Further to the news that 20 hen harriers have gone ‘missing’ in the last year (many of them on grouse moors in the Yorkshire Dales National Park), as well as the discovery of a mutilated hen harrier corpse, whose head and leg was ripped off whilst the harrier was still alive, also in the National Park (see here and here), the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority has published a statement:
RESPONSE TO THE DEATH OF ‘FREE’, A NATURAL ENGLAND TAGGED HARRIER
Friday, 5th May 2023
David Butterworth, Chief Executive of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, said:
“It’s astonishing that 21 Hen Harriers have disappeared across Northern England in 12-months, and sickening to hear that ‘Free’, a Natural England tagged hen harrier has been found dead, headless and missing a leg in an area of moorland in the National Park.
“After so many years of illegal bird of prey persecution in the area you might think we would become more immune to this pathetic criminality. We never should.
“Locally, we have seen some tentatively encouraging results in recent years in terms of successful breeding of hen harriers, with the strong support of some land owners. However, that progress will be rendered utterly worthless if these attacks are allowed to continue.
“It is shameful that we still have individuals among our local communities who take part in these atrocities. I would strongly urge anyone with any information on this incident to come forward. This has to stop”.
Killing birds of prey is illegal. Anyone with concerns about a possible wildlife crime should call 101, and anyone witnessing a suspected wildlife crime should call 999 and ask for the Police.
ENDS
Raptor Persecution UK 
We need to follow the Scottish government’s example and aim to have some form of licence system for grouse shooting. The next Labour government will have grouse Moor shooting in their sights!!!
are you just saying that or do you know really that Labour will do something about this damn horrible shooting which is just done to give more money to landowners who already have enough and more. it a horrific shame that humans cannot elave nature to take its own course. the landowners have their fields to grow crops and have the odd poor old cows and sheep/ still not enough for some.
Personally I don’t believe it IS just done for money. There is clearly some kind of blood-lust and hooked beak hatred going on amongst certain sections of the “countryside” community.
probably egged on by a few small groups and done just for the fun of it
how will a licence stop the killing?
That depends entirely on the wording of the licence.
Heart breaking utterly sickening and deeply depressing news about the hen harrier atrocities. I live near Kirkby Stephen so the Dales are on my doorstep. Unfortunately I do not have any information about these crimes and I feel powerless and frustrated. I am hoping progress will be made to safeguard these birds.
Fox Hunts are successfully being stopped in their quest for kicks and watch foxes ripped apart. could you do the same and get groups to be out there and put some hidden cameras out so that small groups voer the main times these game keepers are out there which I imagine, could be, early hrs?
Are they, I’ve not noticed
Have you failed to notice all of the hunts that are folding?
over the last 20 yrs or so the numbers of Hunt Sabs and Monitors has grown and how to get Hunts closed down have grown . The same is probably needed to stop the killing of Hen Harriers and other birds but it needs Monitors who can cover the hrs that the traps are laid and keep photographic records of it all ,as is done now. someone mentioned that tourism is affected by all this laying traps and shooting so I suggest that the locals need to step up more and get more and more people to be out there and cover the early hrs too.
In a single month (November 2022) the League Against Cruel Sports reported 95 suspected illegal hunting incidents, and a further 208 incidents of harassment, traffic disruption, trespass and livestock worrying.
More than 200 hunts paraded through towns on Boxing Day, 2022, with Dorset, Yorkshire, Somerset, Warwickshire and Gloucestershire being the worst.
Wikipedia report there are 149 foxhound packs in England, 34 in Wales, 12 in Scotland and 6 in Northern Ireland, as recognised by the Masters of Foxhounds Association.
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_foxhound_packs_of_the_United_Kingdom#Northern_Ireland
At last the Parks seem to be coming out of their corner. David could well have added that Raptor persecution is undermining the image of our upland National Parks – and is a contributing factor to these areas not being acceptable as ‘protected landscapes’.
absolutely. would people want to go out the National Parks knowing whats going on.
what sort of evil is this? who would do this? how can we find out and know who to face with this horror. Could the land owners workforce be responsible? if so, what can be done?
This is only going to stop when you remove grouse and the so called game wardens from the place . I know you get all sorts of whining from said wardens we are not doing it there is lots of info that points to tbem being the main guilty party there are the odd misguided muppets.that shoot because they do not know the birds by outline but the blame in.the main lies with the gamekeepers .
Thanks for your patience and work in exposing these delinquent characters. And their wealthy bosses.
There is only one community with the motive, the opportunity, the wherewithal and the reward. That is those employed to maximise the grouse population. The killing won’t stop until grouse shooting is outlawed!
The Park is still using language like ‘individuals’, which just reinforces the ‘few bad apples’ nonsense from the shooting lobby. There is nothing to stop the Park from talking about an ‘industry problem’ which better reflects the scale of the problem and which should not put off the few ‘good apples’ in the industry who recognise their problem.
Agreed that Mr Butterworth’s comments are only a start to the condemnation required. I just hope his statement doesn’t trigger the kind of reaction which is meted out to Wild Justice key figures.
what kind of individual has the capability to stalk and capture
such wary creatures in their natural habitat, but even more sinister,
what kind of monstrous mentality could then mutilate them?
It won’t, the whole idea is senseless and farts about the edges rather than dealing with the core issue.
The best way to control your enemy is to empathise with them and pretend to help them whilst gleaning influence, access and control. XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX The Landowners, BASC and various connected shooting interests are almost rabidly in support of it because of exactly the reasons above. Whilst they are involved they have full access to everything with the express permission and involvement of Natural England. Therefore the Hen Harrier numbers are controlled by shooting interests, rather than conservationists, a brilliant piece of subterfuge. The very same landowners who claim to be passionately for Hen Harriers will be laughing loudly behind closed doors about how remarkably stupid we all are, because we are.
A number of the county wildlife trusts had and still have ardent blood sports enthusiasts sat on their committees, until activists exposed them.
The bottom line is this, if you involve bloodsports organisation and people, in anything to do with conservation, they will use it purely and simply as a means of serving their selfish vile wants.
ALL BLOOD SPORTS, ALL ANIMAL CRUELTY CAUSED BY HUMAN ANIMALS IS ONE OF THE LOWEST DEPRAVED ACTS there is !
I would suggest that the entire narrative on birds of prey is being driven by criminals.
These criminals are destroying and completely masking the conservation work which some of the more enlightened and responsible landowners within the National Park are undertaking.
I note that many of the grouse moors in the National parks display notices regarding ground nesting birds and the necessity to keep dogs on a lead. I would suggest that in addition to these public notices, the Parks Authority, Police and NE should also start to put up notices on the access points to those moors where the criminal persecution is happening, highlighting the wildlife crimes which are taking place and asking the public to report suspicious activity.
This would help to highlight those grouse moors suspected of being involved in the persecution, it may help deter those responsible and it would highlight those landowners who are failing to stop the criminal activity which is happening on their land.
It would also be proportionate to the scale of illegal persecution which is taking place, and I think the public certainly have a right to know just how the National Parks are failing to provide a safe environment for the nations wildlife.
This criminal behaviour can not be allowed to continue- those who are committing these crimes are nothing but criminals, and there should be no place for them in the countryside , in moorland management, and especially within the National Parks .
That is an excellent idea! Simple but effective. If the authorities disagree, they need to be held to explain why? Are they protecting the criminals? (We almost certainly know the job description of these sadistic misfits, but I won’t state it here) This is a really good idea. Hope it sees the light of day.
This has previously happened in the North Pennines AONB, where warning signs about raptor persecution were prominently placed by AONB partnership staff on public notice boards, in pubs and cafes etc in the area. See:
and
Natural England think its a good idea to continue killing Hen Harriers. this tells me that it is a far right thing and helps the landowners and their game keepers and their little friends whom they pay to help kil these beautiful Hen Harriers and other birds too. You can try and tell me that the landowners don’t like them being killed which makes me think you are either very naive or telling lies- which is it?
John – as Ruth points out, the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (NP AONB) did put up posters in the villages near where two buzzards were shot.
Unfortunately where these posters were put up, they were quickly removed. I and a few friends kept informing the NP AONB of their removal and we and they made copies which were also removed very quickly. In addition we put stickers up on posts around the area but these were gone almost immediately.
Whilst the NP AONB were responsive to the offences, businesses were very wary of taking and displaying posters. The posters were simply asking the public for help and highlighted the incidents that had occurred locally.
One major hotel we approached had no poster up so we asked them if we could give them one to display. The receptionist told us that they had been given posters but they decided to keep them in a drawer where they could be given to people who enquired!
The trouble is this pub, like many of the shops, property and facilities in the area, is owned by the very people who own the grouse moors or they are frequented by people who work for them.
It’s unfortunate but true that shooting estates have massive influence in the areas in which they operate.
Having said that, we must continue to try to hold these estates to account. Even the short length of time these posters were up on display clearly ruffled feathers.
“I would suggest that in addition to these public notices, the Parks Authority, Police and NE should also start to put up notices on the access points to those moors where the criminal persecution is happening, highlighting the wildlife crimes which are taking place and asking the public to report suspicious activity.”
First point: the Parks Authority do not own the land. The vast, private, estates within the Parks – where persecution of predators is a way-of-life – are owned by the very people who direct such activity. I doubt they would be willing for any such notices to be displayed on their property.
Second point: these estates not only employ significant numbers of local residents, but many local businesses also have to exist under their financial ‘patronage’. It would be a brave business person to go against the unspoken wishes of the ‘shooting estates’ and display such notices on their property.
It works in a similar way to how the Mafia works… but with Royal and high-level political ‘approval’, which is why it is so difficult for civil society to eradicate.