The Moorland Association (a lobby group for grouse moor owners in northern England) has issued a statement in response to the Channel 4 exclusive last week that featured covertly-filmed RSPB footage showing three gamekeepers on an unnamed grouse moor, plotting to kill, and then apparently killing, an untagged hen harrier.
In its rattled response, the Moorland Association forgot to mention its deep concern about the appalling and seemingly criminal behaviour of those three gamekeepers, as so clearly exposed by the RSPB’s footage, and instead focused on its “deep concern” that the RSPB had passed the footage to Channel 4, claiming that the RSPB’s action “could materially affect a police investigation“.
On the contrary, the RSPB and Channel 4 took great care (a) not to name the grouse moor on which the gamekeepers had been filmed, not even the county in which it had been filmed, and (b) not to reveal the identities of the three gamekeepers caught red-handed. In addition, the Moorland Association was not privy to communications between the RSPB and the police about this footage.
I think it’s very revealing that the Moorland Association seems to be more concerned with protecting the image of the grouse shooting industry than rooting out the criminals within it.
Here’s the MA’s statement in full:
The last line made me laugh out loud:
“The Moorland Association is keen to work closely with the Police to address this issue, but our efforts are being hampered by the actions of the RSPB“.
What efforts are those, then? And how, exactly, are those “efforts” being hampered by the release of that footage?
The Moorland Association should be grateful to the RSPB for its skill and tenacity in securing such clear evidence of what’s going on on that grouse moor, and no doubt on many other grouse moors, too. Surely, if the Moorland Association is so committed, as it claims, to a ‘zero tolerance’ policy against raptor persecution, it should be thanking the RSPB for demonstrating that (a) illegal raptor persecution is still going on, (b) where it’s going on and who’s doing it, and (c) how the crimes are being committed.
But then this is the organisation whose CEO, Andrew Gilruth, was recently booted off the national ‘partnership’ designed to tackle illegal raptor persecution in England and Wales (the Raptor Persecution Priority Delivery Group – RPPDG), after the Moorland Association had published an inflammatory blog that looked to be an attempt to sabotage the National Wildlife Crime Unit’s (NWCU) new Hen Harrier Taskforce (see here).
That blog wasn’t a one-off incident either – we later learned that Gilruth had been ejected from the group for “wasting time and distracting from the real work” [of tackling raptor persecution] for some time, according to a senior police officer (see here).
I’m not the only one questioning the Moorland Association’s response. The Northern England Raptor Forum (NERF) published this statement about it. Well worth a read.
I suspect what’s really agitating the Moorland Association is the fact that this highly damaging footage/audio has been seen by millions of Channel 4 News viewers, many of whom would have been previously unaware of the damage being caused by the shameful driven grouse shooting industry.
Well done again to the RSPB and Channel 4 News.
Raptor Persecution UK 
Clearly their spokespeople require an advanced degree in BS to which Gilruth clearly excels
Not to mention ‘obviscation’, a word which he appears to have newly introduced into the English language – see footage in the earlier RPUK blog on this topic. The irony of this is a treat, given that the word he was apparently seeking means ‘confuse’ or ‘bewilder’.
Incidentally, if anyone is struggling to understand why the harriers are described as jets, think Hawker Harrier > Harrier > jump-jet > jet.
I agree. I also laughed out loud at their statement. They had absolutely nothing to so about its content.
Gilruth managed to make the MA look like apologists for the criminals rather than their claimed intolerance of such crimes, laughable .
’Millions of Channel 4 viewers’? Sadly, I think it’s viewing figures are modest at best.
“I think it’s viewing figures are modest at best”
Stats from 2021 claim “10.1 million Chanel 4 News followers on social media, making it one of the largest UK news programmes, with 45% of views by under 34s”
“Channel 4 has more than 30 million registered streaming users”
YouGov claim its latest survey of “nationally representative interviews of the GB population, collected during Q3 2024” give Channel 4 News “46% popularity”.
It would be more relevant to know how many people watched Channel 4 news on the day this story was featured. Most of the 10.1 million followers won’t of seen this story, and I’m sure Channel 4 news gets far fewer viewers than BBC or ITV news programs. Full credit to Channel 4 for running this story, but are the BBC/ITV prepared to run similar stories in the future to ensure maximum coverage?
“It would be more relevant to know how many people watched Channel 4 news on the day this story was featured.”
And how do you propose to find that out?
“Most of the 10.1 million followers won’t of seen this story”
How do you know that? Do you monitor streaming services?
In a parallel universe a zillion light years away, there is maybe a parallel “Moorland Association”. It is a bit different through – it actually wants raptor persecution to stop, not just wants it to stop being publicised. The ‘parallel MA’ has issued the following statement: “we are grateful as ever to our friends in the RSPB and Channel 4 for bringing this to light. We have already spoken to the Estate owner who has eagerly consented to all retrospective covert camera permissions required to make all the evidence admissable in Court. We are all really hopeful of a prosecution. We hope this may herald a wave of gamekeepers giving up this approach to their work, and to support them through cases of being ostracised and forced out by colleagues or suffering unfair dismissal by employers, we have increased our legal fighting fund and welfare fund to support them to do the right thing.” etc, etc.
I’ll admit though, that the existence of this “parallel Moorland Association” would however make some of the weird & wonderful worlds Captain Kirk & his pals beamed down onto look decidedly ordinary!
Statements like that make me wonder if ‘someone’ has been ingesting too much lead shot!
the MA are not used to having to justify their actions to anyone. This is proving a real shock to them. Well done everyone
What utter tripe it would be a surprise to me if anyone in this affair was prosecuted. How the Moorland Association can come up with this rubbish about being hampered is a hilarious miscalculation that makes no sense
I mean when has the MA taken any action against any one for the disgusting attitude and behaviour of the people in this video. The moorland association is upset because more and more of the people in this country are becoming aware of what it stands for and it is truly embarassed to be shown up in this way. Its staunch denials will only take it so far hopefully people such as beaters will realise the truth and down tools even some of the shooters do not realise how cruel these gamekeepers are but soon it will be common knowledge and shunned just the same as drink driving hopefully.
In all my many years experience I’ve only come across two out of very many game keepers who persecuted without being told to by their employer or the agent.
Given the answer to the old question – ‘When can you tell when a gamekeeper is lying?’ – how do you really know this for sure? Did you get them to fill in a questionnaire?
Andrew Gilruth’s track record with the truth is not the best.
I will always remember when he visited Hen Harrier Day at Rainham and he spent the day trying to slag of the RSPB.
– He made snide comments about predator fences being overgrown in couple of places, in August when the (very successful) breeding seasons of the waders it was for was well over
– He posted a photo of the empty field and implied heavily there was a poor turnout, when the photo was from before the field was open to the public and taken from 1/4 mile away! Then defended his comment claiming 500 people was a poor turnout!
– He posted a photo of the visitor centre, taken from a low angle and talked about it not blending in to the landscape as much as a grouse shooting butt – when it had a housing estate and the whole of Thurrock behind it!
I seem to remember he didn’t even know he was in Essex too!
I think it time we gave the Moorland Association it’s correct title. The Moron Association. The press releases from them all have the hallmark or poor , little or no education. The rubbish they spout is laughable, I have offered them an open discussion in front of a live audience to discuss grouse shooting in general but no one is ever available Perhaps the asylum only opens on certain days
🤣🤣
wasn’t Linnetgate his doing as well?
No, that was Bonner’s moment of glory.
Thats worth knowing and remembering Neil.
Pretty desperate stuff in many ways but the implication that the RSPB should be blamed for the bird being shot because they didn’t take preventative action stands out for me.