Press release from Wildlife & Countryside LINK (29th November 2022):
Record high wildlife crime levels could be worsened by new Government law, warn wildlife campaigners
*Figures collected annually by nature organisations reveal that wildlife crime rates remained stubbornly high in 2021, following record highs in 2020
*Convictions for most wildlife crime types rose in 2021 from record lows in 2020, with hunting and bat crimes showing the biggest proportional increase in conviction rates (although from low baselines).
*Campaigners are warning reductions in wildlife protections in the Retained EU Law Bill could see further rises in wildlife crime and are calling on Government to stop the Bill and make crucial improvements to wildlife crime monitoring and enforcement recommended by the UN.
The annual Wildlife Crime Report compiled by Wildlife and Countryside Link, with information from groups including RSPB, WWF UK, and the League Against Cruel Sports, has shown that crime against wildlife in 2021 was at record levels. Wildlife crimes include, for example, hare coursing, persecution of birds of prey, badgers and bats, disturbance of seals and dolphins and illegal wildlife trade.
In England and Wales there were 1414 reported wildlife crime incidents (outside of fisheries), almost exactly the same level as in 2020 (1404). There were 3,337 fisheries crime reports in 2021, down from 4,163 in 2020. The scale of wildlife crime is likely to be far higher than the report details, due to lack of official recording and monitoring of most of the data relying on direct reports from members of the public to nature groups.
Dr Richard Benwell, CEO of Wildlife and Countryside Link, said: “Wildlife crime soared during the pandemic and remained at record levels this year. Progress on convictions is positive, and we welcome DEFRA’s efforts to stiffen sentencing, but overall that is of little use while the rate of successful prosecutions remains so low.
The snapshot in our report is likely to be a significant under-estimate of all kinds of wildlife offences. To get to grips with these cruel crimes, the Home Office should make wildlife crime notifiable, to help target resources and action to deal with hotspots of criminality.
The Retained EU Law Bill threatens to be a serious distraction, and could even lead to important wildlife laws being lost. Instead, seven years on from its publication, the Government should implement the Law Commission’s 2015 wildlife law report. Surely it is better to spend time and money improving laws that are as much as two centuries old, than wasting time reviewing effective environmental laws under the REUL bill.”
Martin Sims, Chair of Link’s Wildlife Crime Working Group, said: “We must empower police forces to act on wildlife crime. We already see how, with proper resources and training, a real difference can be made in the work against awful crimes like hare coursing. It’s the counties with well-funded and resourced projects in place where we’re seeing the most positive progress. Also essential to efforts to better protect our wildlife is making wildlife crime notifiable, and recorded in national statistics. This would better enable police forces to gauge the true extent of wildlife crime and to plan strategically to address it.”
The pandemic contributed to the high wildlife crime reporting figures in both 2020 and 2021. COVID-19 restrictions appear to have increased reporting of wildlife crimes in several ways. Opportunistic offenders may have felt that with the police busy enforcing social restrictions that wildlife could be harmed with relative impunity. With increased use of the countryside and coast in the pandemic more members of the public were also present to witness and report incidents of concern. Increased domestic tourism also played a role in increased wildlife disturbance of marine mammals.
There was a positive increase in convictions in some types of wildlife crime in 2021. But low levels of prosecutions and low conviction rates are an on-going challenge in tackling wildlife crime. Despite the number of convictions in 2021 being more than double the rate in 2020, there were still only 55 convictions for wildlife crimes in the whole year (if well-resourced and enforced fisheries crimes are excluded). And for hunting crimes alone more than half (53%) of prosecutions were unsuccessful in securing a conviction in 2021. This is compared to an 82% conviction rate across all crime. A lack of training and resources is central to this issue.
The report highlights the difference in what can be achieved with the right budget, training, and resources, with concerted action to tackle hare-coursing being a main factor in the increase in convictions in 2021. This follows a nationwide police operation to tackle the issue – Operation Galileo – achieving good results. Consequently 2021 saw the highest number of cases proceeded against accused hunting crimes since 2015, with 80 cases taken to court. The highest increases in prosecutions were in Norfolk and Suffolk where police forces were active in Operation Galileo and other police activities designed to reduce the impact of hare coursing. This policing focus corresponded with legislative action, which has seen hare coursing sanctions increased in the Policing, Crime Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 (rising to up to 6 months imprisonment and unlimited fines). Similar action needs now to be taken to enable the more effective prosecution of other hunting crimes, including the illegal hunting of foxes with dogs.
Despite this positive legislative move, one new Bill from Government could actively worsen wildlife crime. The Retained EU Law Bill is intended to ‘save, repeal, replace, restate or assimilate’ the retained EU law (known as REUL) applying in the UK within a set time period. These laws include the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017, which make it a criminal offence to damage the habitats of key species including badgers and bats. Such habitat offences form the majority of the wildlife crimes against badgers and bats. The Bill is likely to lead to the hasty rewriting of the regulations, potentially weakening the legislative underpinning for tackling common wildlife crimes.
To properly tackle the issue of wildlife crime, nature experts are calling for the following actions (most of which were also recommended by a UN report in 2021):
- Making wildlife crimes notifiable to the Home Office, so such crimes are officially recorded in national statistics. This would better enable police forces to gauge the true extent of wildlife crime and to plan strategically to address it.
- Increasing resources & training for wildlife crime teams in police forces. Significant investment in expanding wildlife and rural crime teams across police forces in England & Wales, and the placing of National Wildlife Crime Unit funding on a permanent basis, would enable further investigations, and lead to further successful prosecutions.
- Reforming wildlife crime legislation. Wildlife crime legislation in the UK is antiquated and disparate. A 2015 Law Commission report concluded these laws are ‘‘overly complicated, frequently contradictory and unduly prescriptive’’. Much of this stems from the need to prove ‘intention and recklessness’, which has stunted the potential for prosecution in even clear cases of harm being done to protected and endangered species.
- The immediate withdrawal of the Retained EU Law Bill. Retained EU laws include the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017, which (amongst other protections for habitats and species), make it a criminal offence to damage the habitats of key species including badgers and bats. These vital protections are at risk of being dropped or weakened, undermining the legislative foundation for tackling common wildlife crimes.
ENDS
Wildlife & Countryside LINK’s previous Wildlife Crime Reports can be read here and the 2021 report can be read here:
Raptor Persecution UK 
Alan Stewart’s books (see @wildlifeblog on twitter et al) should be required reading by all Police Force policy makers ; especially his recent novels, “Calls From The Wild” & now “Cruel Intentions ” – set in Bonnie Scotland, but very relevant everywhere (especially Dorset & Wiltshire!?!)
#OrganisedCrime #TrailHuntLies #RaptorPersecution #Stinkpits
Hi Folks Last weeks’ Countryfile had a rather good article on wildlife crime. Some of thepoints made were very interesting. Cheers and keep up the good work, Deb Frost ________________________________
Like many householders, during the winter months I will be putting out bird feeders, ensuring there is some shelter in my garden, and doing all I can to help nature get through winter. I already note an absence of bird numbers in my garden from previous years, which may have something to do with avian flu.
But whilst many households across the UK will be trying to do something positive for nature, really bad things are taking place the countryside.
A group of what can only be described as evil, cruel wicked people will be digging out badger setts with a view to setting dogs onto them, illegally chasing foxes and getting terrier men to dig them from the holes where they have fled so they can watch a pack of hounds tear the fox apart, setting illegal traps and putting out poison to rid shooting estates of anything which might interfere with game bird numbers, setting dogs against hares, going out lamping to see how much wildlife they can kill as they lurk about during the hours of darkness. Or doing many other abhorrent acts to cause suffering and death to our nations wildlife. I have even heard of reports of badgers being illegally killed and then placed at the roadside to look like the badger was struck by a vehicle when it was in fact illegally killed because of an irrational paranoia about bovine TB.
Then we have the money driven property developers and builders who will destroy bat roosts, or other precious habitats, so that they can cram in development and make as much money as possible from the hapless purchasers who were never told what was destroyed so that they could have their shiny new homes or development.
The section in the report on fisheries makes interesting reading as the scale of crime reaches from the lone angler, illegally fishing in rivers, to large scale commercial fishing in marine protected areas.
I am sure many readers to this blog will have witnessed roadside hedges smashed to matchwood, a practice often starting in late summer so that the hedge can provide neither food or shelter to wildlife over the winter months. Even worse are those who rip out hedges or cut down trees during spring or earlier summer when birds are nesting. Yet how many who are responsible for these practices are greedily snatching the public purse in the way of environmental grants?
How we treat animals and wildlife tells us a lot about what sort of people we really are.
It is interesting that some of the oldest religions in the world, – Jainism, Buddhism, and Hinduism all teach non violence to animals. It wasn’t until after Noah and the flood, that the Bible talks about God giving mankind the right to eat meat! Religion often codifies mankind’s ethics and morals. Interesting then that record high wildlife crimes are occurring at a time when a recent survey shows that less than half the population in supposedly Christian nation now no longer identify with that religion.
This report is not only a shocking revelation of the true scale and scope of wildlife crimes, it is also a testament to the inadequacies of legislation to protect wildlife, an indifference by politicians to actually do something, and a population who now live so far removed from nature that they are no longer aware of what is taking place, or have no interest.
When considering the organisations which support the Wildlife Crime report, what really hits me is not the organisations whose logo is printed at the end of the report, but the notable absences. Where is the support from NFU, Countryside Alliance, BASC, GWCT, Moorland Association, and the National Gamekeepers Organisation? Doesn’t wildlife crime also impact upon the lawful activities of these organisations and the people they represent?
Don’t these organisations also want greater and more enforceable protection for the wildlife and nature that they profess to protect?
Tackling wildlife crime is something that should unite everyone interested in preserving and protecting the countryside.
So why aren’t these organisations part of Wildlife and Countryside Link?
Divisive politics doesn’t help the victims of wildlife crime.
I only hope enlightened teachers find a way of introducing this report into schools and to the classes they teach, as I am sure many young people would demand action, just as they have done with climate change.