WARNING – DISTRESSING IMAGES
Blog reader Tim Melling has provided the following photographs and words:
“I was out for a walk on the moors (with my wife) at about 2pm on 9 May 2023 on Langsett Moors at SE 184001 when we saw a male Red Grouse stumbling along the track in front of us. I could see that it’s left foot was missing and it’s right foot was just attached by a few tendons. It could not spring to take flight. Apart from the missing legs it didn’t seem weak or ill. We left it where we had found it. It looked to me like the legs had been snapped off, and I assumed it had been caught in a spring trap“.
The injuries, as horrific as they are, don’t appear to be fresh so this red grouse has been able to survive for some time after its traumatic injuries.
I agree with Tim’s assessment, that the injuries look to be consistent with the bird being caught in an uncovered spring trap*. A report published by the REVIVE coalition in 2020 provided the first quantitative estimate of the number of traps deployed on driven grouse moors in Scotland to eradicate predators, and that they often also catch non-target species (see here).
There isn’t an equivalent report for grouse moors in England that I’m aware of but anybody who’s spent time on the English moors will know that traps are also deployed routinely.
If that isn’t bad enough, that this is happening in a so-called National Park to support recreational shooting is beyond acceptable to many of us.
*Update: it’s been suggested on social media that these injuries are also consistent with a red grouse flying into a wire mesh fence at speed and getting stuck.
Raptor Persecution UK 
Were the RSPCA informed?
I think I might have taken it to be humanely put down , it would not survive like that sadly
Poor bird, once again, savaged and made to suffer by the depraved actions of a so called human being.
Had the bird been caught in an uncovered spring trap, then it could just have easily been any other species of bird, including raptors, curlews or lapwing.
Perhaps the matter should be reported to the police and probably the RSPB investigations team.
The injuries do not look as though they have been caused naturally, which might suggest the illegal use of a trap or snare?
Section 19(1) Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 allows a constable who has reasonable cause to suspect that any person is committing/has committed an offence under Part 1 (wildlife) WCA to stop and search them and to enter premises (other than a dwelling) for the purposes of searching for evidence or arresting the suspect.
The information may also be useful to both the police and RSPB of just what is taking place on Langsett moors, and may be a useful piece of intelligence in building up a bigger picture of wildlife crime which could be happening in the area.
Why we are permitting such horrendous things to happen to the wildlife in this country is beyond me.
Those responsible really do need properly dealing with.
Putting aside my first thoughts about possible pole-trapping going on. I would myself have been interested in nosying about the area to see the way they set up their legal stoat traps on logs / rails / planks set across streams. While I would say the recent legal requirement to use DOC traps, etc instead of Fenn 4 ‘s has generally raised the standards, this is not universal. I have noticed that when some Estates have changed over they generally use the DOC traps inside the proper (purposely manufactured) weld mesh tunnels, and good on them for doing that. But not everybody has. I have seen two Estates where they are using the new DOC traps but still inside old style shitty homemade tunnels in 50% of cases. Sometimes made crudely out stockmesh. On streams, after heavy floods have washed loads of grass & crap downstream and piled up against the log, I have many times seen that the homemade 3 sided wire tunnel has been washed away / bent over the side, leaving the trap sitting uncovered on the plank / rail without any cover above it. Thankfully it is usually in a disabled/ tripped (set off) state itself clogged with grass and rushes, but not always. I have actually seen the trap still set and still very much live. I think twice I have seen them like this and I have casually tripped them* myself while walking past, to prevent what may well have happened in this case.
* which would no doubt earn me an unpleasant confrontation with a lot of Mr Angry keepers, and earned thanks from only one or two.
So for god’s sake Mr Bigshot “moorland manager”, just buy the properly designed and robustly manufactured tunnel as well to partner every trap being used. Cant afford to do it right? Then you shouldn’t be setting a trap in the first place.
Hi Spaghnum Morose
If you see DOC traps in these inadequate tunnels please report them to the RSPB Crime Investigation Team. The manufacturer’s instructions on the size dimensions of their various trap tunnels are extremely precise.
Click to access doc200-predator-trap.pdf
The use of tunnels that don’t fulfil those instructions are potentially illegal.
This is part of the legislation governing the use of spring traps in England. The legislation in Scotland is similar.
The Spring Traps Approval (England) Order 2018
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2018/1190/made
“Approval of spring traps
2.—(1) For the purposes of section 8(3) of the Pests Act 1954, the following spring traps are approved, namely—
(a) any spring trap of a type and make specified in any entry in Column 1 of the Schedule; and
(b) any spring trap which is equivalent in all relevant respects to a spring trap of a type and make specified in any entry in Column 1 of the Schedule.
(2) The approvals given by paragraph (1) are subject in all cases to the conditions that—
(a) the trap must be used in accordance with the instructions (if any) provided by the manufacturer; and
(b) so far as is practicable without unreasonably compromising its use for killing or taking target species, the trap must be used in a manner that minimises the likelihood of its killing, taking or injuring non-target species;”
Schedule DOC Trap ‘conditions’:
“The trap must be set in an artificial tunnel constructed to the design specified by the Department of Conservation, using materials suitable for the purpose.
Where used in a run-through trap configuration, the trap may be used only for the purpose of killing rats, stoats and weasels.
The trap must be set in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions for the run-through configuration in a natural or artificial tunnel which is, in either case, suitable for the purpose.”
Hi Lizzbusy
Thanks. Yes I hear you, and I do pass on the more serious stuff (!) that I see or see signs of. RSPB are only a small (but dedicated) team, so they rightly have to prioritise and this sort of stuff (unless – importantly, it is an indicator of other worse goings on) would just get in their way. We need to pressure the Govt statutory authority to put in place a functioning reporting portal and employ a field team to check up on this (perceived) lower grade stuff.
I take your point. I, too, pass on less urgent information or my own suspicions on to a variety of wildlife investigation organisations – especially the RSPB.
Unfortunately wildlife legislation is hopeless. It needs a complete overhaul.
“(a) the trap must be used in accordance with the instructions (if any) provided by the manufacturer”
What happens if the manufacturer doesn’t provide instructions? (Hence the “if any” clause in the legislation). Or sub-standard instructions?
Looks to me very much like a gamekeeping own goal!
Grouse with smashed legs, Appears consistent with being in a spring-trap. No predators around to put it out of its misery . Just saying.
Unlikely to have been caused by flying into mesh fencing, far more likely that a wing would be damaged that way. Not many birds fly feet first, even when trying to avoid something.
Was this poor bird taken to be euthanised? I sincerely hope so.
Glad to see someone speak up for the welfare of red grouse – a really beautiful bird but one that can never win.
If someone with a gun doesn’t fell you, a raptor or some other predator awaits.
Or, so it seems, you might be maimed by a trap.
Someone should start a grousepersecutionuk.org blog.
Thanks to Tim Melling for this report.
It seems probable that this bird was caught in a trap and then released still alive by the gamekeeper. You wouldn’t want to kill a precious grouse would you?
“*Update: it’s been suggested on social media that these injuries are also consistent with a red grouse flying into a wire mesh fence at speed and getting stuck.”
That requires a Paxman “y-e-s”. IMO.
(I once had a spar euthanased because it had hit wire at speed. That was the veterinary assessment. Its wings were intact. But it had broken its spine. Its legs were intact, but were not working. The contact between brain and legs had been broken.)