Press release from REVIVE, the coalition for grouse moor reform:
SHOT BUZZARD SUFFERED ‘SIGNIFICANT UNNECCESARY SUFFERING’
Six months on from the introduction of new legislation intended to tackle raptor persecution, wildlife campaigners have expressed concern about the continued shooting of protected birds of prey near Scotland’s grouse moors.
The League Against Cruel Sports and Raptor Persecution UK have both commented on the shooting of a protected buzzard found near to the boundary of land belonging to Glenturret Estate in Perthshire in mid-May, just a few weeks after the Wildlife Management and Muirburn Act 2024 received Royal assent.
The comments came after police notified the League Against Cruel Sports that they had concluded investigations into the shooting of the buzzard with no charges being brought.
The dead bird was found on its back with its wings spread out by a Field Officer of the League Against Cruel Sports, who was carrying out field research on grouse moor management in the area.
A post-mortem conducted by the SRCU revealed that the buzzard had been injured by a ‘shot gun wound that caused fracture of the lower leg bone’, concluding that ‘the bird died slowly as a result of the leg wound and secondary infection, experiencing significant unnecessary suffering.’
Robbie Marsland Director of Scotland and Northern Ireland for League Against Cruel Sports said:
“Why would anyone shoot at a buzzard – unless it was someone who was trying to make sure there would be more grouse to shoot for so-called sport?
“The new laws were supposed to stop this kind of wanton cruelty but this case just goes to show that the killing goes on. Our worry is that this cruelty will continue as long as buzzards, hen harriers and golden eagles are seen as a threat to the shooting industry, rather than the magnificent creatures that they are.”
Dr Ruth Tingay of Raptor Persecution UK added:
“It was the persistent illegal killing of golden eagles and other raptors that led the Scottish Parliament to introduce a grouse moor licensing scheme earlier this year, a ground-breaking piece of legislation designed to impose sanctions on those who continue to kill our special birds of prey.
“The news that yet another raptor has been shot and killed is appalling. This case, along with other ongoing police investigations such as the recent shooting of an osprey and a peregrine, as well as the poisoning of a red kite and the discovery of a dismembered golden eagle found dumped inside a plastic bag, will test the effectiveness of the new legislation.
“If the killings continue, it’s likely there will be a push to ban gamebird shooting outright. If businesses can’t operate without killing protected species then they shouldn’t be in business.”
The Wildlife Management and Muirburn Act introduced a range of measures including a new licensing framework for grouse moors, banning the practice of snaring and giving greater powers to Scottish SPCA inspectors to tackle wildlife crime.
In a background briefing note about the new legislation, the Scottish Government stated, ‘The Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill was introduced primarily to address raptor persecution and ensure that the management of grouse moors and related activities are undertaken in an environmentally sustainable and welfare conscious manner.’
The need for land reform to help tackle wildlife crime will be one of the discussion points at the REVIVE Conference in Perth on Sunday 10 November. REVIVE is a coalition of the League Against Cruel Sports, Common Weal, OneKind, Friends of the Earth Scotland and Raptor Persecution UK, and both Robbie Marsland and Dr Ruth Tingay will speak at the event.
The conference will launch the Big Land Question campaign, a year-long programme of independent research with the aim of enhancing and informing policy development and to ascertain public perceptions around land reform.
ENDS
This news was published by the Daily Record this morning (here).
Strathbraan is a large area dominated by grouse moors and is a notorious raptor persecution hotspot.
Raptor Persecution UK 
The folk who do this to raptors are despicable bastards.
True, but the important thing is how can they be stopped? While driven grouse shooting exists, with its financial benefits to land owners, I don’t think they can be stopped. There aren’t enough police. Even if there were the will to stop thugs from killing defenceless creatures, not just raptors.
when will the police and the powers that be grow a set of balls and hit these murderers where is hurts in their pockets.
Pass a law that ANY BIRD IF PREY FOUND INJURED OR DEAD IN ANY DHOOTING ESTATE OR WITHIN 1 MILE FROM ANY SHOOTING FOR SO CALLED SPORT ESTATE BE ASSUMED TO BE THE ONES WITH THE EVIL INTENT OF KILLING ALL AND ANY RAPTERS THEY SEE.
Fine them an eye watering £100,000 and 3 years closure from shooting for profit.
I am sure you will find that the mysterious weather will cease forthwith.
but the boddies responsible and the police must do something as the monied perpetrators know they will get off free.
These crimes have been carried out over many, many, years with few of the people responsible being brought to justice. Even when they are put in court, the sentences are far too lenient, not even a slap on the wrist. My view is that an outright ban on game bird shooting is the only solution. This so called “sport” involves extreme animal cruelty anyway so it is time to make it illegal.
The usual suspects illegally slaughtered protected wildlife before the recent legislation, and for them it’s just business as usual – business being the operative word. While there’s money to be made from shooting ‘game’ not much will change – detection of these crimes is difficult, conviction even harder, and the establishment judiciary will continue to hand out pitifully weak sentences.
The shooting industry, clinging on to bad practice, will continue to damage its own cause.
Good to know The League Against Cruel Sports are being active, ( I am a donor who gets emails about their work bt you don’t get them that often ) I’m sickened to hear yet another bird has been killed ‘likely’ driven by the greed of the sicko’s or at least their sick henchmen. Too early to say if the licensing scheme will affect the number of Raptors killed bt there is a sad likelihood that the number of Raptors killed will only reduce as the number of birds (them) left becomes less. The banning of snares was a God-send though, however it will probably just lead to more shooting + poisoning.
“The banning of snares was a God-send though…”
Not banned yet:-(
Point taken, Thanks – I could have been more definitive in what I said.
Could have said ‘will be a God-send’ : )
When they get around to it.
:-)
If (a) every Buzzard that died “of natural causes” – dropped off his perch one very cold winters night unknown to anyone to be covered by leaves & dealt with by nature, and (b) every Buzzard killed on the roads – being too late to get up from whatever he was feeding on, was located and X-rayed – I wonder how many would have a few shotgun pellets in them? And how many of them had in fact been gradually brought low in condition by those pellets weeks or months earlier – to the point where they weren’t hunting effectively and condition deteriorated? Likewise Red Kites – how many have a few pellets in them at any given time and some residue of poison – when they are deemed to drop off the perch “naturally”? Same with other birds of prey. I wonder if the Harrier in the Channel 4 video that was “flegged” rather than killed (because it “had a box on”) actually took a few pellets and is suffering for it now?
Then there are of course thousands of released pheasants, partridge & ducks who by December and January are carrying a pellet or two from the rigours of surviving two or three days driven shooting per week in the preceding weeks. Keepers and beaters will agree (reluctantly, no doubt) that it is quite common after an especially hard night to find a few pheasants laying dead on the woodland floor of the covert as the beaters work through it for a drive late in the season, also red-leg partridges peacefully dead tucked into the rough grass or dead bracken after a heavy week of shooting, and mallards so fatigued & injured they can’t lift off the pond for the drive.
Anyway, well done & good luck to the LACS team I hope they get into every nook & cranny of these estates in the way they did with their trapping & snaring survey ‘Hanged by the Leg’.
Again well said everyone and well done LACS . Yes Ruth they obviously are not deterred and these people never will be it’s not taken seriously enough remove license to shoot ban all shooting. hunting this should spell the end for it all it’s so ancient backward bloody mindset xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx