Further to yesterday’s news that a member of the public witnessed the shooting of a red kite on Lochindorb Estate on Monday morning (see here), I’ve been looking to see how the game-shooting industry has responded to Police Scotland’s appeal for information.
You’ll recall that this is the game-shooting industry whose organisations routinely state they have a ‘zero tolerance’ policy towards raptor persecution, in which case you’d think they’d be quick to condemn this latest crime and call on their members to assist the police in any way they can.
So far, I haven’t found any statements of condemnation on the websites of the Scottish Gamekeepers Association, BASC, or the Countryside Alliance.
I did find a statement on the website of Scottish Land & Estates (SLE), the grouse moor owners’ lobby group, as follows:
It’s good to see a prompt response from SLE (their statement was published yesterday) and it’s also good to see SLE urging its members and readers to assist with the police investigation.
Although I couldn’t help but notice that Lochindorb Estate isn’t named, and nor is the fact that Police Scotland is particularly interested in receiving information relating to quad bikes and off-road vehicles seen in the area at the time of the shooting.
If anyone does have information, please contact Police Scotland on 101, quoting incident number 1760 of Monday, 27 March, or make a call anonymously to the charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
Raptor Persecution UK 
The reality is that the shooting industries umbrella organisations have very little or no control over the criminals responsible for raptor persecution. So it is very doubtful this appeal by the SLE will lead to any substantial evidence being provided to the police.
If game shooting was a properly regulated industry then the shooting industries umbrella organisations would perhaps have far greater influence over what happens on the grouse moors, and any suspension of a licence under the Scottish governments proposed grouse moor licensing scheme could perhaps also be reinforced by further sanctions against rogue estates by the shooting industries umbrella organisations.
It will therefore be very interesting to see how these umbrella organisations respond when the final details of the proposed grouse moor licensing regulations are announced.
I would suggest it will be the time when they have to really nail their colours to the mast!
This incident further weakens any case the shooting industry has against the introduction of grouse-moor licensing in Scotland. It couldn’t happen at a worse time for them – the one known fact is that a shooter committed this crime.
So who is likely to have been in the vicinity, with a gun, at that particular time? Hopefully the Police appeal for vehicle details might mean that they are already onto something in this respect.
Most estates have either locked gates or lots of signs about unauthorised vehicles, and certainly don’t tolerate the unknown and great unwashed just driving around their playgrounds willy nilly.
there is nothing round lochindord for poachers to shoot apart from grouse..only people round there going about with guns are the keepers..you very rarley see any kind of raptors on the whole moor up there
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Well actually at Lochindorb there are no locked gates and it is open moorland which anyone can access. It would seem that your knowledge of the situation is not as strong as your bias and prejudice.
I laughed at the piece in the article about red kites eating worms and voles. There are no worms on a grouse moor as the worms can’t tolerate the acid. There aren’t a lot of voles either.
On a grouse moor raptors feed mainly on grouse and if there are no grouse moors it won’t be long before there aren’t any raptors. Most of you antis are too dumb to realise that.
Hilarious…
https://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/1064/
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10592-019-01215-y
https://raptorpersecutionuk.org/2014/04/15/new-research-suggests-langholm-buzzards-not-that-fussed-about-eating-red-grouse/
Click to access Birds_of_prey.pdf
Hi Joe, regards voles – you should contact the GWCT field researchers asap and advise them not to waste any more of their time (and money – pumped in by their benefactors in the industry). They will be interested to learn from you that “…there aren’t a lot of voles either [on a grouse moor]…” but they may feel silly that they have wasted decades studying how fluctuations in vole numbers are a big factor in the levels of predation on grouse by foxes, weasels, harriers & buzzards. But maybe you reckon the GWCT are also as dumb as the “antis” you refer to?
It is laughable. Perhaps they should just appeal to their members xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx and be seen to take action against any estate named by the police?
xxxxx xxxxx will know exactly who shot the bird of prey. xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Why assume it was to do with the estate,could have been a rogue shooter,even antis have been known to find a bird dead of natural causes then shot it and then dumped it on the estate were their any other witnesses that corroborate the reporters accusations?
And your evidence?
I’m sorry, you might not have understood my reply. So let me put it as unambiguously as possible…
Can you, Peter wright (small “w”), provide those here with any evidence (not just what the bloke down the pub said) to support your assertion that…
“even antis have been known to find a bird dead of natural causes then shot it and then dumped it on the estate”?
No? Thought not.
The bloke down the pub it is, then. Or did you make it up all by yourself?