Author: RaptorPersecutionUK

Langholm community attracts massive donation in bid to double size of Tarras Valley Nature Reserve

Press release from the Langholm Initiative (15th December 2021)

Anonymous £0.5 million donation & crowd funder success takes historic community buyout to quarter-way mark

Christmas has come early for a community’s bid to double the size of a vast new nature reserve in Dumfries and Galloway, thanks to an anonymous private donation of half a million pounds and public crowdfunder donations surging past £50,000.

The community of Langholm has now reached the quarter-way mark in its race against time to purchase 5,300 acres of Langholm Moor from Buccleuch by raising £2.2 million before next May.

Success in the campaign, led by the Langholm Initiative charity, would expand the Tarras Valley Nature Reserve to 10,500 acres – boosting plans for tackling the nature and climate emergencies, and supporting community regeneration through nature-based tourism.

[A short-eared owl photographed at Langholm by John Wright]

This week, the campaign received a pledged donation of £500,000 from a private donor. At the same time, the public crowdfunder at bit.ly/LangholmMoorAppeal passed £50,000 following hundreds of donations since the appeal’s 27 October launch.

“Reaching the quarter-way mark towards our £2.2m target after just six weeks is a wonderful milestone for the community, and it really feels like Christmas has come early,” said Jenny Barlow, Tarras Valley Nature Reserve’s Estate Manager.

“We’re so grateful to everyone who has donated and supported us, and for the amazingly generous £500,000 donation. It’s put the wind in our sails as we approach the end of the year.

“But we have a long way to go, and we urgently need support from major funders. Buccleuch’s offer of keeping the land off the open market is time limited – so we need to raise the total funds by next May, or the chance of purchasing this dramatic, culturally important land will be lost forever.”

If the land goes on the open market, its price will probably surge beyond the community’s reach. There are fears it may then be bought by corporate investment firms, which are land banking in Scotland.

As well as urging people to donate to the crowdfunder, the community is seeking major funders to support what is the second stage of the South of Scotland’s biggest community buyout. Applications are being made to grant-funding bodies.

The buyout’s first phase ended in success, following an ambitious fundraising campaign supported by thousands of people worldwide In October 2020, the Langholm Initiative and Buccleuch reached an agreement of £3.8 million for 5,200 acres of land and six residential properties. 

This led to the creation of the Tarras Valley Nature Reserve. Globally important peatlands and ancient woods are being restored, native woodlands established, and a haven ensured for wildlife including short-eared owls and much-persecuted hen harriers – all while generating social and economic opportunities for local people.

Leading charities that have supported the buyout include Borders Forest Trust, John Muir Trust, Rewilding Britain, RSPB Scotland, Scottish Wildlife Trust, Trees for Life, and the Woodland Trust.

To support the appeal, visit langholminitiative.org.uk.

ENDS

Incidentally, campaigner Charlie Moores has just published part one of a two-part podcast about the Tarras Valley Nature Reserve. You can listen here.

Police appeal following theft of adult barn owl & five chicks in South Tyneside

Northumbria Police posted the following appeal for information on their Facebook page on 9th December 2021:

#APPEAL:

We want to identify these two men after a protected wild barn owl and its nestlings were stolen by thieves. An investigation has been ongoing since the early hours of October 27 after it was reported two men had been seen trespassing at farm off Follingsby Lane, West Boldon. It was reported that the offenders stole an adult barn owl and five chicks from their habitat before making off. We have been carrying out a range of enquiries into the theft, which has caused significant upset. All those targeted are wild birds who are protected by law. Now, as part of our investigation, we have released the images of two men who we would like to identify. They were seen in the area at the time of the offence and could have valuable information that could assist with the investigation.

The men, or anyone who recognises them, can contact us via the ‘Tell Us Something’ page of our website or by calling 101 quoting log NP-20211027-0182.

Alternatively, you can email 3070@northumbria.police.uk.

ENDS

Shot red kite successfully rehabilitated and released in Essex

Last month I blogged about a red kite that had been found injured with shotgun injuries in Galleywood Lane, Chelmsford, Essex (see here and here).

The kite was picked up by concerned members of the public and taken to the South Essex Wildlife Hospital for treatment.

[Photo of the kite by South Essex Wildlife Hospital]

After four weeks of expert care and rehabilitation, this red kite was released back to the wild last week. Well done to all the team at South Essex Wildlife Hospital.

Essex Police are still investigating the circumstances of this illegal shooting and if anyone has any information please contact Wildlife Crime Officer PC Jed Raven on Tel 101 and quote reference number 42/265786/21.

Please note, this police investigation is one of two separate incidents concerning dead red kites. The other one relates to the discovery of a dead red kite that had been found in suspicious circumstances in the Uttlesford area of Essex earlier in November (here).

Wild Justice wins legal challenge against unlawful General Licences in Northern Ireland

In late October this year, conservation campaign group Wild Justice launched a legal challenge against the Northern Ireland Executive’s Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) for issuing what Wild Justice believed to be scientifically and legally flawed general licences (see here and here).

This came after months of protracted correspondence with DAERA, who decided to ignore all the legal and scientific arguments against the licences by simply re-issuing them in September.

Wild Justice launched a crowdfunder to support a legal challenge and the target was reached quickly (thank you to the many blog readers who supported this!) and formal legal action began.

Yesterday, literally on the eve of court papers being lodged, DAERA finally conceded that their General Licences are unlawful and will now have to begin the process of reforming them.

Wild Justice said:

“The DAERA General Licences we challenged were not fit for purpose and were unlawful to boot. DAERA seemed to think that Woodpigeons and Feral Pigeons threatened conservation interests in Northern Ireland – a totally bizarre idea. And yet it took a tiny organisation, supported by thousands of people, to raise the money and to hire brilliant lawyers to bring these flawed licences down. We look forward to seeing lawful replacement licences in the very near future. DAERA must do better and Wild Justice remains ready, willing and able to take further legal challenges on behalf of wildlife in the UK.”

Tom Short, one of Wild Justice’s lawyers from Leigh Day said:

“Our client welcomes DAERA’s belated concession that its 2021 general licences are not fit for purpose. DAERA had blatantly, as in previous years, failed to follow the process it is required to, and had issued the licences absent any evidence to support them. That is not how a licensing system permitting the killing of otherwise protected wild birds should operate, and it is astonishing that DAERA has failed to engage with the problem since it was first raised by Wild Justice in May 2019. Our client welcomes DAERA’s commitment to now reform its licensing and move to full consultation on the issue.”

For further detail on this latest successful legal challenge please read the Wild Justice blog here.

Wild Justice is a not-for-profit company and its three Directors (Chris Packham, Mark Avery, Ruth Tingay) work voluntarily to take legal cases and advocate for a better deal for wildlife. If you’d like to make a donation to support their work please click here. If you’d like to receive news directly from Wild Justice please sign up for their free e-newsletter here.

How and why to report grouse moor fires to the RSPB

In October the RSPB published a report warning that current muirburn practices (e.g. setting the moors alight as part of grouse moor ‘management’) are incompatible with Scotland’s net zero ambitions because of the importance of peatlands as carbon stores (see here). The report also provided evidence that the current voluntary Muirburn Code is not working.

[Look at the state of this! Muirburn on a grouse moor. The photographer wishes to remain anonymous]

In November 2020, the (then) Rural Affairs and Natural Environment Minister, Mairi Gougeon MSP gave an official statement to the Scottish Parliament in response to the independent Grouse Moor Management Group (Werritty) Report. She said:

‘In future muirburn will only be permitted under licence from NatureScot, regardless of the time of year it is undertaken. And there will be a statutory ban on burning on peatland, except under licence for strictly limited purposes such as habitat restoration.’

To coincide with the RSPB’s damning report on muirburn published in October, they also launched a new App where members of the public could report sightings of current fires or where they’d seen evidence of recent burning. The RSPB is interested in fires that have been lit for agricultural and sporting purposes (i.e. grouse moor management).

This information is critical for the RSPB’s advocacy team to ensure that muirburn is licensed and muirburn on deep peatland soils is banned. Information from Scotland and England is very welcome.

The App can be utilised directly on the hill and there is now also a facility for information to be submitted to the RSPB from a computer at home. Please visit the RSPB’s webpage here for further information.

Sainsbury’s still selling toxic game meat, according to new research from Wild Justice

They’re still at it!

A year on from selling products labelled as ‘healthy’, Sainsbury’s is once again selling pheasant and partridge meat that contains poisonous lead shot, way above the legal levels allowed for meats such as beef, pork and chicken.

Conservation campaign group Wild Justice has bought and tested more samples this season and the shocking results have just been published this morning. You can read about the full results on the Wild Justice blog (here) but take a look at this graph to see just how contaminated the Sainsbury’s pheasant breasts and game mix packs are, in comparison to the chicken samples tested as a control group:

Animal welfare and biodiversity ethics aside, would you fancy eating this? Or feeding it to your children? How would you feel about this level of contaminated meat being ‘donated’ to foodbanks for those living in crisis this winter?

And once again Sainsbury’s is being supplied by game dealer ‘Holme Farmed Venison‘ in Yorkshire, a company that has previously refused to respond to reasonable queries from customers such as ‘From which estates are you sourcing your gamebirds?’ and ‘How can I be sure you’re sourcing them from estates that are not involved in the illegal persecution of birds of prey?’.

And once again, these products have been ‘endorsed’ by the British Game Alliance, the game shooting industry’s ‘official marketing board’ which has now apparently changed its name to British Game Assurance as a marketing ploy but still lacks transparency and thus credibility (e.g. see here).

To find out whether other supermarkets and big brand stores are selling contaminated game meat this season, keep an eye on the Wild Justice blog as other samples are currently undergoing analysis.

Update on raptor persecution investigations in Scotland from National Wildlife Crime Unit

A couple of weeks ago I attended the Scottish Ornithologists’ Club’s (SOC) virtual annual conference. One of the speakers I was keen to hear was PC Gavin Ross, an Investigative Support Officer at the National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU).

Gavin is the ISO for Scotland and has been in post for a year (see here).

His presentation opened with an explanation of the differences between the NWCU and Police Scotland (essentially the NWCU is an intelligence gathering unit but it also has other functions, particularly supporting the police with wildlife crime investigations). He went on to describe the seven national wildlife crime priorities and the importance of partnership-working in tackling wildlife crime. In fact he mentioned the importance of partnership-working quite a few times and encouraged attendees to report anything suspicious as this information all helps to build an intelligence portfolio around certain areas and individuals.

The subject of raptor persecution was prominent in this presentation, as you might expect for an audience with the SOC.

We learned that this year alone there had been police enquiries into the death and /or disappearance of 14 eagles: 11 golden eagles and 3 white-tailed eagles. It was emphasised that as only a small proportion of eagles are tagged, this figure was likely the tip of a much larger iceberg.

Six of the 14 investigations related to satellite-tagged birds (whose tags had stopped suddenly without any indication of a technical malfunction, and are therefore considered suspicious).

Two of the 14 investigations are considered ‘historical’ in that they relate to the discovery of items (tags!) that had been cut off eagles and dumped in a river or a loch in previous years (e.g. see here and here for previous examples of this).

As these are ongoing investigations much of the detail was redacted from the presentation. That’s fair enough for a while, to protect the integrity of the investigations, but I hope Police Scotland will be publicising the circumstances of these incidents in due course.

Gavin also talked about what he called ‘Operation Stoop, aka Operation Tantallon’, which is the ongoing investigation into the theft and laundering of wild peregrines. This is a multi-agency operation involving the police, Scottish SPCA, NWCU and SASA, with additional support from members of the Scottish Raptor Study Group. So far three people have been charged, including a serving police officer (see here), but as it’s a live case many details are currently being withheld.

Gavin didn’t reveal any details but talked about the wide range of investigative techniques deployed so far, including surveillance, peregrine DNA analysis, searches under warrants, bankers warrants, cyber crime and the Proceeds of Crime Act.

I think the breadth of this investigation and the resources being thrown at it is testimony to the seriousness and extent of this particular crime, and from what I hear it’s certainly not just restricted to Scotland. I’m sure we’ll be hearing more in due course.

Overall this was an interesting and well-delivered presentation. I hope the NWCU will consider doing more of these and making them freely available on their website.

UPDATE 16 December 2023: Part-time gamekeeper & son plead guilty to peregrine laundering charges; serving police officer cleared (here)

Trial delayed again for Angus Glens gamekeeper charged with animal fighting & cruelty offences

Further to the the blog post on Friday (here), where a gamekeeper from Millden Estate in the Angus Glens was due in court to face charges of alleged animal fighting and animal suffering, the case has been continued yet again, apparently at the behest of the gamekeeper’s QC.

This case has been dragging on for over two years and is related to the execution of a search warrant at premises on Millden Estate in October 2019, when Police Scotland and the Scottish SPCA seized dogs as well as a number of dead birds of prey.

The new trial date has been set as 11th April 2022.

Unfortunately as this is a live case I am unable to publish further details and can’t accept comments until proceedings have concluded. Thanks for your patience.

Previous blogs on this case can be read here, here, here, here, here, here.

Angus Glens gamekeeper in court today on animal fighting charges

A gamekeeper from the Angus Glens is due back in court today to face charges relating to alleged animal fighting and animal suffering.

These charges stem from a joint Scottish SPCA / Police Scotland search warrant which was executed on Millden Estate in October 2019 where a number of dogs were seized.

[A headline in The Times back in October 2019]

This case has dragged on and on and on (see here, here, here, here, here).

Hopefully today there’ll be some progress.

As this is a live case I won’t be accepting comments here until proceedings have concluded. Thanks for your patience.

UPDATE 6th December 2021: Trial delayed again for Angus Glens gamekeeper charged with animal fighting & cruelty offences (here)

Gamekeeper convicted as birds of prey die in trap

A gamekeeper in the Scottish Borders has been convicted today after two supposedly protected birds of prey (a barn owl and a goshawk) died inside a trap which he neglected to check.

There’s an article about this case in the Border Telegraph this evening, which I’ll copy below, and then I’ll add some further commentary below that.

Here’s the Border Telegraph piece:

Borders gamekeeper ‘recklessly’ killed two protected birds

A GAMEKEEPER who recklessly killed two protected birds on a Borders estate by leaving open the door of a multi crow cage trap [Ed: see commentary at foot of this blog] has been fined £300 at Selkirk Sheriff Court.

An owl and a goshawk perished from exposure and a lack of food and water at Cathpair Farm near Stow on September 13 last year.

Fifty-three-year-old Peter Givens, of Keepers Cottage, Cathpair, pleaded guilty to recklessly taking and killing the wild birds under the Wildlife and Countryside Act.

His lawyer explained that Givens had used the crow trap for the lambing season earlier in the year but thought had had [sic] secured it properly when no longer required.

Wildlife and environmental crime depute fiscal Joe Stewart said: “An ecologist carrying out a survey on the estate came across a crow cage trap near some woodland.

“He noticed a barn owl lying deceased in the trap which was in an advanced state of decomposition and had obviously been there for a long time.

“The door was closed and the trap was in use.

“The local wildlife police attended carrying out a search and he found another bird in the trap which was a goshawk.”

An identification tag on the trap was traced to Givens.

Mr Stewart said the trap should have been removed.

Givens’ lawyer said his client had been a gamekeeper for more than 30 years and had no previous convictions.

He said around the start of the COVID pandemic in March 2020 the trap was put in place and checked on a regular basis in case other birds were trapped.

He explained that there had been a lot of crows at the start of the lambing season but this had tailed off by May.

The lawyer continued: “He thought the trap had been deactivated. There was no intention to keep the trap operating.

“What happened on September 13 came as a shock to him and a source of embarrassment and sadness for the damage he has caused.

“He has accepted he failed to deactivate the trap properly.

“He accepts his conduct was reckless but it was not intentional and he is very remorseful.”

Sheriff Peter Paterson said: “This was an oversight rather than an intentional act.

“It was not a deliberate act to trap predators with the unintended consequences.”

Sheriff Paterson added: “I take into account your spotless record and while this was reckless, it was not intentional.”

He reduced the fine from £375 to £300 to reflect the guilty plea with a £20 victim surcharge added.

ENDS

Ok, so first a technical correction on the court reporter’s write up in the Border Telegraph. The article states the gamekeeper had killed the two birds of prey ‘by leaving open the door of a multi crow cage trap’. This can’t be accurate. Had he left the door open, the barn owl and the goshawk would have been able to escape! What is more likely to have happened is the gamekeeper kept the cage door shut, which is an offence if the trap is no longer in use because, as we’ve seen, birds can enter the trap through a roof opening (either a ‘ladder’ or funnel design) but then they cannot escape back up.

Anybody who operates a multi-cage crow trap under the General Licences in Scotland MUST render the trap ‘incapable of use’ if the trap is not being used, and this means either removing the door entirely or padlocking it open. Leaving the door closed when the trap is not in use is an offence.

I was interested to read the gamekeeper’s lawyer’s defence: “…..the gamekeeper thought he had secured it properly when no longer required“. I’m not sure how someone can believe they’ve secured a cage trap ‘properly’ if they haven’t obeyed the General Licence terms and conditions and either (a) removed the door or (b) padlocked it open. There’s no possibility of ‘accidentally’ doing half a job here – you either remove the door or you don’t, or you padlock the door open, or you don’t.

I was also interested to see that the guilty gamekeeper was 53 years old and had been a gamekeeper for ‘more than 30 years’. These were details given by his lawyer in his defence. I’d argue that those details should have gone against the gamekeeper – he’s been in the wildlife-killing business for long enough to know the risks and certainly to know the law. Indeed, I understand Peter Givens was the former Head Gamekeeper on nearby Raeshaw Estate. This is an estate that has been at the centre of multiple wildlife crime investigations for many, many years and was the subject of the very first General Licence restriction in 2015, based on clear police evidence that wildlife crimes had been committed there, although there was insufficient evidence to prosecute any individual (see here).

Even after the General Licence restriction was imposed on Raeshaw Estate, even more alleged wildlife crimes were uncovered which resulted in the estate’s Individual licences being revoked by SNH in 2017 (here).

There is no evidence nor indeed suggestion that Peter Givens was involved in any of those alleged offences but the point of highlighting this background is that he would certainly have been aware of the police investigations and thus the importance of adhering to the law, which he failed to do in this latest case (which incidentally did not take place on Raeshaw Estate – Givens has since moved to a smaller shoot].

The lawyer also made a point of telling the Sheriff that Givens had no previous convictions, and his ‘spotless record’ was taken in to account by Sheriff Paterson when Givens was sentenced.

And the punishment for ‘recklessly’ killing two Schedule 1 birds of prey? A £300 fine and a £20 victim surcharge.

You can decide for yourselves whether this will be sufficient deterrent for other gamekeepers to ensure they adhere to the terms and conditions of the General Licences to prevent protected species being trapped in a literal death trap and starving to death.