Further to the news that the RSPB and Wild Justice have put up a £10,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of the person who shot five young goshawks and dumped their bodies at the edge of The King’s Wood in Suffolk on Monday (see here), the bird news service Rare Bird Alert has launched a crowdfunder to increase the reward.
Here’s the wording of the crowdfunder, that went live earlier this morning:
On Monday 16th January 2023 officers from Suffolk Constabulary discovered the bodies of five dead Goshawks in Kings Forest, Suffolk.
Police have revealed that x-ray examination has shown all five birds had been shot. Further investigations are on-going.
A reward of £10,000 has been offered by the RSPB and Wild Justice for information leading to a conviction in connection with the birds.
Rare Bird Alert is setting up this appeal to increase that reward. If the reward is not paid out after a determinate period of time then it will be donated to the RSPB Investigations team for their continuing fight against raptor persecution.
We will not be silenced by those who kill birds of prey.
ENDS
Rare Bird Alert launched a similar fundraising appeal in 2015 after a rare Red-footed falcon was shot in Cambridgeshire (here), and that appeal raised over £2,700. It is hoped that this latest fundraiser provides the birding community with a constructive outlet for its anger at yet another appalling case of raptor persecution.
If you’d like to contribute, the crowdfunder page can be found here.
Further to the news that Suffolk Police have found five shot goshawks, dumped at the edge of the King’s Forest near Thetford (see here), conservation campaign group Wild Justice has partnered with the RSPB to increase the reward for information from £5,000 (here) to £10,000 (see here).
The five shot goshawks found by Suffolk Police on Monday 16th January 2023
“We are sick to the back teeth of the relentless illegal persecution of birds of prey in the UK, which is mostly associated with land managed for gamebird shooting, be that red grouse, pheasants or partridges. Indeed, it was our strength of feeling about raptor persecution, and our frustration at the failure of the Westminster and the devolved governments to tackle it effectively, that led to us founding Wild Justice in 2018. In partnership with the RSPB, we hope this substantial reward will encourage someone to come forward with information about whoever was responsible for this heinous crime, and that that information leads to a successful conviction“.
If you have any information, please call Suffolk Police on 101 and quote crime reference 37/3027/23. Alternatively, to get in touch anonymously, call the RSPB’s dedicated Raptor Crime Hotline on 0300 999 0101.
The BBC News website has picked up the news of this increased reward here and the Suffolk Live website has written about it here.
UPDATE 19th January 2023: Crowdfunder launched to increase reward for information on five shot goshawks found in Suffolk (here)
Further to this morning’s blog about Suffolk Police finding five shot goshawks on Monday, that had been dumped at the edge of the King’s Forest near Thetford (see here), the RSPB has issued an appeal for information and is offering a £5K reward, it’s highest ever.
The five juvenile goshawks. X-rays revealed all had been shot.
Here is the joint statement from the RSPB and Suffolk Police:
Five young birds of prey, identified as rare Goshawks, have been found dead in suspicious circumstances in a Suffolk Forest.
The birds were discovered on Monday 16 January at the edge of Kings Forest and reported to Suffolk Police, who x-rayed the birds as part of their investigation and found all five birds to contain multiple pieces of shot.
All birds of prey are protected by law, and to kill or injure one could result in jail and/or an unlimited fine.
The RSPB is working with Suffolk Police to help identify the culprit and has offered a reward of £5,000 to anyone who comes forward with information which leads to a conviction. This is the highest amount ever offered by the conservation charity, which has described the incident as ‘Utterly despicable.’
Goshawks are elusive birds of prey, around the size of a Buzzard, with yellow eyes and streaked undersides. They live quietly in forests in a handful of locations in the UK including Thetford Forest where these birds were found.
Mark Thomas, the RSPB’s Head of Investigations UK, said: “Anyone who values the natural world and abhors those who actively and criminally look to destroy it will feel as outraged as we do about this utterly despicable incident. We are calling on anyone who has information to come forward to the police.”
The RSPB and other specialists are assisting the police with their ongoing investigation.
The illegal killing of birds of prey remains a widespread national problem. The RSPB’s annual Birdcrime report for 2021, published in November 2022, revealed 108 confirmed incidents of birds of prey being shot, trapped or poisoned. However, the true number is likely to be far higher.
The report also found that Norfolk had the highest number of confirmed raptor persecution incidents than any other county in 2021.
Sergeant Brian Calver from Suffolk Police said: “This is a serious wildlife crime against an amazing schedule one bird of prey that was once driven to extinction in Britain. There is no place for such activity in modern times. Whoever is responsible for this needs to be brought to justice and I’d urge anybody with any information whatsoever to let us know.”
If you have any information, please call Suffolk Police on 101 and quote crime reference 37/3027/23. Alternatively, to get in touch anonymously, call the RSPB’s dedicated Raptor Crime Hotline on 0300 999 0101.
ENDS
UPDATE 5pm: Wild Justice also offers £5,000 reward (here)
UPDATE 19th January 2023: Crowdfunder launched to increase reward for information on five shot goshawks found in Suffolk (here)
Yesterday evening, Suffolk Police’s Rural, Wildlife & Heritage Unit posted an appeal on Twitter asking for information about the discovery of five young goshawks, reportedly shot and dumped in the King’s Forest, Suffolk.
The corpses were found on Monday (16th Jan 2023) at the Brandon end of the large car park area off the B1106, North Stow. Police say all five birds were x-rayed and all were found to contain shotgun pellets.
Some idiots from the shooting industry have been complaining on Twitter about what they perceive to be an ‘anti-shooting’ tweet from the police – anything to distract attention away from this disturbing crime, I guess.
One genius is even convinced that the x-ray image provided by the police is actually of a shot parrot and not one of the shot goshawks, despite it being explained to him in very simple terms by a qualified vet (@ThatVetSean) that the word ‘parrot’ appears in the corner of the x-ray image “because it’s a digital x-ray machine & veterinary software with handy preloaded settings enabling the operator to get a quality image in a single go. They’ll have chosen parrot as it’s comparable in size/anatomy, there isn’t a Goshawk setting“.
Well done to Suffolk Police’s Rural, Wildlife & Heritage Unit for issuing an impressively quick appeal for information.
If anyone has any information about who shot and dumped these goshawks, please contact Suffolk Police.
UPDATE 16.o5hrs: Five shot goshawks in Suffolk: RSPB offers £5,ooo reward for information (here)
UPDATE 5pm: Wild Justice also offers £5,000 reward (here)
UPDATE 19th January 2023: Crowdfunder launched to increase reward for information on five shot goshawks found in Suffolk (here)
UPDATE 20th January 2023: Shooting industry ‘offended’ about being asked to help identify the person who shot five goshawks (here)
UPDATE 28th March 2023: Suffolk Police arrest a man in connection with five shot goshawks found in Kings Forest in January (here)
UPDATE 7th June 2023: Man charged in relation to 5 shot goshawks found dumped in a forest carpark in January (here)
Last month I blogged about a poisoned red kite that had been found dead, laying close to a poisoned bait (a Lapwing, of all things) on Dava Moor, a grouse moor in the Scottish Highlands, just outside the boundary of the Cairngorms National Park (see here).
The poisoned red kite laying dead next to poisoned bait (a lapwing)
The poisoned red kite and the poisoned bait had been found after the kite’s satellite tag indicated the bird was dead on 21st May 2021 and Police Scotland launched an investigation. They collected the kite and the bait and sent them off to a specialist lab for toxicology analysis and they conducted a search of the grouse moor the following week. Toxicology tests confirmed the presence of poison in both the kite and the lapwing.
Sixteen months later in September 2022, Police Scotland notified the finder that ‘enquiries are complete, nobody has been charged and the case is now closed‘.
However, the police withheld the name of the poison, failed to issue an appeal for information, and failed to warn the public that dangerous poisons were in use in the area. The crime was only made public after a tip off to this blog. If I hadn’t been told about it, none of us would be any the wiser.
After writing the blog and criticising Police Scotland’s decision to keep this crime a secret, a journalist from The Strathy decided to submit a Freedom of Information request to Police Scotland to ask for more details. Last week they received a response:
The poison used to kill the red kite was Bendiocarb, a dangerously toxic substance so lethal that it has been an offence to even possess it in Scotland, let alone use it, since 2005.
The police also revealed that, “One individual was arrested, interviewed and released without charge due to insufficient evidence.
“No charges were ever brought because one of the main responsibilities of Police in Scotland is to investigate crimes and criminal offences and where there is a sufficiency of evidence, report the circumstances to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.
“Investigation of this particular incident did not provide sufficient evidence to charge any individual.
“To clarify, corroborative evidence is required to liable any charge in relation to the poisoning of birds of prey. The decision not to issue a press release was an operational one, balancing risk versus reward.
“To explain, the locus was remote, the bait and bird had been removed and no longer posed a risk.
“Given there was no nearby path it was deemed highly unlikely that any members of the public would have been able to provide useful or relevant witness evidence.
“From the main road nearest the locus any persons on the land would not have been able to identify any suspect given the distance involved. Further consideration was given in regards to the requirement not to alert the accused to the investigation at this time to aid further investigative strategies.
“Any intelligence identifying the methodology or focus of this activity could have been used to the advantage of the perpetrator to frustrate such investigations and/or seek support other individuals to do so.
“As such, any press release would have been detrimental to planned further enquiry and police activity.”
That’s just not acceptable. Yes of course, withhold details during the early stages of the investigation so as not to alert the offender, but not saying anything about it for 19 months after the offence was committed? That plays straight into the hands of the grouse-shooting industry whose representatives will (and have been) quite happily writing letters to national newspapers claiming that raptor persecution on grouse moors is an ‘historical issue’ and no longer a problem.
And even more importantly, it puts members of the public, and their pets, at risk of coming into contact with deadly poisons where they’d be least expecting it. Somebody had deliberately placed a deadly poisoned bait out in the open on that moor, with the intention to kill. Police Scotland stated, “the bait and bird had been removed and no longer posed a risk” but who knows how many more baits have been placed there? Where’s the duty of care from Police Scotland, to warn the public of this danger?
Police Scotland’s silence also misses an important opportunity to raise awareness amongst the public that these crimes ARE still being committed, and to encourage them to report anything suspicious that they may stumble across whilst out on the hills, as well as eroding public confidence and trust in the police’s interest in dealing with wildlife crime.
To be clear, I’m not criticising the initial police response to the report of the poisoned kite and the poisoned bait. By all accounts it was a rapid reaction and a thorough investigation by officers on the ground. This isn’t like Dorset Police’s botched response to a confirmed poisoning – where they refused to conduct a follow-up search to look for evidence after the discovery of a poisoned white-tailed eagle (see here). That the Dava Moor poisoning didn’t lead to a prosecution is not a reflection on the investigating officers at Police Scotland – everyone knows how difficult it is to get these despicable offenders into court.
But the decision, presumably made by senior officers, to keep quiet about it for so long? That sounds like a deliberate cover up to me.
I await with interest NatureScot’s decision about whether a General Licence restriction will be imposed on this grouse moor (see here).
This case exemplifies the importance of the Government’s forthcoming Wildlife Management (Grouse) Bill, where there is a proposal to utilise the civil burden of proof (the balance of probability) to determine whether a sanction should be imposed (i.e. the estate’s grouse shooting licence removed), rather than relying upon the criminal burden of proof (beyond reasonable doubt). Police Scotland has admitted, in its FoI response, that in this case corroborative evidence was required to progress any sanction. Had a grouse-shooting licence scheme been in place, the licence would probably, and in my opinion justifiably, have been revoked.
Over the weekend I was advised that a barn owl had reportedly been found dead inside a crow cage trap situated on a grouse moor in the notorious raptor persecution hotspot, the Angus Glens.
The discovery was apparently made during the first week of January 2023.
I understand the trap was tagged with the operator’s registration number (now a legal requirement in Scotland) and that the trap had not been disabled (i.e. the door hadn’t been removed/padlocked open) and so as far as the law is concerned, the trap was considered to be in-use, which means the trap operator has a legal obligation to check the trap at least once every 24 hours and release any non-target species. The General Licence conditions also state, ‘A check must be sufficient to determine whether there are any live or dead birds or other animals in the trap‘.
I asked Police Scotland to confirm the details of this case, whether a police search had been undertaken, if so, when, and what the current status is of the investigation?
After some hesitation, this afternoon a police spokesperson provided the following statement:
“The incident has been reported to police and enquiries are ongoing“.
There’s more to this case than meets the eye. Watch this space…
UPDATE 19th January 2023: This blog article was picked up by The Courier, here
A wildlife crime officer from Lincolnshire Police is warning of the risk to humans, dogs and cats from the dangerous substances used to illegally kill birds of prey.
Detective Constable Aaron Flint, from the Lincolnshire Police Rural Crime Action Team, is quoted in an article published two days ago on the BBC News website (here), where he says he is currently investigating four cases of bird poisonings (some examples here and here).
Detective Constable Aaron Flint from Lincolnshire Police’s Rural Crime Action Team
“It’s too many and it’s only a small proportion of the number of birds killed,” he said.
The wildlife officer said the substances used posed a real danger to dogs and cats, as well as people.
“I honestly think that one day we are going to have a human fatality.”
“Often the offenders will get a pigeon or a pheasant – cut it open and rip out the flesh so the meat is exposed and sprinkle on some poison.
“The poisons are often blue or green – or some other bright colour a child may be attracted to, and I really fear that one day a child is going to come across this, [touch it] and put their fingers in their mouth.”
He said those involved often used poison in an attempt to protect game birds, pigeons and chickens and wild fowl, with offending often fuelled by money.
The BBC article also quotes Howard Jones, an investigator from the RSPB, after the RSPB identified Lincolnshire as a ‘national hotspot’ for bird of prey persecution and reiterated that incidents are often linked to the raptors being targeted to protect pheasants and partridges raised for organised shoots.
“The danger with poisons is that they are completely indiscriminate,” said Howard.
The investigations officer said they had seen a record number of incidents across the UK in recent years, including in Norfolk, Dorset and Yorkshire, with a significant number of reports currently being investigated in Lincolnshire.
According to Mr Jones, the “vast majority” of cases being dealt with by the courts involved gamekeepers.
He said the motivation to kill birds of prey was driven by the fact they were viewed as a predator of game birds, but the sentences handed out were often too lenient to act as a deterrent.
Cases involving poisons or illegal shooting should result in a jail sentence, he said.
“If there is someone out there placing poison baits in the open countryside anything that can come into contact with the poison is at risk,” he said.
“It is highly dangerous – some of the substances being used would be fatal to humans,” he added.
Well done to DC Aaron Flint and his colleagues at Lincolnshire Police. This is exactly the sort of proactive police messaging, and strong partnership-working, that should be routine rather than the exception.
Kent Police Appeal for Information (9th January 2023):
Unlawful killing of owl in Upchurch.
Kent Police’s Rural Task Force is investigating the suspected killing of a tawny owl in Upchurch.
The incident is believed to have happened in October 2022 and officers have recently come into possession of images of two men they would like to speak to.
Police Sergeant Darren Walshaw said: “We suspect an owl was killed using catapults and are now issuing photographs of two people who may be able to assist with our enquiries. Anybody who recognises one or both of them is urged to contact our appeal line.”
Anyone with information should call 01634 792209, quoting Rural Task Force reference 95-22. You can also call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800555111 or complete the online form on the website.
Five days ago, 54 year old gamekeeper Paul Allen pleaded guilty to seven counts of wildlife, poisons and firearms offences, which he committed in March 2021 whilst working on the Shaftesbury Estate in Dorset (see here).
A poisoned red kite had been found dead on the estate in November 2020 (confirmed Bendiocarb poisoning) which triggered a multi-agency search of his premises in March 2021. During that search, investigators found nine dead buzzards (six confirmed shot, the remains of 3 others were pulled out of the ashes of a bonfire), three lots of banned poisons (Bendiocarb, Strychnine and Cymag), a loaded shotgun propped up behind his kitchen door (instead of being inside a locked gun cabinet) and some shotgun ammunition, for which he didn’t have a licence, was found in an unlocked outbuilding.
Four of the nine dead buzzards found by investigators. Photo: RSPB
Allen’s court hearing last week generated widespread local, regional and national media coverage so I fully expected to see full and frank statements of condemnation of his crimes by the game-shooting industry – you know, the industry that claims to have ‘zero tolerance’ of raptor persecution.
I was especially interested in the responses of those game-shooting organisations that serve on the national Raptor Persecution Priority Delivery Group (RPPDG). One of the main stated objectives of the RPPDG is to raise awareness of raptor persecution crimes with the wider public and to encourage people to report such crimes to the police.
Five days on from Allen’s multiple guilty pleas, here’s what those organisations had to say in condemnation:
British Association for Shooting & Conservation (BASC) – nothing
Countryside Alliance – nothing
Country, Land & Business Association (CLA) – nothing
National Gamekeepers Organisation (NGO) – nothing
Oh, no, hang on a minute, something was posted on the National Gamekeepers Organisation website, the day after Allen’s guilty pleas, as follows, under the headline, ‘Gamekeeper has NGO membership suspended‘:
Does this statement of ‘membership suspension’ relate to gamekeeper Paul Allen? Who knows? It’s deliberately cryptic and any casual visitor to the NGO membership wouldn’t have a scoobies to who or what this statement referred. I think that’s the intention. ‘Don’t draw attention to our criminal members and certainly don’t condemn the crimes this one has committed and subsequently admitted to after being caught with all those dead raptors, banned poisons and unsafe firearms and ammunition because it’ll tarnish the image we’ve been so desperately trying to present to the world‘.
It’s been suggested to me that perhaps all these organisations are waiting to make their statements of ‘zero tolerance’ until after Allen has been sentenced next month. Perhaps they are. Although I remember the same excuse was suggested when gamekeeper John Orrey was convicted last year and then sentenced at a later date. How many of them condemned his criminal activities (beating buzzards to death with a stick) after he was sentenced? Take a look for yourselves (here).
I don’t know who’s advising the PR strategy of the game-shooting industry but I suspect the decent, law-abiding members of these shooting organisations will be furious that their so-called leaders are refusing to distance them from the criminals within.
So, the illegal killing continues, the shooting industry organisations say nothing, and public anger grows.
Thanks, BASC, CA, CLA, NGO et al – this is only heading in one direction and you’re all helping it reach the end game so much more quickly than we could get it there on our own. Cheers.
Raptor Persecution UK 