The news this week that at least 98 hen harriers are now known to have either ‘disappeared’ in suspicious circumstances or been found illegally killed, mostly on or close to grouse moors (here) is not something the Moorland Association wants anyone to highlight.
That’s hardly a surprise – this is the lobby group for grouse moor owners in England and it has a well-deserved reputation for distorting the truth when it comes to raptor persecution (e.g. see here, here, here, here, here, here, here etc etc).
What is a surprise, though, is the staggering indifference it has just demonstrated to the ongoing illegal persecution of hen harriers on grouse moors. The indifference isn’t staggering, but the decision to display it so publicly is astonishingly stupid.
It posted this tweet yesterday, in response to the news of the 98 ‘missing’/killed hen harriers since 2018:
The tweet has attracted a great deal of online criticism, and deservedly so.
I pointed out that it was like saying, ‘Allegations that 221 women have been killed in the UK since the murder of Sarah Everard wilfully ignores the increase in the human population, now at its highest for 100 years‘.
Mark Harris tweeted: ‘I robbed a bank yesterday and the police came to arrest me. They wilfully ignored the fact the bank’s profits are at an all time high‘.
There are others, but my favourite response so far is from Gavin Deane, who wrote to the Moorland Association: ‘Your post would only make sense if your position was that persecution is acceptable so long as there’s enough breeding success. Perhaps that is your position, but it shouldn’t be. Breeding success is irrelevant to RPUK’s point‘.
I think Gavin nails it. As I wrote the other day (here), one of the main concerns about DEFRA/Natural England’s decision to ‘reintroduce’ hen harriers to southern England is that it will provide a distraction to what’s going on on northern grouse moors. It’ll allow the grouse moor lobby to claim that hen harriers are doing ok in the south (assuming they survive) and so there’s no need to worry about focusing resources/time/attention to the ongoing criminality on the grouse moors.
In my view, the Moorland Association’s tweet has just demonstrated that very position.
Meanwhile, I asked the Moorland Association if they’d like to chat about the number of hen harriers that have suspiciously ‘disappeared’ on grouse moors, or been found illegally shot, since Natural England’s last update in May.
The Moorland Association’s response? They’ve blocked me.
Not to worry, the news will be out soon enough and it’ll be fascinating to see how they try to limit the negative press – they’re going to have one hell of a job on their hands, given the number that have disappeared / been killed in the last three months.
Raptor Persecution UK 
For a kick-off, a statement of demonstrable fact is not, in any sense an “allegation”. Wilful ignorance of the English language?
The Coop must understand that the core problem remains that grouse moors managed for driven grouse shooting provide.blood sport jollies for some of the wealthiest arseholes on the face of the planet, including members of the royal family. Coincidentally, it will be argued that this pastime does provide employment for gamekeepers and commercial opportunities for the eye warteringly expensive Tweed clothing industry and the impossibly expensive exclusive sporting shotgun industry. (Although these industries are critically important to the impossibly rich, their contribution to the national economy is best left out of the argument). However, it remains the case that all raptor species together with snakes ,mustelids, foxes wildcats and, for gods sake, hares! Are regarded as vermin by many gamekeepers employed by the owners of land managed for driven grouse shooting.
?
Yes I can see what their game is, get a load of Harriers going down south then it doesnt matter as much about ours as theyre not really a rare bird. But even if there was a few hundred new Harriers established down south, grouse shooting would still be demonised and wished to be banned, for many its a mental thing a sort of class envy or despicable feelings towards the guns, shooting birds for their self pleasure, .
We are at a crossroads, where anything could happen in the next few years.
The shooting fraternity and certainly not the law breaking ones have not helped their cause one bit with the general public, with all these crimes coming to light, greater condemnation should have been made than has been.
Sheep stealers are ostracized , they have to leave the area.
Things are improving, harriers are increasing, but all to slow and probably all too late, the damage has already been done, be warned be squeaky clean, every case coming up is another nail in the coffin of shooting. Do not not kill protected creatures.
Nuff said
Don’t worry: there are enough criminal gamekeepers in the Pewsey area of Wiltshire for this to augment the arguments against the criminality associated with game shooting.
Excellent blog Ruth, thank you, and I love the quotes.
The Moorland Assoc think that shooting the messenger is fair game. No surprise there, they shoot xxxxx xxxxx. “We cannot allow Hen Harriers back on the moors” was an earlier attributed quote of theirs I believe.
its about par for the course with these Rsoles, deflect, claim the information is wrong or at best distorted and then carry on regardless. Infuriating but that typical arrogance is what in the end will end their hegemony over our uplands when their so called sport is cast into the pit of history and most of us will be better than pleased. And when amanda turns up at Hen Harrier days we are asked to be welcoming and polite, I have managed to politely ignore her despite having other options in mind.
The 98 hen harriers that have gone missing (presumed killed) were tagged individuals. We don’t know how many untagged individuals have been killed but we must assume that the overall number of birds that have met untimely ends is considerably in excess of 100.
Increased breeding success is to no avail if the fledged birds are doomed to be shot before they can breed themselves.
Hi Jonathan, the 98 that are listed on this site weren’t all tagged (one example being the male found in a trap which Chris Packham holds in a photo, he wasn’t tagged). But to me your point still holds, there will have been way more than 98 killed since 2018. Nevermind ones that never even hatched as a result of persecution i.e. nesting efforts deserted by being disturbed with dogs, or eggs deliberately spoilt (shaking them / bags of ice cubes dumped on nest), etc.
Yes, fair point although the great majority were disappearances of tagged birds. Unfortunately the small number of instances where the killing was witnessed or the bodies found illustrate how easy it is for criminals to kill these birds without anyone seeing. It is sad – and infuriating – to realise that the known disappearances and incidents comprise only a part of the overall slaughter.
What you all fail to grasp is the fact that breeding success is not of great importance to these people because the breeding figures may rise but that matters not one jot because these gamekeepers know they will have no trouble in making them dissapear and face no risk of prosecution . It’s just a way of life and Labour will be no better than this lot we have now.
Ruth Tingay is a propagandist. Most if not all of the comments and answers above are by her. She meddles with the pageview counter of the website to exaggerate visitor numbers. To get a true idea of her popularity have a look at Hen Harrier “Fest”. Raptors are not persecuted. A life of fabrication and BS. Embarrassing.
Is this meant to be satire? Or are you really a liar and an idiot?
Frank, will you please provide evidence to support every single sentence you wrote. Because I don’t believe there is a shred of evidence in existence to do so.
I generally know a liar when I see one, Frank Green I see you, what utter bollocks.
Frank Green is full of lies.
“Most if not all of the comments and answers above are by her….”
And yet, 123,077 verified signatures signed the UK Parliamentary e-petition to Ban Driven Grouse Shooting: https://petition.parliament.uk/archived/petitions/125003
So are the Moorland Association suggesting that it’s ok to engage in criminal behaviour?
I would suggest the plight of the Hen Harrier is more a criminal issue than a conservation issue.
The evidence is crystal clear that these birds face unrelenting illegal persecution, and that their numbers will only ever truly recover when that criminal persecution stops and those responsible are brought to justice.
It really doesn’t matter how may breeding birds there are, if a high percentage are illegally killed and fail to reach adulthood.
It is blatantly obvious that this criminal persecution is happening on grouse moors and is being committed by some of those who manage those moors.
This is an indisputable fact. A fact that even the authorities including Natural England have admitted.
It is therefore extremely disappointing that the Moorland Association have chosen to publish the comment they have, as those who already have a warped hatred of Hen Harriers could well interpret this as a message encouraging them to continue with their illegal persecution.
This could well have the effect of giving a green light to “ethically cleanse ” the grouse moors moors of Hen Harriers, as the criminals could justify in their own twisted minds that the killing is acceptable because Hen Harrier numbers are increasing elsewhere and these birds detract from the very unnatural high grouse populations required for driven grouse shooting to operate.
I hope that all those organisations who are engaged in partnership working now refuse to work with MA, until the MA make it clear that any criminal persecution of Hen Harriers is unacceptable, and actually go further and expel any shooting estate from membership of the MA where there is any suggestion that criminal activity is taking place.
There is another element to this topic.
One of the purposes of increasing Hen Harrier numbers is to hopefully give more of the public the opportunity to see these birds in their natural environment.
Perhaps the National Parks could conduct a survey to ascertain how many of the hundreds of thousands of visitors to the Parks have seen a Hen Harrier?
Because if Hen Harrier numbers aren’t increasing in the National Parks because of the criminal activity associated with game bird shooting then there is only one solution – and that is to ban all game shooting from the National Parks and fund the conservation in a different way which doesn’t rely on the land owners generating an income from shooting.
I would suggest the MA have done themselves no favours with this tweet.
Just to add something further to my previous comment that the plight of the Hen Harrier is more a criminal issue than a conservation issue.
Should it be a consideration of the government to set up a dedicated National Parks police service?
There is already a parks police service operating within some of the London parks, and we also have a dedicated British Transport police, MOD police, and Civil Nuclear Constabulary.
It is now very apparent that the environment and nature are intrinsically linked to issues such as climate change, mankind’s health, economic stability and growth as well as all the pledges governments have made to restore nature and reduce global warming.
It seems that many of the local police services responsible for policing the National Parks face priority issues, where with the limited resources they have they are required to juggle meeting urban policing needs with also investigating wildlife crimes in rural areas.
So should the government consider setting up a dedicated National Parks police service, responsible for investigating environmental and wildlife crime, as well as dealing with anti social behaviour which occurs within the Parks?
These officers could then receive specialist training to enable them to meet the unique needs of investigating wildlife and environmental crime, be closely linked with the NWCU and other authoritative bodies such as the National Parks Authorities, Environmental Agency, Natural England/NatureScot etc. As well as working closely with other NGO’s to investigate wildlife and environmental crime.
If this was a national service then it might address some of the concerns of the local police being too heavily influenced by local vested interests.
If a National Parks police service was set up then this could be the catalyst for raising the profile of environmental and wildlife crime, and might then put pressure on the rest of the legal system to start dealing with environmental and wildlife crime with the importance it deserves.
Initially there might be some opposition from certain politicians to fund something of this scale, but there is a strong case that the major issue of our time is protection of the environment and nature before there is a complete collapse of the natural eco systems which sustain life on this planet.
Like it or not the management of grouse moors is a vital part of the environmental jigsaw, and there can be no place for poorly managed moors where bad or illegal practice takes place.
It might also mean that raptor crimes get far more attention and those responsible for the illegal persecution of birds such as the Hen Harrier are finally brought to justice.
I suspect some of commentators will have have other thoughts on this matter?
I just find it totally unacceptable that a bird of such national conservation importance as the Hen Harrier is still being illegally killed and persecuted because of a small group of people who think that all that matters is providing lots of grouse to be shot by a wealthy clientele, who either fail to understand or acknowledge that their desire to shoot is what drives this underlying criminal behaviour.
Read this letter to the Craven Herald. Unbelievable. Luckily nobody so far is supporting. But the general public may just believe this guff. Please comment on their page.
https://www.cravenherald.co.uk/news/23710315.letter-glorious-twelfth-grouse-shooting-season/
I’m me, not Ruth