Inconsistent laws & funding puts UK wildlife in danger – new campaign from IFAW

Press release from the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), 10th May 2023.

INCONSISTENT LAWS & FUNDING PUTS UK WILDLIFE IN DANGER

Illegal wildlife crime such as fox hunting, badger baiting and hare coursing is going on under the radar in the UK, according to new research.  

Wild animals face horrific acts of cruelty by being poisoned, trapped and set upon by dogs. Inconsistent laws, a chronic shortage of resourcing and a lack of awareness of wildlife crime are enabling this problem.  

The report ‘Make wildlife matter—spotlight on wildlife crime: working with police and enforcers for change’, is based on these findings, according to a new comprehensive study commissioned by IFAW from criminologists at Nottingham Trent University and the University of Gloucestershire. The report shines a spotlight on how wild animals in the UK need greater protection. 

There are also mounting concerns about wildlife crime links to organised crime. Specifically, it found:  

• 81% of the police force respondents said they felt wildlife crime was linked to theft and dishonesty offences; 
• 50% highlighted links to firearms; 
• 38% linked it to drugs, and; 
• 50% believed wildlife crime was connected to violent crimes.   

Police, legal experts and NGOs cite wildlife crime’s ‘non-notifiable’ status as a major source of its inequality under the law. This means incidents do not have to be reported by the police to the Home Office that use these to compile national crime statistics. 

“Wildlife in the UK is already in crisis—being pushed to the brink through habitat loss, climate change and pollution. But these alarming findings show that criminals are purposefully going out of their way to harm or make profit from them,” Frances Goodrum, Head of Campaigns, IFAW UK said.   

“The fact that wildlife crime cannot be reported as a crime in a meaningful way means the government cannot measure or manage the current situation. Countless sinister crimes could be being committed—we simply do not know—it is all very ‘finger in the air’. This must change – our wildlife deserves better”, Goodrum added.  

Because wildlife crimes occur under such a veil of secrecy and in remote places, overstretched polices forces have difficulty allocating resources to investigate and prosecute them.  

To tackle the problem IFAW is launching a campaign called ‘make wildlife matter’. We are calling on the government to protect our precious wildlife by introducing the following measures:  

• Making wildlife crimes notifiable  
• Harmonising all UK wildlife law    
• Ensuring there is at least one dedicated full-time wildlife crime officer per force 
• Incorporating wildlife crime into the Policing Education Qualification Framework  
• Developing enforcement, prosecution and sentencing guidelines to combat inconsistencies around wildlife crime scenarios and how those should be dealt with. 

To sign the petition, please visit here.  

ENDS 

Calls for wildlife crimes to be made ‘notifiable’ in the UK are not new – many have been asking for this simple measure to be introduced for years, notably the umbrella organisation Wildlife & Countryside LINK (e.g. see here) – there are ongoing discussions between LINK’s Wildlife Crime Group and Ministers but little action has resulted.

To understand why it’s important that wildlife crimes become notifiable, as well as an explanation about other obstacles getting in the way of effective wildlife crime enforcement in the UK, it’s well worth reading this IFAW-commissioned research report (as mentioned in the press release, above):

Don’t forget to sign the IFAW petition so that a unified voice can be presented to the Rt Hon Chris Philp MP in his capacity as Minister of State for Crime, Policing and Fire, asking him to help make wildlife crimes notifiable so these crimes are officially recorded in national statistics. Petition is here.