Essex Police is appealing for information after the discovery of a shot buzzard found injured in a field near to Layer Wood /Layer Marney on 29th December 2023.
An x-ray shows the buzzard’s humerus bone had been shattered with a shotgun pellet, suggesting it was shot close to where it was found:
The buzzard is still alive and is being cared for by a local wildlife rescue centre.
Essex Police has launched an investigation – any witnesses or anyone with information please contact Essex Police on Tel 101 and quote incident number 42/2817/24.
This latest raptor persecution victim is the 8th in Essex in recent years, following the shooting of another buzzard in January 2023 (here), the shooting of a red kite in September 2022 (here), the shooting of another red kite in November 2021 (here), another red kite found dead in suspicious circumstances in November 2021 (here), the shooting of another three buzzards in 2020, one in Dec (here), one in September (here) and one in June (here), and the suspected shooting of a Hobby in August 2020 (here).
Raptor Persecution UK 
It’s time guns were not so easy to obtain!
Close down all and any bird shooting estates within 5 miles of ANY INJURED OR POISONED RAPTORS.
THIS WILL DRIVE HOME THE POINT WHICH THEY WILL FEEL THE FINANCIAL LOSS. IF RAPIDLY AND DETER FUTURE SUCH EVENTS.
Brilliant idea!
It’s drastic, but drastic is needed these people are just not listening
“Close down all and any bird shooting estates within 5 miles of ANY INJURED OR POISONED RAPTORS”
So long as shooting remains legal, don’t you think that what you propose involves the abolition in the UK of the basic tenet of common law: that everyone is innocent until proven guilty?
There appears to be a mighty body of (international) law which you would need to repeal…
Article 6 of the Human Rights Act 1988 provides citizens in our country the right to a fair and public trial or hearing in relation to both criminal and civil matters. Section 2 of Article 6 states , “Everyone charged with a criminal offence shall be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law”.
Isn’t what you propose also in direct contravention with the UN Declaration of Human Rights?
Article 11 of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty”
https://www.fairtrials.org/the-right-to-a-fair-trial/the-presumption-of-innocence/#:~:text=Everyone%20charged%20with%20a%20criminal,guilty%20according%20to%20the%20law.
https://fra.europa.eu/en/news/2021/presume-innocence-all-until-proven-guilty-it-right
https://commission.europa.eu/document/40f0c05b-8692-4d78-8406-2613ec900a55_en
https://www.humanrights.com/what-are-human-rights/videos/innocent-till-proven-guilty.html
“Collective punishment is prohibited, based on the fact that criminal responsibility can be attributed only to individuals…. 1949 Geneva Conventions and their 1977 Additional Protocols”
https://guide-humanitarian-law.org/content/article/3/collective-punishment/
It’s worse than I remembered Ruth, 8 that we know of in 3 years! Again probably little chance of a conviction.
Poor thing x
As long as we have this breed of low intelligence,poorly educated half wits xxxxx xxxxx xxxx xxxxx the persecution of rapters will never stop
Many of those who benefit, and some might say tacitly encourage encourage this type of crime, are very well educated, often Public School and Oxford/Cambridge level. It’s unfair to blame the poorly educated given the land many of these crimes are committed on, and the very, very slim chance that individuals who are not licensed to be there by the landowner.
Having lived on a few shooting estates over the years i can relaibly say that a stranger is noticed almost iummediately, and a stranger with a gun would be confronted within a very short time.
[Ed: please report this to the police]
Different year, same shit. Birds of Prey shot and no one held responsible. On the very rare occasion a culprit is brought to court the “sentence” is pitiful and in no way reflects the crime. When will politicians and the judiciary take these crimes seriously???
Several years ago I found a poisoned Buzzard in Layer Wood, It died as I was carrying it back to my car. reported it and was told that it had died from poison.
Here we go again, at what point will shooting sports be banned,? Will it be when there are no raptors left in the wild? .
I can not understand why anyone would wilfully shoot a bird, let alone a bird of prey, it makes absolutely no sense to me.
Any birds of prey killed on or near shooting estates should carry a mandatory suspension of all shooting from that estate, and if a second is detected, then removal of shooting licence for the land, for good.
There is no place in todays society for these rich oiks with guns to be killing birds for fun, if it was for food because they had no other way of getting food, then shooting slow moving fat game birds would be acceptable, but the only people killing birds nowadays are rich, who can afford to buy food, and even afford a cook ro prepare their food, shooting game birds for fun is just barbaric, if these people have a need to kill, sign them up to a tour of duty in the army, at least then they would have a reason to use a gun, instead of just shooting birds for the sake of it.
Or just ban driven grouse moors from holding shoots, and releasing birds, then introduce modern technology like Cley pigeon shooting, or even use up to date tech like a 360 degree screen, and laser riffles.
If these people still feel the need to shoot stuff for fun, give them xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx at least they would be contributing to society.
The old argumethat the shooting estates bring money into an area Is hogwash, it only provides money to the estate, the odd local will be employed to chase birds into the air, and cook for the killers, but that’s all.
Adding to transportation issues with outsiders driving into these estates, it is not really a bonus for the local villages, then we have the multitude of problems caused by these oiks with guns, killing anything that moves, birds of prey have been persecuted since the sport of shooting was introduced, even with protection laws in place the birds are still being shot, poisoned, and trapped in snares, and traps, the only blessing in their issue is a lot of the birds killed have had a satellite tag fitted, allowing the numbers to be collected, but so far most of the published numbers of birds of prey killed have been tagged, what about the birds not tagged, or the birds not found?, there must be several hundred birds killed, and only those discovered by tracking tags have been recorded.
This barbarian sport should have been stopped many centuries ago.
I have another question, I have been lead to believe that lead should no longer be in gunshot, from some time in the 1970s, but to this day lead shot is still being found in birds killed, either these people are using old ammunition, or using illegal, or imported cartridges.
The estates should be held accountable for any bird killed on or near their land, especially if it is done by a gamekeeper, a fine and suspended shooting licence for first offence, and a permanent ban for any subsequent criminal offence.
James b – your understanding of the use of lead ammunition in the UK is not accurate. The use of lead ammunition is currently only partly restricted in the UK, with slightly different regulations between countries (i.e. its use is banned in certain wetland habitats in Scotland whereas in England the ban relates to the shooting of species such as water birds and geese), although recent studies have shown that compliance by shooters is poor in both countries:
https://www.conservationevidence.com/individual-study/9454
and
In 2020 the UK shooting industry claimed to be starting a 5-year voluntary transition to using non-lead ammunition for shooting gamebirds (red grouse, pheasants and partridges) although to date the so-called voluntary transition has not made significant progress:
Several analyses of shot gamebirds from the 2023/2024 shooting season, tested for lead ammunition, are expected to be published again this spring.
Meanwhile, we are awaiting recommendations from the Health & Safety Executive who recently conducted a public consultation on proposals to ban lead ammunition:
https://wildjustice.org.uk/lead-ammunition/please-respond-to-a-public-consultation-on-lead-ammunition/
They don’t need a licence to shoot. This is what the Scottish Parliament is investigating and a bill is being debated to license grouse shooting. Lots of info on this blog about it
Going through 50 years of magazines, journals, newsletters, etc., on animal welfare, species and habitat conservation along with international wildlife emergencies, I noticed that matters had got worse in certain areas, and some with a furious intensity. However, if it had not been for the rise in public awareness, world-wide, of the implications of allowing governments and corporations to do as they pleased with their respective landscapes, and places of operation, then the present despoliation of forests, threats to wildlife and plant species, and the genocidal forays against indigenous peoples, could have been much worse. Dedicated groups formed that could mobilise funding to provide wardens and equipment to save threatened species and/or habitat. Meanwhile, back in the UK we faced the grim fact that a horrendous anachronistic practice had been allowed to survive on large areas of our upland landscapes, that of suppressing wildlife species that may affect the numbers of game birds, whereby all sorts of measures were being taken to destroy such “vermin” such as poisons, snares and decoys. Here was I, and many like me, transferring funds to save rainforests, Great Apes, Elephants and marine life, and much of our native wildlife, and supposedly protected areas, were being harried or developed as Trump golf courses. Here, we were witnessing a laggardly legal system reluctant to enforce the hard-fought-for laws to protect our birds of prey, and other struggling-for-survival creatures. The sheer insolence of the perpetrators of wildlife crimes defies the overwhelming majority of people in this country, who see the natural environment as a haven to uplift them from the negative side of everyday living during these unhappy times.
I received an email recently, informing me that some farmers in England have come up with the money-making idea to create a pond and fill it with ducks, which can be shot by fee-paying motorists, who find it “fun”, with birds, their legs and wings shot off. There is so much killing in the world due to wars, and in our own urban areas, so why do we allow so much gun ownership; it being a “privilege” that should be reined in, and a more humane behaviour inculcated in our schools, to end this sordidness from a foul past?
The royals campaign on nature conservation in other parts of the world but think nothing of shooting gamebirds on their vast estates, contributing to the demise of our own wildlife. If they gave up shooting, it would have a massive impact. But they won’t. Hypocrites.
“The royals campaign on nature conservation in other parts of the world but think nothing of shooting gamebirds on their vast estates”
Not just ‘the royals’. WWF also support ‘sustainable shooting’ by ‘indigenous people’.
A new year same old disgusting behaviour this country is finished run by the rich and privelaged with no care for anyone or anything but their own gains financially and no morals or sense of duty to anything but themselves .