Year: 2021

Grouse moor-owning Lord Benyon appointed new DEFRA Minister

DEFRA press release (13 May 2021)

DEFRA welcomes new Minister

Lord Benyon has today been appointed as a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Defra. He will replace outgoing Defra minister Lord Gardiner, who will become Senior Deputy Speaker in the House of Lords.

The Environment Secretary today welcomed Lord Benyon, commenting on his passion and dedication to environmental causes.

Environment Secretary George Eustice said:

“I am pleased to welcome Richard back to Defra. He brings a wealth of experience, knowledge and passion for the environment, developed during his previous experience as a Defra Minister and during his work as Chair of our review in to Highly Protected Marine Areas.

“I look forward to working with him during this truly exciting time for Defra, with the Environment Bill returning to parliament, our agricultural reforms now starting to take root and the government leading the world on protecting nature and tackling climate change. Richard will be invaluable as we continue our ambitious work to ensure we leave our natural environment in a better state for future generations.

“I would also like to extend my congratulations to Lord Gardiner on his election as Senior Deputy Speaker in the House of Lords and to thank him for his work as Minister in Defra.”

Defra Minister Lord Benyon said:

“It’s both a privilege and a pleasure to be returning to Defra as a Minister in the House of Lords. I have fond memories from my time as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State.

“From the flagship Environment Bill and tackling climate change to helping our farmers through the agricultural transition and supporting our fishing industry, Defra is at the heart of this Government’s work to build back greener. It’s an exciting time to be back at Defra.

“I look forward to working with everyone as Defra tackles some of the greatest challenges of our time.”

Lord Benyon’s portfolio will be confirmed in due course.

ENDS

Grouse moor and pheasant-shoot – owner Richard Benyon is a former Trustee of GWCT and is no stranger to the pages of this blog.

In 2013, as Wildlife Minister under David Cameron, Richard Benyon refused to make possession of Carbofuran a criminal offence in England, despite other MPs calling for such a move, and despite it being an offence in Scotland, and despite it being well known that Carbofuran is the gamekeepers’ poison of choice for killing birds of prey.

In response, Caroline Lucas MP (Green Party) said:

“The minister’s shocking refusal to outlaw the possession of a poison used only by rogue gamekeepers to illegally kill birds of prey would be inexplicable were it not for his own cosy links to the shooting lobby“.

Also while Mr Benyon was in post at DEFRA, the government sanctioned the controversial buzzard ‘management’ trial and committed £375k of taxpayers money to help support it (see here), although they swiftly backtracked after a huge public outcry against the plan (see here). However, the following year Natural England, acting on behalf of DEFRA, decided to go ahead and issue a licence (to a gamekeeper with a past conviction for wildlife crime) to destroy buzzard eggs and nests to protect pheasants (see here).

Mr Benyon also decided there was no need to introduce vicarious liability to England because “there are very good laws in place to punish the illegal killing of any animal. If they are not being effectively enforced, they must be and we will take steps to make sure that happens. However, this is a good opportunity to applaud gamekeepers for the wonderful work they do in providing excellent biodiversity across our countryside” (see here and here).

In 2016 he spoke at the Westminster Hall debate on driven grouse shooting where, along with other grouse-shooting pals and supporters, he claimed that a ban on driven grouse shooting would be ‘a catastrophe for the biodiversity of the uplands‘.

It’s probably safe to assume that this latest appointment to DEFRA’s ministerial team will have significant influence on campaigning efforts to rid the English uplands of the wildlife crime and environmental damage continually associated with driven grouse shooting.

It doesn’t mean we’ll stop trying, though.

Sainsbury’s are selling toxic game meat without a public health warning

Do you remember last autumn/winter when Sainsbury’s started selling game meat that was being marketed as ‘healthy’, although there was no public health warning on the packaging about the possibility the meat could contain poisonous lead shot?

These products had been endorsed by the British Game Alliance, who apparently are all about ‘traceability and credibility’ (ahem).

[Photo by Ruth Tingay]

However, when customers asked Sainsbury’s about the provenance of this meat and whether it contained poisonous lead shot, the response was remarkably coy, (e.g. see here, here, here, here), especially from a supermarket that claims it wants to be ‘the UK’s most trusted retailer‘.

Sainsbury’s game dealer supplier, Holme Farmed Venison, didn’t respond to questions about the provenance of the game birds or whether the products contained toxic lead.

So in February this year, Wild Justice announced it had bought some of these products and was having them tested in a specialist laboratory to see whether they contained toxic lead and if so, how much (see here).

The results are in and this morning Wild Justice published them – see here

Oh dear, Sainsbury’s. It’s not looking good, is it?

“Another poisoned golden eagle? If the SNP are serious about protecting wildlife we need an Environment Secretary who will act” – Jim Crumley

Jim Crumley has written a brilliant opinion piece for the Courier (published 10th May 2021) in response to the discovery of the deliberately poisoned golden eagle found on Invercauld Estate in March.

The article is reproduced below:

THERE is a job of some urgency for the new Environment Secretary at Holyrood.

You may have read about the golden eagle found poisoned at Invercauld estate in the Cairngorms National Park.

The guiding principles for a national park should centre around the wellbeing of the landscape and its ecology. Nothing else. Otherwise, why bother to have a national park at all?

But what Scotland has instead is two national parks obsessed by tourism and the rural economy.

As it happens, I have just been reading a book called “A Life in Nature”, a collection of writings by Peter Scott, founder of the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust and the Worldwide Fund for Nature. He wrote this:

“For conserving wildlife and wilderness there are three categories of reason: ethical, aesthetic, and economic, with the last one (at belly level) lagging far behind the other two.”

And this:

“Conservationists today are involved in a gigantic holding operation – a modern Noah’s Ark to save what is left of the wildlife and wild places, until the tide of new thinking begins to flow all over the world.”

Long wait for tide to turn

He wrote that 60 years ago.

But because I read it at the same time as Nicola Sturgeon’s astonishing election achievement was playing out, I began to think that there is an opportunity right here, right now.

If we are on a tide of new thinking, it has never been more important that the Scottish Government appoints an Environment Secretary with a radical agenda.

And please don’t let Fergus Ewing anywhere near it, because he is far too chummy with the Scottish Gamekeepers Association.

The golden eagle found poisoned at Invercauld this spring is the latest in a breathtaking catalogue of around 80 crimes against wildlife in the national park’s young life

The first thing I think the new Environment Secretary should do is to familiarise himself or herself with the track record of the Cairngorms National Park in conserving wildness and wildlife, and then to consider how the land within the park is managed.

The result of that familiarising process should be cause for a great deal of concern for the new Environment Secretary.

If it isn’t, the Scottish Government will have appointed the wrong person, because the golden eagle found poisoned at Invercauld this spring is but the latest in a breath-taking catalogue of around 80 crimes against wildlife in the national park’s young life (it was established in 2003).

Twelve golden and white-tailed eagles have been killed in that time along with 24 buzzards; and 10 hen harriers in the last five years alone.

A sea eagle nest tree was deliberately felled and nests of peregrine and goshawk were destroyed.

All that inside the national park, in the last 18 years, and all of these birds have the highest level of legal protection.

Victorian values

That alone should be enough to persuade the new Environment Secretary that the situation calls for new thinking.

The estates’ attitudes towards birds of prey are symptomatic of a far wider contempt for those species of nature which they judge to be inconvenient for what remains a depressingly Victorian attitude to land and wildlife.

The Cairngorms National Park Authority’s response to the eagle-killing was dismal. A statement on its website says: “The CPNA condemns this senseless and irresponsible behaviour and condemns it in the strongest possible terms. Raptor persecution has no place in 21st century Scotland and no place in this national park.”

How can you revere a landscape when the principal management tools of its private owners are fire and guns and poisons, burning the land, killing the wildlife?

No, it doesn’t condemn it in the strongest possible terms.

If it had done, the park authority would be screaming down the phone to the Scottish Parliament that grouse moor and deer forest should have no place in 21st century Scotland or inside the national park.

They are completely incompatible with thoughtful conservation of a landscape that should be revered for its wildlife and wild landscape.

How can you revere a landscape when the principal management tools of its private owners are fire and guns and poisons, burning the land, killing the wildlife. And why aren’t national parks owned by the nation?

That might have amounted to something like the strongest possible terms.

The other problem with the park authority’s statement is that, alas, there IS a place for raptor persecution in 21st century Scotland, in many places, and one is the Cairngorms National Park.

Reality doesn’t match ambition

The first words you read on the home page of the Cairngorms National Park Authority website are these: “An outstanding national park, where people and nature thrive together.”

It is a very worthwhile ambition, but it is a long way from the reality on the ground.

The new Environment Secretary might also like to consider that one of the reasons for such a toll of wildlife is that as things stand, the estates know they will almost certainly get away with it, for there are hardly ever prosecutions.

If our newly-elected government wants to project the image of a forward-thinking independent Scotland on the European stage – and I sincerely hope it does given my lilac and yellow votes for the SNP – then the tide of new thinking should perhaps begin by blowing away that embarrassing Victorian stain from the face of the land.

ENDS

Invercauld Estate leaves ‘partnership’ following discovery of deliberately poisoned golden eagle

The ramifications from the discovery of a deliberately poisoned golden eagle found on a grouse moor on Invercauld Estate this spring are now beginning to show.

Up until yesterday, Invercauld Estate had enjoyed the benefits of a membership of the Eastern Cairngorms Moorland Partnership. This partnership was established in December 2015 and comprised six estates working in ‘partnership’ with the Cairngorms National Park Authority to increase conservation value alongside the estates’ sporting and other interests.

The Partnership’s full statement of purpose can be read here and includes a commitment to enhance raptor conservation.

The estates involved were:

  1. Glenlivet Estate. 2. Glenavon Estate. 3. Mar Lodge Estate (National Trust for Scotland). 4. Invercauld Estate. 5. Mar Estate. 6. Balmoral & Birkhall Estate. (Boundaries sourced from Andy Wightman’s Who Owns Scotland website).

The Cairngorms National Park Authority issued the following statement yesterday:

Invercauld Estate leaves the East Cairngorms Moorland Partnership

The East Cairngorms Moorland Partnership (ECMP) can confirm that Invercauld Estate has left the group, following the discovery of a poisoned golden eagle on their land. The remaining members of ECMP wholly condemn the poisoning, and are committed to working together to prevent incidents like this occurring in future.

The partnership was established between the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) and six local estates in December 2015. The overarching purpose of the partnership is to demonstrate a clear contribution towards the four aims of the National Park, the National Park Partnership Plan and Cairngorms Nature Action Plan, through co-ordinated responsible and sustainable moorland management.

This includes working at a landscape-scale on woodland and scrub expansion, peatland restoration, priority species conservation (including raptors,) and landscape enhancement, whilst integrating grouse moor management with other land use objectives.

The partnership has made good progress on a number of fronts in recent years. This includes expanding woodland cover across the area by 1,500 ha (with plans for between 2,000 and 3,000 ha over the next decade); coordinated monitoring of protected species (including raptors,) to inform a joined-up approach to species conservation; and several hundred hectares of peatland restoration, including mapping areas of deep peat and steep slopes to guide land management activities.

Future programmes will focus on the expansion of scrub habitats and riparian woodlands, alongside further action to restore degraded peat bogs and measures to increase raptor populations across the ECMP partnership area.

The remaining members of ECMP are more committed than ever to delivering the overarching aims of the partnership. Members will continue to encourage the trustees and management of Invercauld Estate to address any issues which have led to the current situation and to take appropriate action.

East Cairngorms Moorland Partnership

(Cairngorms National Park Authority, Mar Lodge Estate, Mar Estate, Balmoral Estate, Glenavon Estate and Glenlivet Estate)

ENDS

As aways with these things, the statement does not make clear whether Invercauld Estate was dismissed or whether it left of its own accord. We can speculate, of course, and on that basis I’d suggest Invercauld Estate was told to go because by remaining, it would likely bring acute embarrassment to the ‘partnership’, especially if/when NatureScot decides to issue a General Licence restriction on the basis of evidence supplied by Police Scotland of ongoing criminality on this estate.

Many of these so-called ‘partnerships’ are often nothing more than a conservation sham when you look at some of the organisations involved and their appalling track record of raptor persecution. For example the PAW Scotland Raptor Group, the Raptor Persecution Priority Delivery Group, the Peak District Bird of Prey Initiative, the Heads Up for Hen Harriers project – on and on it goes. It’s very good to see, in this case, that the integrity of the partnership’s conservation values has been put first.

Now what we need to see is the shooting industry and its clients demonstrate the same level of integrity and vote with their wallets and feet.

VACANCY: RSPB Investigations Intelligence Officer (12 mths maternity cover)

Reference:MAY20215697
Expiry date:23:59, 23 May 2021
Location:Flexible
Salary:£27,574.00 – £30,590.00 Per Annum
Benefits:Pension, Life Assurance, Annual Leave
Duration:Maternity Cover up to 12 months

Job advert from RSPB:

Are you looking to be part of the team that is in the front line of the fight against wildlife crime? If you could thrive in a dynamic, challenging environment where you will have the opportunity to contribute your own ideas within a unique and specialised team, then this could be the perfect opportunity for you.

We are looking for an enthusiastic, organised and committed individual to join the RSPB Investigations team. The role can be delivered from home or an RSPB office, the post holder will use excellent communication skills and attention to detail to gather, process, record and disseminate intelligence and incident data relating to wild bird crime. They will also be involved with the monitoring of satellite-tagged raptors, liaising with taggers, landowners and RSPB’s field staff.

[An example of data analysis produced by the RSPB Investigations team]

Acting as one of the key points of contact for our investigative work in Scotland, the successful candidate will have:

  • Background experience/knowledge or qualification in either biology, conservation, ecology, enforcement, intelligence, data management, information systems or similar
  • Confident telephone manner, able to liaise professionally with enforcement partners, and also handle reports of wildlife crime with understanding and empathy, sometimes in sensitive situations. 
  • Knowledge of RSPB’s Investigations team priorities and work
  • Knowledge of wild birds particularly raptors, and of wildlife protection legislation, particularly Scotland.
  • Time-management and organisational skills, able to work well independently yet collaboratively with the team, and balance multiple tasks whilst being happy sitting at a screen processing monotonous data
  • Proven IT skills including MS Office software especially Excel, Outlook and Teams.
  • A good level of numeracy and literacy with high attention to detail
  • Experience of managing data/databases and presenting data in a variety of formats

The following are desirable but not essential:

  • Knowledge of legislation relevant to information management including Data Protection Act and Human Rights Act.
  • Experience of specialist software eg GIS/Merlin.
  • Experience of working with Police standards for information management/best practice, and/or statutory agencies, media, or law enforcement partners.

This is a maternity cover contract for up to 12 months. The RSPB reserves the right to extend or make this role permanent without further advertising dependent on business needs at the end of the contract term.

For further information please contact  Helen Mason at helen.mason@rspb.org.uk

As part of this application you will be asked to complete an application form to evidence of how your meet the skills, knowledge, and experience requested.

Before applying for this role, we recommend reading through the candidate guidance notes here

Update on investigation for breach of hen harrier feeding licence on Yorkshire grouse moor

Back in April I blogged about a breach of Natural England’s Hen Harrier Diversionary Feeding Licence (CL25) on a North Yorkshire grouse moor that had been captured on film by raptor fieldworkers monitoring an active hen harrier nest (see here).

[A gamekeeper and a Natural England employee caught on camera visiting an active hen harrier nest on a North Yorkshire grouse moor, April 2021]

I wrote to Natural England to ask whether any enforcement action would be taken for this breach and Natural England replied on 30th April 2021 that an investigation was currently underway by NE’s Enforcement & Appeals Team (see here).

I wrote again to Natural England to ask (a) whether they could provide an indication of how long the investigation might last and (b) whether they’d tell us or whether I’d have to write again?

Natural England replied on the 5th May:

‘Unfortunately we do not know how long our investigations will take but we will make the outcome known when it is appropriate to do so‘.

Hmm. And will that be before or after the hen harrier brood meddling conservation sham has taken place this year?

I’ll keep you posted.

X-ray of injured peregrine reveals he had previously been shot

A peregrine falcon that suffered injury after colliding with a window was found to have previously been shot.

In a shoddy piece of reporting on the LeicestershireLive website, the RSPCA has apparently claimed the peregrine ‘died after it was shot with an airgun and the pellet became embedded in its wing’ and that they are now appealing for information about the ‘airgun thug’ responsible (see here).

However, if you look at the accompanying x-ray released by the RSPCA, there is what appears to be a pellet embedded in the bird’s right ulna but it doesn’t have the shape of an air gun pellet – it looks more like the spherical shape of a shotgun pellet (see red circle, added by RPUK).

The examining vet thought it was an old injury and you can see there aren’t any associated bone breaks with the pellet, whereas the peregrine has clearly fractured its left radius and there was damage to its neck, presumably caused by the window collision (see the yellow circles, added by RPUK).

The peregrine didn’t survive its injuries.

In what must be the most optimistic appeal for information ever, given that nobody knows when or where the peregrine had previously been shot, the RSPCA is appealing for information!

Warwickshire Police investigate death of red kite

Warwickshire Police Rural Crime Team published the following statement on Facebook on 7th May 2021:

Wildlife Crime Officers from the Rural Crime Team are investigating the death of a Red Kite discovered in a field near to Caldecote Lane, Nuneaton on Wednesday 28th April. Raptor Persecution is one of the National Wildlife Crime Units priorities in the UK. Red Kites were on the verge of extinction following decades of persecution in this country. The last few decades have seen their numbers grow and re establish themselves. They are protected under the Countryside and Wildlife act and it is an offence to intentionly [sic] kill or injure them. If you have any information surrounding the incident please contact Warwickshire Police quoting incident number 0140 of 28th April 2021.

It’s a pretty vague statement. The only part that relates to this particular incident, if there even is an incident, is: ‘…..death of a Red Kite discovered in a field near to Caledcote Lane…’.

There’s no indication from this statement that its death was at all suspicious, but presumably there was some indication at the scene that this wasn’t a natural death.

The story has been picked up by a few local newspapers but I haven’t been able to find out any more detail and couldn’t see any statement or appeal for information on the Warwickshire Police website.

UPDATE: There are rumours on social media that the kite had suffered shotgun injuries but this detail has not yet been confirmed by the police.

Poisoned golden eagle: statement from NatureScot

NatureScot, formerly known as Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) has published a statement in response to the discovery of the deliberately poisoned golden eagle found on a grouse moor on Invercauld Estate in the Cairngorms National Park in March.

[Poisoned golden eagle laying next to a poisoned mountain hare bait on Invercauld Estate, March 2021. Photo RSPB]

Here’s what it says:

7 May 2021

NatureScot statement: Poisoned golden eagle found on Invercauld Estate

Robbie Kernahan, NatureScot’s Director of Sustainable Growth, said:

“This incident is appalling and, without doubt, is an act of animal cruelty. We encourage anyone with information to report it to the police immediately.  The indiscriminate use of poisons – as this incident demonstrates – is lethal to our iconic Scottish wildlife, but it can also pose a serious health risk to people and domestic animals that come into contact with it. NatureScot will await a full report of the circumstances from Police Scotland and consider this case in line with our framework for restricting the use of General Licences.

We are committed to working with Police Scotland and other members of the Partnership for Action Against Wildlife Crime (PAW Scotland) to tackle continuing raptor persecution and other wildlife crime in Scotland“.

ENDS

It’s unusual to see a formal statement from the statutory conservation agency in response to an individual wildlife crime, but perhaps the audacity and brazenness of this latest atrocity, and the widespread public revulsion that this still goes on with impunity, let alone inside the Cairngorms National Park, has pushed NatureScot to publish a statement.

The concept of NatureScot condemning the poisoning is solid, of course. Why wouldn’t they? Why wouldn’t anyone in their right mind condemn it, vociferously? They should also be highlighting and condemning every single wildlife crime that gets uncovered in Scotland, not just the big high profile cases.

But I wonder, having read their statement, whether NatureScot thought they’d better say something early because the inevitable question is heading their way – the General Licence restriction.

They must know that I, as well as others, will be asking about that and they might also have guessed that I’d be arguing strongly that a General Licence restriction is in fact long overdue on Invercauld Estate, given some of the other alleged offences reported from there.

I’ll be writing a separate blog about that though, because there may well be a technical loophole that has allowed NatureScot to ignore previous grounds to revoke the General Licence on this particular estate – I’ll come back to it because it’s worth it’s own blog and I don’t have the time to write it today.

Why the Invercauld golden eagle killer will evade prosecution

Last week we learned that Police Scotland had conducted a raid, under warrant, of several properties on Invercauld Estate in the Cairngorms National Park following the discovery of a deliberately-poisoned golden eagle and a number of poisoned baits (see here).

This was headline news on social and mainstream media. For some, judging by the responses I read, the news was shocking. Some people were clearly previously unaware that deliberately laying out poisoned baits to kill birds of prey was even a thing in 21st Century Britain, and that a golden eagle had been killed this way, inside the Cairngorms National Park, the supposed jewel of the UK’s protected areas, was incomprehensible to many.

For those of us all-too familiar with the issue of ongoing illegal raptor persecution on driven grouse moors, the news wasn’t shocking at all. Not one tiny bit. Not even the brazen, blatant criminality involved in this case. We’ve seen it over and over and over again.

And the worst thing about that inevitability is the knowledge that the eagle killer will not be brought to justice. Despite the police’s ability to narrow down the likely perpetrator to one of just a handful of individuals, and despite a shiny new law ramping up the sentence for those convicted, the certainty that justice will not prevail is just about as depressing as knowing that yet another eagle was killed before it even reached its first birthday.

The victim this time was a young male golden eagle who hatched on a nearby estate in 2020. We know this because just prior to fledging last June, researchers at the Scottish Raptor Study Group had ringed him and his sister with a leg band each containing a unique identification code.

[The male golden eagle (on the right) with his sister after being ringed on the nest in June 2020. Photo by SRSG]

His poisoned corpse was found by a member of the public on Friday 19th March 2021. Ironically, this is the day that Scottish gamekeepers were holding an online protest about progress and modernisation (see here).

However, the discovery of this eagle’s corpse wasn’t the first indication of someone committing wildlife crime on Invercauld Estate during the third period of lockdown. A few days earlier a member of the public had stumbled across another poisoned bait nearby and, not knowing what it was, posted a photograph on social media asking if anyone knew what it might be. It was a classic image of a bait totally covered in dead insects – an indication of the toxicity of the poison used.

Fortunately the photo was immediately identified as being worthy of a report to the RSPB, who notified the police, and the bait was collected and sent for analysis. A search of the immediate area didn’t reveal any victims of the poisoned bait.

Several days later the eagle’s corpse was discovered, laying face down on the grouse moor close to an obvious poisoned bait (mountain hare).

[Poisoned golden eagle with poisoned mountain hare bait. Photo by RSPB Scotland]

Wildlife crime officers from Police Scotland responded immediately and the eagle’s corpse and the poisoned bait were sent for toxicology tests.

For some reason yet to be explained, Police Scotland did not immediately apply for a warrant to search properties at Invercauld Estate. Given the physical evidence from the scene, and the history of raptor persecution in this area, I would argue that the police had sufficient evidence to apply for a warrant without delay.

But they didn’t.

Instead, they waited for almost seven weeks before conducting a search under warrant, and they conducted this search when there was snow on the ground. It was an utterly pointless exercise because by then the news of this poisoned eagle was out, and had been out for weeks, certainly in game-keepering circles (as evidenced by posts on social media) and shooting industry circles (as evidenced by this post from Scottish Land & Estates, here). The perpetrator(s) had been given all the time in the world to ensure every scrap of evidence was removed before the search party arrived.

Now, it could be that Police Scotland was waiting for the toxicology results to be confirmed prior to applying for a warrant. A positive result would certainly increase the justification for a warrant to be issued, although looking at the crime scene photograph it should have been pretty bloody obvious what had happened and thus sufficiently evidenced to secure a warrant.

Whatever. Hopefully the police’s decision-making process in this case will be reviewed and lessons will be learned because a seven week delay is simply not good enough.

However, we shouldn’t fall in to the trap of believing that had a search been conducted immediately after the discovery of the poisoned eagle, that the perpetrator(s) would have been discovered, charged and prosecuted. It just doesn’t work like that.

Where these crimes are uncovered on massive, privately-owned estates where multiple people are employed, it is virtually impossible for the police to identify the perpetrator with sufficient evidence to charge them. In all the years that golden eagles have been illegally killed in Scotland, there has never once been a successful prosecution. Not one.

Even though large driven grouse shooting estates generally operate with a clear hierarchical structure, where a named person is hired as a ‘beatkeeper’ for a particular part of the estate, and he/she is answerable to the head keeper, when it comes to police interviews we know that ALL the keepers from across the whole estate will either (a) deny that one person has responsibility for a given area or (b) will give ‘no comment’ interviews. This leaves the police with nowhere to go with their investigation.

It’s not the police’s fault – although they suffer the brunt of the public’s frustration when these crimes go unpunished time and time again – it is the fault of ‘the system’, and that is the fault of the politicians for failing to effectively address it. And to some degree, it is our fault for not doing enough to pressurise the politicians to act.

Last November the Scottish Government took its biggest step yet and announced it was to introduce a licensing scheme for grouse shooting, partly to address ongoing environmental concerns about certain aspects of grouse moor management (particularly muirburn and the use of medicated grit) but also to address the issue of the ongoing killing of birds of prey. The discovery of this poisoned golden eagle goes some way to justify the Government’s decision to ignore Werritty’s recommendation to wait for yet another five years before doing anything.

The preparatory work for this licensing scheme should now begin in earnest as the SNP was re-elected last week. It remains to be seen exactly how a licensing scheme will be used to sanction estates where raptor persecution continues – if it’s anything like the Government’s previous attempts to address it (e.g. vicarious liability and General Licence restrictions) then we can expect more of the same atrocities and injustices which will lead campaigners to push for an outright ban on driven grouse shooting as the inevitable next step.

Many of us believe the time for a ban is now, particularly because enforcement of a licensing scheme will be so very difficult unless the Government introduces radical new measures such as unannounced spot checks with specialist detection dogs and the widespread use of covert surveillance equipment by an elite team of specialist investigators, paid for by hefty licence registration fees. It is up to us to push for stringent enforcement powers, increased investigatory powers for the SSPCA and a commitment from Government that if raptor persecution crimes are still evident under the new licensing regime that it will be scrapped and a ban on driven grouse shooting will be introduced with immediate effect. I look forward to seeing who is appointed as the new Environment Cabinet Secretary.

The question is, how any more golden eagles (or white-tailed eagles, buzzards, red kites, hen harriers, goshawks, peregrines, short-eared owls, tawny owls, kestrels, merlins, ospreys, marsh harriers, sparrowhawks etc) will suffer excruciating and savage deaths before the Government finally accepts that enough is enough?

For additional reading, I recommend this latest post from Nick Kempe on the ParkswatchScotland blog (Eagle persecution, land management and the Cairngorms National Park, here).