Wildlife crime in the UK was the subject of a recent podcast recorded by Planet Pod, which describes itself as ‘Essential listening for everyone who cares about the planet’.
Ruth Tingay (Co-Director, Wild Justice & RPUK blogger) and Richard Benwell (CEO, Wildlife & Countryside Link) were interviewed by host Amanda Carpenter about the difficulties of tackling wildlife crime in the UK.
It’s a 40 minute chat and can be listened to here
Raptor Persecution UK 
A good podcast and thanks to all for making it available.
Always good to hear the issue being discussed on any forum, so well done for setting this up..but…!…I was profoundly depressed by Richard Benwell’s summing up at the end, I feel like Im in a Groundhog Day type of loop, Ive heard exactly the same comments about gathering evidence, strengthening laws, theres a new Bill coming etc..from a whole series of UK and Scottish environment ministers/civil servants etc. We already have some of the strongest wildlife protection laws in the world…and a huge body of evidence gathered by RSGs and others over decades….what we dont have is any kind of realistic enforcement to link with it. So, why is that and how do we change it?..Why..is due to the increasingly effective political pushback from the wildlife killers and their apologists; backed up by the fact our laws are still based on landownership and property generally. Wildlife is not the property of the landowner [thankfully] but that means real protection is not seen as important as for instance, the profits from shooting…How do we change this?..Large scale Land Reform of both ownership and land use is essential for any meaningful long term success – in the short term however, law enforcement has to be placed in the hands of those who can actually concentrate solely on this issue, so not the Police, who remain open to financial and political pressure…Finally, Im sick and tired of the mistaken bleating about “these crimes are in remote areas and are difficult to detect”, look at the history of RSPB and SSPCA work against wildlife crime, its is full of successful prosecutions..that work was stopped by inadequate refinement of laws, bullying of the Crown Office by solicitors including QCs with a shooting agenda and the dead hand of the landowning/game shooting countryside mafia…..Public awareness of this issue alone will not fix this, if only it could. Perhaps more attention should be paid to the finances involved – thats what finished Al Capone wasnt it!!