Author: RaptorPersecutionUK

Good news! Ravens venturing on to the grouse moors of Strathbraan in Highland Perthshire this year will NOT be the victims of an SNH-sanctioned kill-fest ‘just to see what happens’, as they were in 2018.

The so-called Strathbraan Community Collaboration for Waders (SCCW), also known as gamekeepers, submitted a revised licence application to SNH on 18 March 2019. We haven’t yet seen this licence application so we don’t know how many ravens they wanted to kill this year.

However, in an FoI response we received last night, SNH confirmed that the licence application did not meet the recommendations of SNH’s Scientific Advisory Committee and so SNH has rejected the application.

Full details about this year’s licence application, as well as the details of the Scientific Advisory Committee’s recommendations are due to be released to us by SNH on 10th May. It’ll be an interesting read and we’ll share relevant information on this blog.

Very obviously, we’re delighted that ravens will not be killed gratuitously (albeit under licence) on the grouse moors of Strathbraan this year and we’re also delighted to see SNH take its licensing responsibilities seriously, in stark contrast to last year.

However, just like last year, SNH has not been keen to communicate openly and transparently. It’s taken a bit of work to drag the news from SNH about its decision to reject this year’s licence application. Earlier this week we blogged about a series of FoI emails where we argued that SNH was withholding information unreasonably (see here).

There has been further correspondence since then, as follows:

From SNH, 30th April 2019:

To SNH, 1 May 2019:

From SNH, 2 May 2019:

Many thanks to our legal team Sindi Mules (Balfour & Manson) and Aidan O’Neill QC (Matrix Chambers) for their continued support of this case.

Thanks also to all those who supported the #Justice4Ravens crowdfunder last year – there is still money in the pot and it’s being used to pay for on-going legal advice.

A couple of days ago Chris Packham’s ‘penis hate mail’ was put up for auction on Ebay (see here).

After just a day the bids had already reached £2,550 but then yesterday Ebay accidentally removed the item.

Today, after apologising, Ebay has re-listed the item and so bidding is once again open. BID HERE

Please bid generously – all proceeds to Wild Justice. Auctions ends 8 May 18.03hrs.

UPDATE 13 May 2019: Chris Packham’s ‘penis hate mail’ raises £2,550.00 for Wild Justice! (here)

This is the death threat letter that was sent to Chris Packham on Monday:

There’s no ambiguity here. The menacing and disturbing content reveals a clear intent.

If you recognise the handwriting or know the identity of the person/people who sent it, please contact Hampshire Police immediately.

There’s an article about Chris’s reaction to these violent threats in today’s Mirror (here).

The manufactured hate campaign against Chris Packham, long generated and encouraged by certain organisations in the shooting lobby and their friends in the Government and media, has recently escalated following Wild Justice’s successful legal challenge last week and has now resulted in chilling death threats towards Chris.

The dead crows hanging off his gate didn’t phase him, and his reaction to a penis drawn on a block of wood that was sent to him was genius – auctioning it on Ebay to raise funds for Wild Justice’s next legal challenge (this has currently raised £2,350.00 with six days left to bid)

However, in an exclusive interview in today’s Mirror, Chris talks about his fears for his family after receiving a number of ‘suspicious packages’, later opened by the Police and found to contain human excrement (see here for interview).

Then this morning, during an interview on Good Morning Britain where Chris was explaining the rationale behind Wild Justice’s legal challenge and calling out the fake news on it, he revealed that he’d received death threats last night. (Interview available on ITV catchup here for next seven days: starts at 53.07 mins).

The police are investigating.

Having seen the death threats, they are credible, disturbing and chilling.

Whatever your view on Chris, his campaigning, his ethics, his TV presenting, this level of abuse and threat is intolerable. The shooting organisations (and one in particular) busily whipping up the hate frenzy against Chris should be demonstrating some leadership and taking immediate steps to calm down their members and behave with civil discourse.

As many of you will know, last year SNH authorised a mass raven cull on the grouse moors of Strathbraan in Highland Perthshire, just ‘to see what happens’.

The Scottish Raptor Study Group took on a legal challenge against SNH and the cull was eventually halted.

[Young ravens in a nest in Stirlingshire, photographed last week under licence by Dave Taylor]

SNH’s Scientific Advisory Committee comprehensively demolished the so-called science behind the cull (study apparently designed by GWCT) with comments such as it’s ‘completely inadequate’, ‘will fail to provide any meaningful scientific evidence’, ‘the methodology cited has not been followed’ and ‘seriously flawed’.

However, the threat of a potential new raven cull licence application has never gone away and for this reason we’ve been keeping tabs on SNH and the Strathbraan Community Collaboration for Waders (also known as gamekeepers).

Incredibly, it seems SNH has learned nothing from last year’s fiasco and still isn’t being transparent about what’s going on, even though this statutory nature advisory agency still claims to be “committed to openness and transparency“.

Here’s SNH’s response to one of our recent Freedom of Information requests asking about whether a licence application has been submitted this year and if so, whether SNH has granted another licence to permit the killing of ravens:

Hmm. The potential for SNH to delay responding in full to this FoI request until 28 May was highly unsatisfactory, especially if a licence to kill ravens has already been issued to the gamekeepers. It would mean we wouldn’t find out about that licence until 28 May, and thus any potential legal challenge wouldn’t be lodged until sometime in June, by which time most of the ravens would already have been killed so the legal challenge would become ‘academic’ and could potentially be thrown out of court.

With this in mind, the following email was sent to SNH on 25 April:

Dear XXXXX

Over the weekend, Chris Packham received some hate mail as a response to last week’s news that General Licences are to be revised to make them lawful.

In his own inimitable style, Chris shared some of this hate mail in a video he posted on Twitter yesterday: https://twitter.com/ChrisGPackham/status/1122547980639322112

A day later, this video has received over half a million views, and counting.

It also resulted in this amazing headline (if you’d asked anyone at the start of the year to predict some of the year’s headlines, this one would never have made the list!) –

And here’s an excerpt from this article, reporting the transcript from Chris’s video:

Now, in a once in a lifetime opportunity, you have a chance to win this amazing piece of art/conservation history as Chris is auctioning it to raise funds for Wild Justice. As a special tribute to the penis artist, all proceeds will be used to help fund the group’s next legal challenge, because that’s what Chris thinks the artist would have wanted. A kind of poetic justice (thanks to @CharlieMoores for that one!).

Please give generously – we wouldn’t want the penis artist to think his/her (probably his) efforts were insignificant. Think of the pleasure he’ll get when he sees how much has been raised, all thanks to his sophisticated creativity!

BID HERE ON EBAY!

Includes photos, description, dimensions and free delivery!

Bidding closes 6 May 2019 at 18.57hrs

UPDATE 1 May 2019: Yesterday, Ebay accidentally deleted this item from its site (top bid had reached £2,550). Today, Ebay has apologised and reinstated the item. Bidding has restarted (here).

UPDATE 13 May 2019: Chris Packham’s ‘penis hate mail’ raises £2,550.00 for Wild Justice! (here)

The Scottish National Party held its spring conference in Edinburgh over the weekend.

Revive, the coalition for grouse moor reform, took the opportunity to have a stand in the exhibitors’ hall on both days which attracted a large number of MSPs and delegates who signed up to support the campaign.

[Revive coalition members Ruth Tingay (RPUK), Max Wiszniewski (Revive Campaign Manager & mastermind of Revive’s involvement at conference) and Robbie Marsland (League Against Cruel Sports Scotland)]

Revive also hosted a Fringe event at the conference on Saturday afternoon, which took the form of a panel discussion hosted and chaired by Ruth Maguire MSP:

The number of delegates wanting to attend this event was overwhelming. The audience was above capacity and the doors had to be closed to stop others coming in.

And what an audience it was! Some were already very well informed about the need for grouse moor reform, and others were clearly new to the debate but their eyes were soon opened.

The audience heard from Max, who introduced the background to Revive’s campaign and showed Revive’s video outlining the case for grouse moor reform.

Then there was a presentation from RPUK on the illegal killing of golden eagles (and other raptors) on many Scottish grouse moors and how the criminals have been able to get away with it for so long.

Next up was Robin McAlpine from Common Weal who brilliantly asked the audience to play at Dragon’s Den and pretend they were listening to a pitch to set up driven grouse shooting as an ethical, environmentally-friendly and sustainable business proposition. Their laughter would have been heard in the main conference hall.

Questions and answers followed, ably chaired by Ruth Maguire MSP and by the end of this hour-long event the mood in the room was palpable. This was an audience agitating for change.

Let’s hope the message reaches the Government as we prepare to find out the recommendations of Prof Werritty’s grouse moor management review in the coming months.

A police investigation is underway.

Legal advice is also being taken for potential action against a number of individuals using social media to incite harassment, intimidation and violence.