Earlier this summer I submitted a Freedom of Information request to Natural England, asking for information on the causes of death, including post mortem reports, of all Hen Harrier nestlings (i.e. pre-fledging) in nests monitored by Natural England between 2018 and 2026.
That requested information has just been released and I have to say I’m pretty shocked by it, on a number of levels, which I’ll explain below.
I probably shouldn’t be shocked at all. We’ve all seen how depraved some gamekeepers can be. Whether they’ve been caught setting pole traps and leaving a trapped Tawny Owl, Buzzard or Red Kite to suffer a prolonged and painful death, hanging upside down with catastrophic leg injuries; or catching Red Kites by the legs in moss-covered spring traps placed next to a bait and then beating them to death with a shinty stick; or trapping a Peregrine in a spring trap set on a nest ledge and leaving it there to suffer for hours before retrieving it under cover of darkness; or casually using a wooden stick to beat to death trapped Goshawks and Buzzards inside crow cage traps.
And then there are the seriously depraved, who like to leave the evidence of their brutality in full view, knowing how distressing that’s going to be for the person finding it. For example, killing an entire brood of Hen Harrier chicks by stamping on them in their nest; or twisting and pulling off the head and leg of an adult Hen Harrier whilst he was still alive, leaving his mutilated corpse on a hillside knowing that his satellite tag would lead researchers to his discovery.
What I’m about to describe falls well within this second category of being seriously depraved. If you’re likely to be upset by reading the details, I suggest you stop reading now.
The response to my Freedom of Information request contained details of a number of gruesome cases. Today, I’m just writing about one of them. I need to do a bit more background research before I write about the others.
This case is about the deaths of five recently-hatched Hen Harriers, found dead in their nest on a grouse moor in County Durham in June 2024.
NB: This image is for illustrative purposes only – these Hen Harriers were not stabbed to death.
As far as I’m aware, this is the first public report of this incident in the almost two-and-a-half years since it was discovered. I think I’d remember if I’d read about Hen Harrier chicks being stabbed to death. Natural England has remained silent about it, Durham Constabulary has remained silent about it, and the National Wildlife Crime Unit’s Hen Harrier Task Force has remained silent about it.
Both Natural England and the NWCU’s HH Task Force will both say it’s the local police force’s decision about when to publicise a suspected crime. Some of them might claim, ridiculously, that the case is still under active investigation so they can’t talk about it. I’d like to hear an explanation from all three agencies about why it’s taken a Freedom of Information request, almost two-and-a-half years later, for the details to emerge. Had an FoI not been submitted, would we ever have been told about it?
The discovery of the five dead Hen Harrier nestlings was considered to be sufficiently suspicious to warrant submitting the chicks for post mortems. These were undertaken by pathologists at ZSL, the Institute of Zoology in London, who are highly experienced having been examining dead Hen Harriers for a very long time (e.g. see here and here).
Here are the findings:
This is the cover form at the front of each of the five post mortem reports. They are all identical except for the reference number and the biological data of each individual carcass. Two x-rays were taken of each carcass, with no shot or fractured bones detected in any of them.
HEN HARRIER CHICK 1
HEN HARRIER CHICK 2
HEN HARRIER CHICK 3
HEN HARRIER CHICK 4
HEN HARRIER CHICK 5
I expect, now you’ve had a chance to read the pathologist’s necessarily cautious conclusions, that you’re as shocked as I am. It is difficult for sane, humane individuals to even begin to conceive stabbing a live animal, let alone five tiny, helpless nestlings.
I’ve spoken with a few people about this case, including a retired veterinarian (thank you!), to double check my reading and interpretation of these post mortems. Our thought processes followed a similar thread:
First thought: No, surely someone didn’t stab them, did they?
Second thought: Well, every other plausible explanation seems to have been ruled out – no fractured or broken bones, no evidence of shotgun pellets, no sign of disease, no evidence of predation, negative for Avian Influenza.
Third thought: They all appeared to be healthy, they all died at the same time in the same nest, something has clearly happened, but stabbed? Really? And when they were alive?
Fourth thought: If you look at the size and shape of some of the traumatic lesions (stab wounds), they appear to be quite rounded and not what you’d expect from a knife (especially on chicks 1 and 2). So what might have been used to stab the chicks?
Fifth thought: A screwdriver?
Sixth thought: No, surely not. What type of sadistic psychopath do you have to be to do that?
Seventh thought: The type of sadistic psychopath who chose not to remove the evidence of the crime, but instead chose to leave the stabbed corpses in the nest to be found.
Eighth thought: I can’t think of any other explanation other than they’ve been stabbed, and the pathologist wrote on every report that,
“The injuries were consistent with those that may be expected from a sharp implement used to stab the hen harrier, or a projectile weapon. No signs of ammunition were noted on radiography nor could be found during examinations, and therefore use of a sharp implement is more likely“.
Ninth thought: WTF?
If any of these thoughts resonate with you, then you’re also quite likely to be incensed by this point.
Incensed that whoever stabbed those chicks, in that nest, on that grouse moor, will not be held to account. They’ve got away with it, and will know that they could probably do it again and get away with it, again. And again. And again. Who’s stopping them?
And also incensed that the news of this case has been kept secret for all this time by a number of different agencies. Why? In whose interest is it to keep this under wraps?
And does this level of secrecy extend to Defra Ministers? Do the people who are in a position to bring about change, and indeed who have indicated that a change may be on the cards, do they know about this?
I think this horrific case provides us all with a beautifully serendipitous opportunity to channel our anger.
Defra’s Call for Evidence on the impact of gamebird shooting is open until 1st November 2026. Defra is asking anyone who has experiential evidence about the impact, whether positive or negative, to submit that evidence to the review. Experiential evidence is ‘lived experience’; what you’ve learned from the real world, rather than a theoretical concept.
I would argue that learning about what happened to those five Hen Harrier chicks is having an impact, it’s a lived experience, and therefore qualifies as experiential evidence and Defra needs to hear about it.
One of my colleagues described it to me as a sort of victim impact statement – the kind of declaration that’s presented in court from family and friends when someone has been murdered and they want the judge to consider the wider impact of the crime when deciding on a sentence.
If Defra Ministers are the judges, then it’s up to us to let them know what sort of impact these relentless crimes are having on us. Whether you’re disturbed by it, angered, upset, frustrated that raptor persecution is still happening and most of the time the perpetrators are still getting away it, then tell Defra, in your own words, about how this affects you, as a decent, reasonable, law-abiding member of society.
You don’t need to fill in the technical Call for Evidence submission form; you can simply write an email to Gamebirds@defra.gov.uk and write ‘Call for Evidence’ in the subject line.
As a way of directing your anger and getting justice for those five stabbed Hen Harrier chicks, it’s remarkably satisfying.
The Call for Evidence closes at midnight on 1st November 2026.
Speechless and so shocked. I have sent an e mail to Defra. Thank you for bringing it to our attention. I hope this dreadful crime does open flood gates with e mails and letters to Defra.
No words can describe the type of person who would carry out this absolute despicable act of inhumane cruelty , Hollow might be one detached phycotic sick pure evil beyond shocking . Nobody held accountable again aided by the very people who’s job it is to protect , why no appeals for information why no press release considering the horrific nature of this , maybe the backlash would have turned a few heads so better say nothing on this one , xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Sent from AOL on Android
On Fri, 16 Oct 2026 05:50:34 +0000
[Ed: no text showing in this comment]
WTF indeed! It always amazes me that there are such individuals out there who would do such a thing but I shouldn’t be really when you see what horrible injuries are caused to British animals like cats, dogs, hedgehogs, birds etc. Unfortunately the people who commit such atrocities have got the perfect mentality to be a gamekeeper where killing animals is a day-to-day necessity of the job. And we call ourselves a civilised society?
There are some excellent comments here. The only thing that comes to mind every time I hear of yet another murder, is, ‘is DNA ever swabbed for?’ The type of person that does this, could possibly have convictions already: they may even. work nearby….
Thank you for doing all this.
I have indeed emailed DEFRA with my “experiential evidence” – every little helps.
Cheers, Grace Lyon ________________________________
Animal Interfaith Alliance has also submitted our “experience” to DEFRA. Our members are adherents of all the main faiths.
Were you able to obtain any additional information over and above the autopsy report from your FOI on this incident? Did the investigation rule out predation?
Not unheard of for a goshawk to attack chicks of other raptor species. The autopsy report in isolation, while unpleasant reading, may not present the full picture…
Hi Alauda,
The following sentence was written on all five post mortem reports:
“There were no signs consistent with predation”.
If you had read the pathologist’s report instead of desperately trying to rule out human persecution it states the injuries are not consistent with predation.Why would a Goshawk or any bird of prey leave a small puncture wound on 5 Hen Harrier chicks and leave them? It’s nonsense.The pathologist’s report is clear ,this is a despicable crime and this type of illegal persecution will only stop when driven grouse shooting ends.
Don’t intend to dismay people further, but it struck me that somebody might have been hiding at the nest spiking them with something sharp to get them to make distress calls – a racket that would bring frantic parents within shooting range. I know this is done with crows and fox cubs. But I’m unsure whether Harrier chicks would go quiet & play dead in these circumstances or be noisy.
The FOI request has provided detailed information, however belated, but not it appears, the precise location of the nest, other than on a hillside on a grouse moor in County Durham. Was that information withheld ?
It’d be irresponsible to publicise the location of the nest.
I have known a few gamekeepers in my time and they are, as an occupation, an odd bunch. Often not the sharpest knives in the drawer, they are often loners, misogynistic and sexist, many also don’t like wildlife. They are not all like this, but truth to say, they are not my favourite people
I know several who fit that description, SusanH. But I also know many who don’t.
The problem for the decent ones is that it’s very often hard to differentiate between them when they, and their industry, generally refuse to call out the crimes of the sadists amongst them.
Yes. It’s all very well claiming there are just a ‘few bad apples’ but if the so-called decent ones don’t actually call out the bad guys then they are really little better. The shooting industry likes to pretend that all is well but it knows that this isn’t true.
I have emailed defra. It brought tears to my eyes as I struggled to read this report and see the photos of those poor chick’s may the killer meet xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Just sent this email to Gamebirds@defra.gov.uk
Dear Sir/Madam,
The very recent release by RaptorPersecutionUK on October 16, 2026 of postmortem evidence suggesting five Hen Harrier chicks found dead in nest on grouse moor in northern England had injuries consistent with being stabbed, was so horrifying and beyond any comparably vile cases that I have long been aware, hundreds of sadistic and also illegal acts against our wildlife and raptors specifically and specifically on grouse moors. This abhorrent case is not one off by any means. I include images from the pathologist who carried out the investigation on these 5 Hen Harrier nestlings.
I was in fact so horrified by this case that I forwarded the above evidence from RaptorPercecutionUK to a fellow ecologist who also happens to be an occasional hunter of wild Willow Grouse in my homeland Norway, to ask her for her reaction. She called it contemptable to the point of being insane and that the person/s should be found with haste and prosecuted before they advance their cruelty to humans. She also alerted me to Norway’s new Wildlife Resources Act 2026 and suggested the authorities governing the laws and regulations around hunting in the UK have a lot to learn from Norway. I fully concur and add that weak regulations as opposed to those in Norway even long prior to the new Act, has allowed bad and immoral actors within the hunting industry to opperate with impunity and copied by many other bad actors. These bad & cruel actions against our wildlife have now become an epidemic that is viewed from abroad, especially from the Scandinavian nations as barbaric and totally unjustified to all who hunt in the wild, legally and with care and respect for all wildlife.
I have translated this from Norway’s new Wildlife Resources Act 2026:
“Humane hunting and animal welfare is the main focus
One of the key points in the new law is a further emphasis on the requirement for humane hunting. Even though this has always been central to Norwegian hunting tradition, the Wildlife Resources Act gives the authorities stronger tools to follow up on breaches of good hunting ethics.”
Yours sincerely,
Claire L Dines
[ecologist and retired biological surveyor]
It’s Natural England that most anger should be aimed at. They keep covering up crimes, they keep issuing bland statements about the improving fortunes of hen harriers without a single hint of knowledge of crimes against wildlife. Simply a pathetic, craven organisation that shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near hen harriers ever again.
I wrote to Natural England earlier today. I wasn’t going to post my response but your note and the earlier news that 5 chicks had been stabbed to death is so bad that I do not feel that there is an alternative. Thank you.
Dear Natural England,
This week has brought three deeply disturbing developments concerning hen harriers in England. Natural England is implicated in all three. It is time for your organisation to confront what that says about its own approach to the protection of this endangered bird.
First, the fate of the birds released under Natural England’s Brood Management Trial remains deeply troubling. Of the 58 chicks released, there is no current evidence of survival for 53. This does not establish that they died, but it raises serious questions about what happened to them and whether the trial can properly be judged.
Second, your recently published 2026 breeding data again highlights the extraordinary scarcity of successful hen harrier breeding on grouse moors and across our northern uplands. These are precisely the landscapes where the species should have a future. The suggestion that reduced monitoring may explain some of the low numbers only underlines how little can safely be concluded where your evidence is incomplete.
Third, the reported killing of five hen harrier chicks in Northumberland in 2024, apparently by stabbing, is appalling. The subsequent public silence from organisations expected to protect wildlife and investigate wildlife crime demands explanation. Why has there been so little public accountability? What action was taken, and what has been learned? Are you holding back other facts that should be in the public domain ?
These are not three unrelated problems. They raise one fundamental question: is Natural England prepared to stand up for hen harriers even when doing so brings it into conflict with the interests of grouse shooting?
Your statutory responsibility is to conserve and enhance the natural environment. It is not to protect the reputation of the shooting industry, accommodate its commercial interests or avoid uncomfortable confrontations with those whose activities may conflict with wildlife conservation.
Yet the repeated pattern of uncertain outcomes, inadequate transparency and continued failure of hen harriers to thrive in intensively managed grouse-shooting landscapes is destroying public confidence in your willingness to fulfil that responsibility.
I want to see an immediate and demonstrable change in Natural England’s institutional attitude. That means putting the protection of hen harriers first, demanding full accountability where birds disappear or are killed, insisting on effective investigations into suspected wildlife crime, and being prepared to challenge shooting interests when the evidence warrants it.
It also means being honest about the limits of the evidence. Missing birds must not be presented as successes by you. Inadequate monitoring must not be allowed to obscure the true state of the population. And suspected wildlife crime must not disappear into a wall of institutional silence.
I am asking Natural England to explain what concrete changes it will now make to its approach, its oversight and its dealings with the grouse-shooting industry. General assurances about partnership working and ongoing conservation efforts are not enough. I want to know what will change, who will be responsible, and how the public will be able to judge whether that change has happened.
Hen harriers are protected by law. Their protection must mean more than words on paper. If Natural England is unwilling to challenge powerful interests when the conservation of a protected species requires it, then serious questions must be asked about whether it is fulfilling its purpose.
The question is no longer simply what is happening to England’s hen harriers. It is whether Natural England is willing to confront those realities, including its own shortcomings, and act decisively to change them.
Excellent. There’s no room for them to hide there. It will be interesting to see if you get a response. It is galling that N’E”s Matt Heard, the so-called National Delivery Director, would have (or should have) been aware of the latest HH horror story (and no doubt several more that are still under wraps) when publishing his attemptedly rosy report of breeding in 2026. Presumably they have got this down as an instance of conflicting land management priority.
I pose the same questions as before – who are NE afraid of and who is calling the tune?
Seems to be no ceiling to the level of depravity amoung these Gamekeeper types. Worse this situation continues to be indulged by the utter failure of NE to do their job to any level of competency
There’s an individual out there who is almost certainly a Gamekeeper, who a Doctor has signed off as being of sound mind to own a Firearm! another Doctor will have signed a form saying convicted sex offender Russell Mason who went on to batter a protected Goshawk to death in a crow trap was of sound mind to own a firearm, With the amount of illegal activity taking place in the wider countryside it is becoming blatantly obvious to those outside the shooting fraternity that the laws surrounding Gun control are completely outdated and need urgently updating. former editor of the Shooting times, Patrick Galbraith frequently wrote that the illegal activities of those involved in criminal activities would drag the rest of the shooting world into disrepute, His words will come to pass. The problem with Shooting since Agents took over the big estates is the Rot has started at the top of the major Organisations and flowed down, It is now an activity dominated by pure Greed
Really shocking documentation of a horrible crime; also shocking there are still people out there line Alauda who can read that evidence then try to question it and blame a Goshawk, happy to post on a public forum evidence that they are so ecologically illiterate?
Sadly there are others out there who will join them and soon be repeating their tired mantras that there is no definite evidence here, only inference, and crowing about the continued lack of prosecutions, in cases like this where that is clearly impossible – but it does not change the facts of the sadistic crime we all know took place and needs a response.
That response should be very simple – we all know who will soon be denying and obfuscating on this, like those who defended the persecution of Sandringham Goshawks, but it’s now time that they stop covering up for sadistic criminals and join the condemnation of blatant crime.
I’ve been of the opinion for many years that a thorough psychiatric assessment of every individual employed in, or seeking employment in the gamekeeping industry would produce some deeply concerning results. It is abundantly clear that some of these individuals should not be at large in society let alone be granted access to firearms.
Of course, nothing will happen as a result of this particular case coming to light and this kind of incident will recur until such time that sport game shooting (i.e killing for fun) is either stringently regulated or banned altogether.
I cannot imagine the person who did this . I’m 81 and still shocked by these cruelties and of course they will continue . Cannot cameras be placed by nesting birds? I’m sorry if this sounds simplistic. Pam Aitken .
Deploying cameras without the prior consent of the landowner is a controversial measure that is apparently going too far for the Police. In Yorkshire, they seem to think that simply telling the landowners that they might consider using cameras without their consent has a sufficient enough deterrent effect to stop raptor persecution. And therefore they don’t follow through and do it. I think they are making the wrong call, but I think there’s a lot more too it politically wise.
This can’t go on.
Investigate and prosicute.
Why just say County Durham, whose land was the nest on? I’ve lived in County Durham all of my life and the uplands are mainly owned by either Michael Cannon, Michael Stone, the Al Maktoum family of Dubai or Lord Barnard. In my opinion the landowner should be held responsible for the actions of their staff when it comes to wildlife crime. Why shield the rich and powerful, they need to be named, shamed and held accountable.
Each of the 5 pathology reports, dated August 2024, states that samples will also be tested for ballistic residues at a later date. Do you also have the results of this analysis?