Month: November 2024

Red kite found poisoned in Highlands

Press release from RSPB (5th November 2024):

RED KITE FOUND POISONED IN HIGHLANDS

  • The bird had consumed a banned pesticide which has a history of being used to kill birds of prey.
  • Red Kites are fully protected by law, and to kill or harm one could result in jail.
  • The illegal poisoning of birds of prey is a national issue and poses a potentially deadly danger to people, pets and wildlife.

A protected Red Kite endured an ‘agonising death’ after being killed by a banned pesticide, one quarter of a teaspoon of which is enough to kill a human.

RSPB Scotland received a call in April 2024 from a dog walker who had found a red kite dead on the ground near to a popular woodland walking trail, adjacent to hill farm land at Spinningdale, near Dornoch in East Sutherland.

RSPB Investigators notified Police Scotland, collected the bird and sent it for a post-mortem examination and toxicology analysis. The results were consistent with Carbofuran poisoning being the cause of the bird’s death, a pesticide banned for over 20 years. 

Police Scotland and partner agencies conducted a search of the area but found no evidence that enabled them to identify a suspect. 

It is a crime to kill or attempt to kill a bird of prey, and anyone caught doing so faces a fine or even jail. 

Red kite photo by Andy Howard

The latest Birdcrime report, released last month found there were 159 poisoning incidents involving birds of prey between 2009-2024 in Scotland. In recent years, Carbofuran has become the pesticide most frequently associated with bird of prey persecution.

And of all UK counties, the Highland area had the second highest number of confirmed incidents of raptor persecution during the same 15-year period.

Ian Thomson, RSPB Investigations Manager, said: 

“We are very grateful to the person that found this dead kite for reporting it to us. It is appalling that individuals are still using this poison, decades after it was banned, and this bird will have suffered an agonising and horrific death.

Carbofuran is a highly toxic substance and is one of several banned pesticides still used by criminals targeting birds of prey or other protected wildlife. Its possession or use is illegal and placing it out in the open poses a potentially deadly and indiscriminate risk not only to wildlife but to people and pets.

We ask anyone using the area to be vigilant if they find anything suspicious, don’t touch, but do take photos and report to Police Scotland immediately on 101.” 

If you notice a dead or injured bird of prey in suspicious circumstances, call Police Scotland on 101 and fill in the RSPB’s online reporting form here.

If you have information about anyone killing birds of prey which you wish to report anonymously, call the RSPB’s confidential Raptor Crime Hotline on 0300 999 0101.

ENDS

Dismembered golden eagle found in plastic bag – Police Scotland appeal for information

Press release from Police Scotland (5th November 2024):

INVESTIGATION UNDERWAY AFTER GOLDEN EAGLE FOUND IN A BAG NEAR PORT OF MONTEITH

An investigation is under way after a dead golden eagle was found on a forestry track off A81 near Loch Rusky, north east of Port of Monteith.

The eagle was discovered around 11am on Tuesday, 30 July, 2024, wrapped in a plastic bag and body parts had been removed.

Enquiries have been ongoing and now officers are appealing for help to find out how it came to be there.

Golden eagles are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and anyone with information is asked to contact Police Scotland on 101, quoting incident number 1166 of 30/07/24 or make a call anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

ENDS

Golden eagle photo by Pete Walkden

It’s not clear why it has taken Police Scotland this long to issue an appeal for information.

There also aren’t any indications about which body parts were missing – although I can understand why they wouldn’t divulge that level of detail for operational reasons.

There are reasons why some body parts might have been removed – e.g. legs, either to remove an identifying leg ring, or to disguise spring trap injuries; head, as some sort of ‘trophy’.

It’s unusual to find a dismembered corpse inside a bag. Why do that?Presumably the eagle was killed and dismembered elsewhere and was put inside the bag to make it easier to transport and dump.

The only other similar incident I can recall was the discovery of nine shot raptors found in bags outside two gamekeepers’ houses on Millden Estate and on the riverbank of a neighbouring estate in the notorious Angus Glens (see here).

Without a tip off from someone, backed up with photographic evidence and/or DNA work, I very much doubt the police will be able to solve this one.

‘Just 433 people own half of Scotland: here’s why that’s wrong & must change’ (Opinion piece by Max Wiszniewski, REVIVE Coalition)

There’s an opinion piece in The Scotsman today written by Max Wiszniewski, Campaign Manager for REVIVE, the coalition for grouse moor reform.

The article is open access here.

Max’s article contains some interesting details such as:

‘Despite taking up 57 per cent of rural Scotland, private estates provide just three per cent of rural homes. This figure was obtained from recent research published by Scottish Land and Estates. The same report showed that 78 per cent of estates were still involved in ‘country sports’ like grouse and deer shooting‘.

And

‘Despite claims from the industry that sport shooting is good for the economy, it only contributes about 0.03 per cent of Scotland’s economy. In other words, if Scotland’s economy was the height of Ben Nevis, sport shooting’s contribution would be the size of a bottle of Irn-Bru. Is this worth all the animal cruelty and environmental devastation that sport shooting still causes to this day?

Land use is about choices, and the consequences of these choices define whether Scotland’s rural economies and rural ecologies thrive or not. Currently, the concentrated ownership of Scotland’s land means that these choices are made by very few people. For the benefit of whom?‘

The article is a primer for the REVIVE Coalition’s national conference this weekend at Perth Concert Hall, where the focus is on land reform and will see the launch of a year-long initiative called the Big Land Question, to identify how the ownership and management of Scotland’s land could be improved for the majority rather than just a few large landowners.

Tickets cost £8 (£5 concession) and are available from the venue HERE.

Wildlife crime at worrying levels while convictions at an all-time low, say conservationists

A coalition of wildlife and environmental groups, working as a consortium under the Wildlife & Countryside Link banner, has published its latest annual Wildlife Crime Report (2023).

This latest publication reveals that reports of wildlife crime levels have remained stubbornly high since a surge during the Covid-19 pandemic, with 4,735 incidents reported in 2023. There were increased instances of persecution, harm or death being reported for badgers, bats and marine mammals in 2023, yet convictions for wildlife crime remain shockingly few, with numbers at an all-time low when looking at all the types of wildlife crime.

To properly tackle the issue of wildlife crime, LINK’s wildlife crime group is calling for the following actions (most of which were also recommended by a UN report in 2021):

1. Making wildlife crimes notifiable to the Home Office, so such crimes are officially recorded in national statistics. This would better enable police forces to gauge the true extent of wildlife crime and to plan strategically to address it.

2. Increasing resources & training for wildlife crime teams in police forces. Significant investment in expanding wildlife and rural crime teams across police forces in England & Wales, would enable further investigations, and lead to further successful prosecutions. Funding for the National Wildlife Crime Unit should be increased in line with inflation, to allow the Unit to continue its excellent work.

3. Sentencing guidelines for wildlife crimes. No sentencing guidelines are currently in place for wildlife crimes so judges tend to err towards caution and the lower end of the sanction scale for wildlife crime convictions. The Sentencing Council should consult on sentencing guidelines in England and Wales for a range of key wildlife crimes, including breaches of the Wildlife & Countryside Act, Hunting Act, Protection of Badgers Act, Habitats Regulations, and Control of Trade in Endangered Species (COTES) regulations.

The 2023 Wildlife Crime Report can be read/downloaded here:

WCL_Wildlife_Crime_2023Download

Rural Affairs Committee to consider attempts to disrupt impending snare ban in Scotland

Regular blog readers will know that the Scottish Parliament voted through a complete ban on the use of all snares (and so-called ‘humane cable restraints’) as part of the Wildlife Management & Muirburn Scotland Act 2024 earlier this year (here).

It was announced in September that the ban will commence with immediate effect on 25 November 2024.

A snared fox on a grouse moor that will have suffered a slow, tortured death. Photo from a report by OneKind and League Against Cruel Sports entitled, Cruel and Indiscriminate: Why Scotland Must Become Snare-Free

However, last month I blogged (here) about how the game shooting industry a appeared to be attempting to disrupt the commencement of the ban.

A consortium of the usual suspects (Scottish Land & Estates, Scottish Gamekeepers Association, Scottish Countryside Alliance, BASC Scotland, Scotland’s Regional Moorland Groups and the Scottish Association for Country Sports), joined by the National Farmers Union of Scotland, had written an overly-dramatic letter to the Convenor of the Scottish Parliament’s Rural Affairs & Islands Committee to complain about the commencement of the ban.

They suggested that the principles behind the snare ban had ‘not been afforded the customary levels of parliamentary scrutiny’ (even though this subject has been a topic of political debate and public consultation for at least 15 years!), and they complained that Ministers hadn’t conducted a Business & Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA) prior to the commencement of the snare ban, and they strongly suggested that this should afford a delay to the commencement of the ban.

Imagine arguing that your business can’t function without the ability to asphyxiate wildlife with a wire noose.

The Convenor of the Rural Affairs & Islands Committee, Finlay Carson MSP, wrote to the Minister to ask for some clarification, in advance of the Committee’s consideration of the legislation behind the commencement of the ban.

Agriculture Minister Jim Fairlie has now responded to Mr Carson, with a ‘nothing to see here’ letter:

Fairlie response_Wildlife Bill Prohibition of the use of snares 25 October 2024Download

The Rural Affairs and Islands Committee will consider this issue at its next meeting on Wednesday (6th November), starting at 9am. You can watch live on Scottish Parliament TV (here) and I’ll publish the transcript when it becomes available.

So far, there hasn’t been a recommendation for an annulment of the ban’s starting date of 25th November 2024 but this Committee has the power to make such a recommendation if it chooses.

I realise this is all quite turgid legalese but the consequences could result in a delay to the commencement date, which would mean that the use of snares would still be lawful after 25th November 2024 instead of being banned.

Definitely one to watch.

UPDATE 25th November 2024: A landmark day in Scotland as snare ban commences (here)

Wildlife Trusts buy part of Rothbury Estate, Northumberland, ending grouse & pheasant shooting

The Wildlife Trusts, in partnership with Northumberland Wildlife Trust, have bought part of the Rothbury Estate in Northumberland and are bidding to buy the remainder of the estate within two years, in what they describe as ‘securing the entire estate for nature and the nation‘.

The estate is being sold by ‘Lord’ Max Percy, the youngest son of the Duke of Northumberland; some of his family have been prominent members of the grouse shooting dynasty for decades.

The Wildlife Trusts intend to transform the estate “to create a national flagship for nature recovery” (see their press release here, and read the FAQ section at the foot of the page for more detail about their plans).

Location map from Knight Frank sales brochure

The Rothbury Estate includes a grouse moor and a pheasant and partridge shoot, according to the sales brochure published in 2023. ‘Lordenshaws is regarded as one of the finest driven grouse moors in Northumberland‘, according to the sales blurb, but then aren’t all grouse moors described as being ‘the finest’ or the ‘most prestigious’? I’ve yet to see one described as being ‘a bit crap’.

Sales blurb about Lordenshaws on the Rothbury Estate. Screen grab from Knight Frank brochure

But according to Craig Bennett, the Chief Executive of the Wildlife Trusts, “Obviously [allowing shoots] would not be appropriate for the Wildlife Trusts. We hope to showcase nature-friendly farming and conservation grazing and produce fruit, vegetables and some sustainable meat for local people”, quoted in The Guardian, here.

Confusingly, the sporting rights (for the grouse moor and lowland pheasant & partridge shoot) on what was described as ‘Lordenshaws Estate’ were up for grabs in 2022/early 2023, presumably referring to this particular part of Rothbury Estate and before the estate was put up for sale in late 2023. The letting details were advertised by one of grouse moor ‘guru‘ Mark Osborne’s agencies:

Lordenshaws-Particulars-FNL-OnlineDownload

Osborne’s other sporting agency, William Powell, has been offering driven pheasant and partridge days at Lordenshaws for a while:

Lordenshaws-Shooting-Brochure-23-FNL-OnlineDownload

It’s very good news that this land will now be under the management of the Wildlife Trusts and I hope they manage to raise the other £30 million required to buy the rest of the estate within two years.

If you’d like to contribute, please visit their donations page here.