Month: February 2022

Grouse moor lobby group furious about public reporting peatland fires to RSPB

Last autumn the RSPB launched an online reporting system for members of the public to document moorland fires (muirburn) to help build a picture of where heather moorland is being set alight as part of so-called grouse moor ‘management’ (see here).

[Gamekeepers setting fire to a grouse moor in NE Scotland a few days ago. Photo by RPUK contributor]

A few days ago the RSPB renewed its call for muirburn reports from the public with the aid of a free APP to make it a simple process (see here).

The RSPB also provided this infographic analysing the reports it had received between October 2021 – January 2022, providing evidence that muirburn was taking place on peat which is obviously of huge concern in this period of climate crisis. There was also evidence that burning was taking place in protected areas which is now illegal unless an individual licence has been granted:

England’s grouse moor owners’ lobby group, the Moorland Association, reacted to the RSPB’s request for information with the following tweet:

Gosh, it’s almost as though they’ve got something to hide.

And they do like hiding things. Author Gill Lewis responded to the tweet with a perfectly reasonable and polite reply, explaining (as if they didn’t know) why setting fire to grouse moors is an issue. In response, the Moorland Association used the new Twitter feature to ‘hide’ Gill’s message, making it more difficult for people to read it:

The RSPB also responded to the Moorland Association’s tweet, again explaining for the hard of understanding why these reports are important:

The moorland burning season continues to April 15th (which can be extended to 30th April in Scotland with landowners’ permission) so if you’re heading out to the hills, do consider downloading the RSPB’s APP and sending in reports – they’ll be put to good use and will help hold the grouse moor owners to account. Reports are welcome from England and Scotland.

UPDATE 9th March 2022: RSPB records peatland fires on grouse moors in supposedly protected areas (here)

Marsh harrier dies in suspected rodenticide poisoning

An article from Jersey Evening Post, 3rd February 2022

Death of ‘iconic’ bird of prey leads to rat poison warning

ISLANDERS should take care when laying rat poison after a marsh harrier was found dead in St Ouen’s Bay, an environmentalist has said.

Bob Tompkins said the bird of prey was recently found lying face down by National Trust rangers. A post-mortem examination by the JSPCA revealed that the likely cause of death was rodenticide poisoning.

‘One is too many,’ Mr Tompkins said, describing the bird’s death as ‘completely avoidable’.

‘They are an iconic bird, like the red kite or the golden eagle.’

Several peregrine falcons were poisoned in Guernsey over the space of a year recently, an act which Mr Tompkins said ‘was deliberate’.

‘I am not saying that is the case here,’ said Mr Tompkins, but he added that it was a ‘possibility’.

‘If you need to put rodenticide poison out, make sure it is done in a professional manner,’ Mr Tompkins stressed.

Leaving poison out in the open carried a risk of rats dying in the open, he said, adding that these would then be feasted on by carrion eaters such as marsh harriers, barn owls and buzzards, another bird which the environmentalist said had recently been killed by poison.

The deceased marsh harrier was found in otherwise peak condition without a mark on it, he said, but had blood in and around its mouth, beak and digestive system, prompting concerns that it had swallowed a large amount of poison.

Mr Thompson added that birds that did not die straight away suffered the long-term effects, causing a decline in their condition and making them easy prey, as the poison built up in their system.

Poisonings had a ‘domino effect’ on the wider ecosystem, said Mr Tompkins, with birds less able to raise their young successfully, an egg’s chances of survival being reduced and the poison passed on to chicks. He cited one case in which he had come across a nest of barn-owl chicks, which were ‘obviously blind’.

Writing in today’s Nature pages, Mr Tompkins said it was ‘always concerning when a high-profile bird is found dead’.

It was ‘something, unfortunately, that is all too commonly seen in raptors and carrion eaters’, he added.

ENDS

Andy Wightman awarded over £170K expenses in defamation case

It’s been almost two years since a judge threw out a defamation claim against Andy Wightman and a ludicrous claim for £750,000 damages against him, made by Dr Paul O’Donoghue of Wildcat Haven Enterprises [and Wilder Britain and Lynx UK Trust and various other assorted outfits], who had argued that Andy had published, with malice, defamatory material on his blog, on Twitter and on Facebook in 2015 and 2016 (see here).

Andy’s defence drew widespread support and he successfully crowdfunded approx £170K to help fund legal representation.

Since he won the case, Andy has been waiting to find out whether his legal costs would be paid for by O’Donoghue.

[Andy Wightman with a young golden eagle. Photo by Ruth Tingay]

Many of this blog’s readers donated to Andy’s crowdfunder and those who did would have received the following email from Andy yesterday:

Wildcat Haven Enterprises CIC vs Wightman Expenses

Dear Donor,

Following my previous email, I am pleased to report that I have been awarded expenses of £170, 973.31. My final legal bill will be short of £200,000. The pursuer [O’Donaghue] has 14 days in which to object to the award.

There is a £110,000 bond of caution lodged in the Court of Session [from the pursuer] which will be released once the settlement is finalised.

With another £25,000-£30,000 of expenses I anticipate refunding £80,000 of the approx. £170,000 raised in crowdfunded donations and so you can anticipate being offered over 45% of your donation. Options to donate to two good causes, to support my ongoing campaigning work, or to claim a refund will be offered. I hope to be in touch again shortly.

Best wishes, Andy

Lord Newby to pursue DEFRA Minister Lord Benyon on pheasant-dumping

Following on from yesterday’s blog where I wrote about DEFRA Minister Lord Richard Benyon’s wilful blindness when it comes to tackling the illegal killing of birds of prey on gamebird shooting estates (here), there was a further exchange in the House of Lords about gamebird shooting, including several Lords’ unfounded claims that lead-shot gamebirds are ‘healthy‘ and ‘about the most nutritious food that you can possibly eat‘ (!!) and Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Natalie Bennett’s) well-informed question to Lord Benyon about the environmental impact of releasing 60+ million non-native gamebirds in to the countryside every year.

There was an additional exchange between Lord Newby (Dick Newby, Leader of the Lib Dems in the House of Lords) and Benyon:

I find it totally implausible that a DEFRA Minister, with a long-term personal interest in gamebird shooting (he owns a pheasant-shooting estate in Berkshire and a grouse moor in Scotland and was a former Trustee of the GWCT) would ‘not have any evidence’ of pheasant-dumping, especially given several high profile incidents in recent years, the most recent featuring on ITV news just last week!

Benyon told Dick Newby that if evidence could be produced he’d be ‘happy to discuss it with officials and with Natural England’.

So I tweeted Dick Newby this morning and gave him a link to this blog post which documents widespread pheasant dumping incidents in Cheshire, Scottish borders (here), Norfolk (here), Perthshire (here), Berkshire (here), North York Moors National Park (here) and some more in North York Moors National Park (here) and even more in North Yorkshire (here), Co. Derry (here), West Yorkshire (here), and again in West Yorkshire (here), N Wales (here), mid-Wales (here), Leicestershire (here), Lincolnshire (here), Somerset (here), Derbyshire’s Peak District National Park (here), Suffolk (here), Leicestershire again (here), Liverpool (here), even more in North Wales (here) even more in Wales, again (here), and in Wiltshire (here).

Within just four minutes of receiving my tweet, Dick Newey responded with this:

Impressive. Let’s see how he gets on.

For those interested in the full exchange in the House of Lords yesterday, the Hansard transcript can be read here.

DEFRA Minister Lord Benyon’s wilful blindness on tackling raptor persecution on gamebird shooting estates

This really won’t come as any surprise to anyone who’s followed this blog for any length of time but god, it’s depressing.

Today in the House of Lords the following exchange took place between Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Sue Hayman, a life peer serving as Shadow Spokesperson for Environment Food & Rural Affairs) and the Rt Hon Lord Richard Benyon (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at DEFRA and a pheasant shoot and grouse moor owner):

Sue Hayman was of course referring to the recent criminal conviction of gamekeeper John Orrey, who was filmed by the RSPB battering to death two buzzards that he’d caught inside a trap on a pheasant shoot in Nottinghamshire (see here). The United Nations report on UK wildlife crime to which she referred was quietly published by DEFRA just before Christmas without any fanfare whatsoever. You can read it here:

uk_toolkit_reportDownload

Benyon’s response to Sue Hayman’s question about how the Westminster Government intends to take forward the recommendations of this report, which includes the licensing of gamebird shoots, was risible but not unexpected – he’s got form.

Note in his response the use of the word ‘can’. “Unlimited fines and up to six-month custodial sentences can be awarded where people commit these hideous acts” [of raptor persecution]. Yes, they ‘can’, but when are they ever? When has there EVER been a custodial sentence?

That’s an easy one to answer. Once, in Scotland, in 2014, when a gamekeeper was filmed by the RSPB trapping and then battering to death a goshawk (see here).

Before that, nothing. After that, nothing.

Given his long term connection with the gamebird shooting industry, including a period as a Trustee of the GWCT, Benyon should be well aware that raptor killers are rarely brought before the courts and when they are, they’re given sentences that offer virtually no deterrent to anyone else who might be thinking of committing the same offence.

It’s not even as though his previous work portfolio hasn’t included this subject (see here).

He should also be well aware through his current work portfolio that raptor persecution crime is not diminishing, as evidenced by the RSPB’s most recent Birdcrime report which demonstrated that 2020 was the ‘worst year on record’ for crimes against birds of prey (here).

Today’s exchange wasn’t the only example of Benyon displaying wilful blindness, as discussed in my earlier blog today about the dumping of shot pheasants, a widespread practice Benyon claimed to know nothing about (here). More on that shortly.

Vested interests + wilful blindness + holding positions of power = 68 years of raptor persecution associated with gamebird shooting in the UK, and counting.

UPDATE 4th February 2022: Lord Newby to pursue DEFRA Minister Lord Benyon on pheasant dumping (here)

More shot pheasants dumped – Wiltshire this time

And so it continues….

Wiltshire Hunt Saboteurs have posted the following on Twitter this morning:

There was also shocking footage shown on ITV News yesterday of how at least five hunts are breaching the regulations about the disposal of animal carcasses under a ‘Fallen Stock Service’ for farmers. Amongst the horror revealed in covert camera footage was the dumping of shot partridges. The locations were not given. The report is well worth reading and there’s an embedded video but be warned, it includes distressing images – HERE.

Earlier today, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at DEFRA and pheasant shoot owner, the Rt Hon Lord Benyon, was speaking in the House of Lords about gamebird shooting and was asked about pheasant dumping. Benyon claimed to have no knowledge of it taking place! I’ll blog more about his jaw-dropping statements once the transcript is available but in the interim I have tweeted links to the following incidents of pheasant dumping that I’ve have been cataloguing on this site for a few years, including:

Dumped gamebirds in Cheshire, Scottish borders (here), Norfolk (here), Perthshire (here), Berkshire (here), North York Moors National Park (here) and some more in North York Moors National Park (here) and even more in North Yorkshire (here), Co. Derry (here), West Yorkshire (here), and again in West Yorkshire (here), N Wales (here), mid-Wales (here), Leicestershire (here), Lincolnshire (here), Somerset (here), Derbyshire’s Peak District National Park (here), Suffolk (here), Leicestershire again (here), Liverpool (here), even more in North Wales (here) and most recently in Wales, again (here).

The evidence is clear, Lord Benyon, for those who choose to see.

Awkward….

An advert in this week’s edition of Shooting Times:

One of these ‘prestigious game shoots’, advertised here as ‘hugely successful’ appears to be Dyfi Falls, currently under a multi-agency investigation after covert video footage by the League Against Cruel Sports revealed a gamekeeper from Cambrian Birds flinging shot pheasant carcasses down a disused mine shaft on the edge of a Site of Special Scientific Interest (see here, here and here).

Awkward…

Game-shooting industry scrupulously ignoring the mass dumping of shot pheasants

The video footage published last week showing a gamekeeper tossing shot pheasants (and what appears to be other unidentified wildlife) down a disused mineshaft after a shooting day was a shocker, on so many levels.

If you missed it, here it is again:

We know where this took place (Dyfi Falls, mid-Wales) and when it took place (2nd November 2021) because the League Against Cruel Sports, whose investigators had installed the covert camera, told us all in a press release published on 27th January 2022 (here).

We even know who was responsible – a gamekeeper employed by sporting agency Cambrian Birds Ltd who ‘manage’ this particular shoot. How do we know? Because a spokesperson for the estate told ITV news (here).

With the unequivocal video evidence and the public admission of responsibility, this appalling incident wasn’t one that the game-shooting industry could subsequently deny, which seems to be its usual default setting. No, its pants were well and truly down on this one.

Instead, what we’re seeing is the industry moving to default setting #2, which is to ignore all the evidence and hope it goes away soon. Not one of the main game-shooting organisations has drawn attention to this incident, let alone condemned it in the news sections of their websites, which I find extraordinary for an industry under so much scrutiny and pressure to clean itself up.

I think a lot of the decision to remain silent rests with the fact it was the League Against Cruel Sports who secured the footage and publicised it. The game-shooting industry detests the League, almost as much as it does the RSPB, which is probably why STILL none of the game-shooting organisations have condemned the actions of gamekeeper John Orrey, who was sentenced last week for multiple wildlife crime & firearms offences, including battering to death two buzzards, because it was RSPB footage that nailed him.

It makes no difference to me whether the game-shooting organisations screw up their PR on these crimes – it’s their sordid little industry that’s on the line and it’s not my job to save it.

However, I am very interested in how the statutory authorities deal with these issues. It’s harder for them to deny what’s going on (although some of them try!) and it’s harder for them to ignore it when organisations like the League and the RSPB are putting the evidence right under their noses.

But it seems to me that the Welsh Government’s agency Natural Resources Wales (NRW) and Dyfed & Powys Police have been doing their best to ignore this pheasant-dumping case. The footage was filmed on 2nd November 2021 and I understand that NRW and the police were notified on 17th November 2021.

It’s now 1st February 2022. What have they been doing since mid-November? How long does an investigation take when you’ve got footage of the incident and an admission from the landowner about who was involved? Have they even started an investigation?

Watch this space.

UPDATE 2nd February 2022: Awkward….(here)