrigued as to who EXWCO might be I have an idea but that would surely be laughable.
Pete Charleston, former North Wales Police sergeant and WCO.
North Wales Police, eh? That figures
The police should be routinely swabbing the inside of estate vehicles and equipment when BOP disappear or are found persecuted.
I’m sure there will be the DNA of dozens of protected species found!