Herefordshire Police led a multi-agency raid on Thursday 12th August following a suspected raptor persecution incident in the south west of the county.
The police were joined by staff from Natural England, National Wildlife Crime Unit and RSPB Investigation’s team. Items were seized and enquiries are apparently continuing.
[Photos from RSPB]
This is at least the 7th multi-agency search in England this year, all in response to raptor persecution crimes. On 18th January 2021 there was a raid in Suffolk (here), on 15th March there was a raid in Lincolnshire (see here), on 18th March a raid in Dorset (here), on 26th March a raid in Devon (see here), on 21st April a raid in Teesdale (here), on 2nd August a raid in Shropshire (here) and now this raid in Herefordshire.
Well done to all the agencies involved in these follow-up investigations. It’s good to see genuine partnership-working in the fight to catch the raptor killers.
Raptor Persecution UK 
Well done indeed on the one hand it is heartening that these raids are happening with a host of expertise. On the other it is disappointing that they need to happen as it is a measure of the continuing persecution of our raptors, doubtless for some species like buzzard it is almost if not entirely a daily occurrence. Lets hope it leads to results and court appearances for suspects. If this is followed by guilty verdicts one also hopes for meaningful punishments too.
Brilliant!
Nice to see these “multi agency” so called raids – at least from the photo the participants had an enjoyable day out and that’s about it really. No doubt it was well bruited about beforehand and the net result will be much the same as the other raids. Still it’s good publicity afterwards.
What a dismal world you must live in where enjoying one’s work is not allowed.