An appeal for information by Derbyshire Police’s Rural Crime Team (21st August 2022):
‘Back in June this year a larch tree at Westend in the Upper Derwent Valley which was home to a pair of goshawks was found to have been interfered with. Sadly, the birds abandoned the site and it was discovered that the tree had drilled holes and bolts all the way up it which we believe to be evidence of how the nest had been accessed. A local ornithologist had confirmed the presence of eggs in the nest prior to all this but had then found the be no longer there.
[A goshawk nest, photo by Archant]
With help from Forestry England staff a forensic examination was carried out on the tree and items were submitted to the lab.
We are appealing to anyone who may be able to provide information to help with this enquiry.
Thank you‘.
ENDS
[Photo of the forensic examination of the goshawk’s nest tree. Photo by Derbyshire Police]
Goshawks in the Dark Peak area of the Peak District National Park have been the target of relentless illegal persecution for decades, along with a number of other raptor species including peregrine and hen harrier (the most recent incident reported earlier this summer – here).
The majority of these crimes have been linked to driven grouse shooting. For new blog readers, the following reports and scientific papers provide good background evidence:
An article in The Observer yesterday made a bold claim that red grouse had been removed from the menu at The Ritz, and this was heralded as a ‘victory for environment campaigners’.
The article goes on to claim:
‘But those hoping to eat the tiny game bird in the gilded Ritz dining room in London will be out of luck this year, as the world-famous hotel has quietly removed it from the menu after an outcry from environmental campaigners.
The Ritz usually supports the Glorious Twelfth, enlisting executive chef John Williams to create a special grouse dish. Last year, it wrote on Instagram: “Every year the Chef creates an exciting new dish, showcasing grouse, honouring the very best of British produce. On the menu this year, for a limited time only, will be Grouse, Celeriac, Juniper and Walnut”.
No such dish has been created this year……’
That’s just simply not true. I downloaded a menu from The Ritz’s website on Tuesday (16th August) and they were advertising Yorkshire Grouse on their weekly lunchtime menu:
The Observer article yesterday continues:
‘Those calling the hotel to ask if they can dine on grouse in the grand dining room are being discreetly told that they are not serving it because of supply issues‘.
However, this morning the menu is still offering red grouse:
The Observer article doesn’t appear to be the result of sloppy journalism. The journalist responsible, Helena Horton, is a seasoned writer on environmental issues and has clearly done her due diligence checks because she’d asked The Ritz to comment. The last line of her article reads:
‘The Ritz declined to comment but confirmed that grouse is not currently on the menu‘.
It’s all a bit odd.
Elsewhere in the article, there’s a quote from another high-end London restaurant offering red grouse this year, Corrigans in Mayfair. Chef Richard Corrigan is quoted:
“We have some grouse on at the moment. I want to make sure our grouse comes from good places – we don’t take it from the more intensive shoots. I love the whole idea of country pursuits but I am much more aware these days of the cost of intensive grouse operations. I get mine from walked-up shoots, not driven. Large driven shoots – it doesn’t sit easy with me any more“.
At face value this quote sounds very promising indeed. Is the message about the massive environmental damage caused by intensive driven grouse shooting finally getting through? Maybe, but I’m cynical enough to want to learn more about the exact provenance of the grouse on the menu and what due diligence checks Corrigan has undertaken to ensure his grouse are sustainably sourced, as he claims. And then there’s the small matter of whether they’ve been shot with toxic lead ammunition.
A quick look at the Corrigan’s menu reveals that Foie Gras is still on offer. I might be wrong, of course, but I find it hard to believe that a restaurant still prepared to sell a food whose production in the UK would be illegal under animal welfare legislation would be sufficiently concerned about the environmental havoc created by driven grouse shooting to demand sustainably-sourced red grouse.
Here’s another senior MSP who decided to disregard the three-year sanction imposed in June this year on Moy Estate after Police Scotland provided evidence to demonstrate wildlife crime had taken place on the estate, notably the discovery of a poisoned red kite and incidents related to alleged trapping offences, although the estate has long been recognised as a raptor persecution hotspot (e.g. see here, scroll down to below the press release).
Sir Edward Mountain, 4th Baronet, the Scottish Conservative’s Deputy Chief Whip, attended Moy Game Fair earlier this month to present prizes on behalf of BASC:
So that’s now two senior MSPs (former Cabinet Secretary Fergus Ewing MSP was the other one), the Scottish Gamekeepers Association, Scottish Land & Estates, and BASC who all seem to have a very strange approach to the notion of ‘zero tolerance’ of raptor persecution.
Some of you might remember Ed Mountain claiming, in 2017, that he’d be “the fiercest critic” of anyone killing raptors. It was a claim he made in a guest article he wrote for the Scottish Gamekeepers Association’s quarterly rag. Here’s a reminder of what he wrote:
‘I believe that challenging the ‘spectre’ [of land management reform] is vital, if the very countryside we all value and love is to be maintained. The way to do this is by standing tall and laying out a stall, for all to see the benefits positive management has to offer. The problem is that every time it looks like the right story is being delivered another case of wildlife crime comes to light. If there is any chance of moving forward we must stop these idiots, who believe illegally killing raptors is acceptable.
I therefore would urge all organisations that represent country folk to stand up and let people know all the good work that is being done for conservation. At the same time, they also need to vilify those that break the law.
Over the next 4.5 years I look forward to working with the SGA and I will do all I can to defend the values you and your members believe in. However, I must also say that I will be the fiercest critic of those that jeopardise these values by breaking the law‘.
I asked at the time whether he’d put these strong words into action, but just a few months later he seemed reticent (see here).
This year he had the perfect opportunity to stand by his stated commitment against raptor persecution and boycott the Moy Estate. His actions, and those of his shooting industry mates, speak volumes.
Press release from the Scottish SPCA (17th August 2022):
Appeal for information after Jackdaw caught in illegal trap in Airdrie
The Scottish SPCA has appealed for information after a Jackdaw was found in an illegal spring trap in Plains, Airdrie, on 18th May 2022.
Scotland’s animal welfare charity was alerted to the incident by a member of the public who discovered the live bird in the trap.
A Scottish SPCA special investigations unit inspector, who cannot be named due to undercover operations, said: “Sadly, the Jackdaw caught in the trap had sustained such horrendous injuries that they had to be put to sleep to end their suffering.
“The bird was caught in the trap by their left leg. A post mortem showed the leg had a severe open fracture and was partially amputated causing severe pain and suffering.
“The spring trap was illegally set and had deer legs scattered around it as bait, in what appears to be a deliberate attempt to attract wild birds.
“We are appealing to the local community to pass on any information relating to a person, or persons, illegally killing birds, particularly birds of prey.
“These traps are unlawful and indiscriminate and will cause unnecessary suffering to any bird or animal caught in them.
“If anyone knows who this device might belong to then we would urge them to phone our animal helpline immediately on 03000 999 999. All calls can be treated confidentially.
“Equally, if anyone spots an illegal trap such as this, or a trap or snare they suspect is illegal, please don’t hesitate to contact us.”
Last week, amid widespread concerns about gamebird-shooting during the current avian flu epidemic, the RSPB called for a moratorium on gamebird releases to help limit the catastrophic spread of this highly contagious virus (see here).
In a typical year, approximately 61 million non-native gamebirds (pheasants and red-legged partridges) are released into the UK countryside to be shot. This year the number has been reduced considerably due to an import ban on gamebird eggs from France, where many of the UK shooting industry’s gamebirds are sourced (see here), although birds sourced from UK game farms are unaffected by the ban and have already been released. How many, and where, is anyone’s guess.
In the run up to the RSPB’s call for a moratorium on gamebird releases, Scottish Greens MSP Mark Ruskell had lodged a number of written questions on the subject.
These have now been answered by Environment Minister Mairi McAllan but her responses are contradictory and the claims made seem highly unlikely.
Apparently, the Government is ‘closely monitoring’ the potential spread of avian flu from gamebirds to wild birds, but there isn’t any detail on what that ‘close monitoring’ entails:
And if you look at the Minister’s next response, that ‘close monitoring’ looks even more unlikely given that the Government is not considering, nor does it intend to consider, a full registration scheme of all non-native gamebird releases:
Mark Ruskell also asked under what circumstances a moratorium on gamebird releases would be considered by the Scottish Government. The answer? ‘Where it would be in the public interest’. That hasn’t been defined either:
It’s hard to have any confidence in the Government’s commitment to this issue, given its complete indifference to the spread of another contagious disease, Crypotosporidiosis, and the known threat it poses to wild birds caused by the overstocking of gamebirds (here).
The Hunt Saboteurs Association (HSA) has once again turned its attention to driven grouse shoots and since the season opened on Friday, it has successfully halted three grouse shoots in the Yorkshire Dales National Park and Peak District National Park.
[Photo by Hunt Saboteurs Association]
Ian Botham is reported to be one of those affected after a grouse shoot in the Peak District was targeted. The HSA has posted this image which it says is Botham driving off the moor:
Blogs about these latest sabbing events can be read on the HSA website here and here.
It looks like the HSA is set to continue its activities throughout the grouse-shooting season. A quote from an HSA spokesperson reads:
‘On the day that drought was declared across the country, grouse shooters have taken to tinder-dry moorland to blast away at our wildlife. What are they thinking? Every year, these selfish, entitled people kill hundreds of thousands of birds, burn precious upland areas and litter the landscape with traps and snares. Our message to grouse shooters is a simple one: expect us’.
Millden Estate, the (now former) employer of depraved gamekeeper Rhys Owen Davies, sentenced to jail earlier this month for his crimes including animal cruelty and some pretty serious firearms offences (see here), is managed for gamebird shooting by a sporting agency called BH Sporting Ltd, which is owned solely by Nicholas Baikie.
Shooting estates under the management of Mr Baikie are the subject of many discussions amongst raptor workers and his name often comes up: “Oh, it’s a Baikie estate” is heard with almost as much frequency as, “Oh, it’s an Osborne estate”. I might come back to this in a future blog.
Anyway, these two individuals are associated with the management of many, many shooting estates across Scotland and England since their time at the notorious Leadhills Estate in the early 2000s. Between 2003-2006 Osborne was listed as a Director of Leadhills Sporting Ltd, a company who held the sporting rights at Leadhills. Baikie is reported to have been one of his gamekeepers before apparently training as a land agent under Osborne (according to this court document) and then setting up his own consultancy on grouse moor management, including taking on Millden Estate in the Angus Glens, which has been on Baikie’s books now for many years.
For someone in such high demand in the grouse-shooting world, Baikie keeps a relatively low online profile.
Now, according to the website of British Game Assurance (formerly the British Game Alliance but rebranded in the last year), BH Sporting is one of a number of sporting agents that have:
‘COMMITTED TO A GOAL OF OFFERING SPORTING DAYS EXCLUSIVELY ON SHOOTS AND ESTATES THAT ARE MEMBERS OF THE BRITISH GAME ASSURANCE FROM THE START OF THE 2023 SEASON. THIS WILL ENSURE THAT THE PROMOTED VENUES ARE ALL PARTICIPATING IN THE INDEPENDENTLY AUDITED ASSURANCE SCHEME, DEMONSTRATING THAT THE SHOOTING SECTOR IS ADHERING TO BEST PRACTICE AT ALL TIMES‘.
Shurely shome mishtake?
How can BH Sporting (or its sole director, Nick Baikie), be certain that any estate on which it offers shooting ‘is adhering to best practice at all times’?
This is the sporting agency that failed to notice the ‘obvious injuries‘ (quote from the Crown Office) to five of gamekeeper Davies’ dogs. Here’s a photo of two of those mutilated dogs, tied to what looks like an estate vehicle. Pretty hard to miss, I’d say:
This is also the sporting agency that failed to notice the very serious and reckless firearms offences committed by Davies at his tied cottage on Millden Estate.
This is also the sporting agency that failed to notice the three bags of dead raptors reportedly found on Millden Estate during a joint SSPCA/Police Scotland raid in October 2019 and apparently containing at least three shot buzzards.
This is also the sporting agency that failed to notice the ‘horrendous catalogue‘ of wildlife crimes uncovered over many years on Millden Estate (for which Millden Estate has repeatedly denied responsibility and for which nobody has ever been prosecuted).
Funny, all these things this sporting agency failed to notice and yet Nick Baikie was reportedly invited to show around Professor Werritty and co during the Govt-commissioned Werritty Review into grouse moor management, where Millden Estate was held as an example of ‘best practice’. Whose idea was that??!
And now we’re supposed to accept that as from the 2023 shooting season, BH Sporting will only offer shooting on estates that have demonstrated ‘best practice’? What due diligence has the British Game Alliance done on this?
Is Millden Estate registered as a British Game Assurance member? We don’t know, because the names of all the BGA-endorsed shoots were removed from the BGA website several years ago, resulting in criticism of the BGA for its lack of transparency and accuracy (here), two fairly important commodities when you’re asking the public to trust your brand, I’d have thought. But maybe that’s just me.
I’m sure it won’t be the last criticism of the BGA. In fact I know it won’t be the last, because there’s another sporting agent listed on the BGA website whose presence undermines the entire credibility of the BGA and what it claims to represent. More soon.
A three-page spread devoted to the carnage wrought by driven grouse shooting has been published in The Herald today, including a lead-in from the front page:
This feature article by journalist Neil Mackay is based on a series of interviews with members of REVIVE, the coalition for grouse moor reform.
It includes details of the hundreds of thousands of animals (e.g. foxes, stoats, weasels, crows) lawfully killed on grouse moors every year in order to increase the number of grouse available to be shot, in addition to the ongoing unlawful killing of birds of prey, again, to enhance the number of red grouse available to be shot for entertainment. And all this in the middle of a biodiversity crisis.
It also covers muirburn (the burning of heather on peatland), surely the stupidest idea in a climate emergency, as well as taking apart the grouse shooting industry’s claims about the so-called economic and employment benefits of this tawdry ‘sport’. REVIVE’s campaign manager Max Wiszniewski is quoted: “If the Scottish economy was the size of Ben Nevis, then the [contribution of the] grouse moor industry would be the size of an Irn Bru bottle”.
Amanda Burgauer, director of think-tank Common Weal and a REVIVE partner, says: “There are a lot better uses for land than grouse moors which would be much more productive for communities, biodiversity and the economy. We should start looking at grouse shooting as something the Victorians did”. She also suggests a public campaign to make grouse shooting “morally abhorrent” as was done around drink-driving.
There’s nothing in the article that regular blog readers won’t already be aware of but having a three-page feature in a national paper will bring this subject to the attention of many new readers, and judging by the reaction I’ve seen on social media, it’s done exactly that.
For new blog readers, welcome, and if you want to find out more about the work of REVIVE and its campaign for grouse moor reform, please visit the website here. If you’d like a more in-depth understanding, have a look at REVIVE’s publications page here.
Last week I wrote about how former Cabinet Secretary Fergus Ewing MSP, the Scottish Gamekeepers Association, and landowners’ lobby group Scottish Land & Estates had shown complete disregard for the sanction imposed on Moy Estate after raptor persecution crimes had been recorded there (see here).
This week it’s the turn of the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) to seemingly turn a blind eye.
Have a look at this event currently being promoted on GWCT’s website:
Regular readers will know that Hilborough House is the home of William van Cutsem. In May this year, police raided the estate after video footage emerged of alleged raptor persecution.
The footage, captured on a secret camera installed by the Hunt Investigation Team, appeared to show a crow cage trap in woodland alleged to be on the Hilborough Estate. The trap had been baited with live pigeons (this is an offence) and a young goshawk was attracted to the bait, entered the trap and then couldn’t escape. A masked man is then recorded entering the trap, pinning the goshawk to the side netting with a stick so he could grab the bird, and then removing it from the trap and walking away with it (also an offence). The goshawk’s fate is not shown.
As far as I’m aware, the police investigation is ongoing.
Mr Van Cutsem hasn’t commented publicly about this investigation although in a classic attempt at diversion, the Mail on Sundayran a piece quoting ‘an unnamed source close to Mr van Cutsem’ who questioned the relationship between the Hunt Investigation Team and the RSPB:
‘What also is interesting is how close HIT works with the RSPB. It would be good to understand how a mainstream charity is working with a shady group’.
An opinion piece published in The Scotsman today, written by Max Wiszniewski, Campaign Manager for REVIVE, the coalition for grouse moor reform:
If grouse shooting never existed and large landowners wanted to start it up today, would you be in or would you be out?
Today marks the beginning of Scotland’s grouse shooting season – traditionally known as the ‘Glorious Twelfth’ of August – which is now seen as a highly controversial date in the calendar. From now until December 10, many thousands of grouse are legally allowed to be shot by, what will ultimately be, just a few people for sport.
So, what is grouse shooting, why has the killing of this iconic Scottish bird become a past-time amongst some of our societal elites and why is it rightly seen as so completely controversial today?
Grouse shooting can take place in more than one form including walked-up shooting but it is driven grouse shooting which is the dominant form and which causes the greatest and most significant societal discord.
Driven grouse shooting is the practice of using a line of ‘beaters’ to drive red grouse over the heads of shooters waiting behind shooting ‘butts’ – who attempt to kill as many of these native birds as possible.
The need for ‘high bag numbers’ on shoot days is what drives a circle of destruction that surrounds the industry, and the intensity of those land management practices has significantly increased since Victorian times when the blood-sport was invented.
Early moorland management involved heather burning to provide an enhanced habitat for breeding and predators were totally eliminated, including many of Scotland’s birds of prey.
This led to a rapid increase in the red grouse population with record numbers of over 2,000 birds killed in a single day. These early days of grouse moor management were accompanied by dramatic fluctuations in grouse numbers due to outbreaks of disease.
In 2022, these management practices largely continue with some important differences in the literal and political landscape. While grouse can be shot for some people’s amusement, birds of prey are now legally protected and recent decades have seen the introduction of high-strength medicated grit stations to combat population fluctuations and the spread of disease that is inevitably present in high densities of grouse.
Grouse ingest mineral grit to assist the digestion of heather, so grouse moor managers provide them with an alternative source of grit, coated with the pharmaceutical worming drug Flubendazole. Some estates, unhappy with the results of using double-strength medicated grit, are now using super-strength medication of up to 20 times the concentration of the original anthelmintic drug, according to a well-known grouse moor manager.
The distribution of a toxic pharmaceutical drug that seeps across the landscape and into the food chain represents a level of intensification that transforms moorland from a semi natural-environment into a quasi-domesticated farmed environment – keeping grouse numbers unnaturally high, for sport shooting. This is far from the wholesome and natural countryside experience that grouse moor managers would have you believe it is.
Coinciding with increasingly intensive management practices, while legally protected, it’s the continuing persecution of birds of prey (including golden eagles and hen harriers) that has increased the infamy of the relentless grouse shooting industry.
A 2017 Scottish Government report showed that out of 131 satellite-tagged eagles, about a third had disappeared, presumably died, under suspicious circumstances prompting legislative action that is due in this parliamentary term. Since then, raptor persecution has continued, even amidst a pandemic lockdown.
[This young golden eagle was found deliberately poisoned on a grouse moor on Invercauld Estate in the Cairngorms National Park. The carcass next to it is a mountain hare, used as a poisoned bait. Photo by RSPB]
Grouse moors are due to be licenced by the Scottish Government, which means that if a wildlife crime is committed on a grouse moor then it could lose it’s licence to operate. However, the problems of driven grouse shooting go much further than widespread evidence of illegal activities. The circle of destruction that surrounds grouse shooting even goes beyond the mass chemical medication on our moors.
The muirburn season sees huge swathes of Scotland’s uplands burned, to make the local landscape more suitable for grouse – so more of them can be shot for sport.
This risks the vital peatland that occupies much of our upland moors which emit carbon in a degraded state as opposed to sequestering it. Meanwhile the muirburn monocultures deprive our uplands of a larger mosaic of alternative biodiversity – which would still include heather – keeping the land in a dry and fragile state.
Unregulated bulldozed hill tracks scar the landscape to make life easier for shooters and grouse moor managers. Tons of lead shot is sprayed across the countryside.
Untold thousands of animals like foxes, stoats, weasels and crows still suffer needlessly on grouse moors via snares and traps – just so more grouse can be shot for sport. Does this sound like the modern progressive Scotland we all aspire to?
When the Scottish Government licenses shooting estates, they need to tackle it all. They need to end the entire circle of destruction and get to the heart of the problem – driven grouse shooting. Is the desire of just a few people to shoot more birds justification enough for such damage to our wildlife and the environment? Especially considering the economic returns, to the public at least, are so tiny for all the land it uses up.
If you’re on the fence and you are still to decide whether to support Revive’s reform agenda, then ask yourself the following.
If grouse shooting never existed and large landowners wanted to start it up today – they would make the case for burning the landscape, degrading our peatlands, mass-medicating a supposedly wild bird with high-strength toxic chemicals, killing tens of thousands of other wild animals while spraying grouse with poisonous lead shot for three months, every year – just so more grouse can be shot for sport.
Would you be in, or would you be out?
ENDS
If you want to find out more about the REVIVE coalition’s campaign for grouse moor reform in Scotland, please visit their website here.
Raptor Persecution UK 