The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) is advertising an exciting new position as the Welsh Raptor Monitoring Coordinator, to support the newly-funded Welsh Raptor Monitoring Project.
This project is funded by the Nature Networks Programme and is being delivered by the Heritage Fund, on behalf of the Welsh Government.
This is a permanent, full-time role based in the BTO Cymru office in Bangor, although you will be able to work from home part of the time on a hybrid working regime. Salary: £30,135 per annum + 11% employer pension contribution.
The role will involve developing, coordinating and promoting the project and its data collection methods, training and reporting.
Closing date for receipt of applications is Sunday 5th Mayand interviews will be held at Bangor during the middle of the week commencing 13th May. If you have any questions, please contact recruitment@bto.org
For further details and to apply for this position, please click here.
Press release from North Yorkshire Police (23 April 2024):
SUSPECTED SHOOTING OF A BUZZARD ON NORTH YORK MOORS
Our Rural Task Force is appealing for information following the suspected shooting of a buzzard in the North York Moors National Park.
The Buzzard is thought to have been killed near to Laskill, Bilsdale, on Thursday 4 April, and we’re appealing for anyone who saw any suspicious people or vehicles in the area to please come forward.
Buzzards and all other birds of prey are legally protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. To intentionally kill or injure one is a criminal offence which could result in an unlimited fine or up to six months in jail.
If you have any information that could help please email tom.gaunt@northyorkshire.police.uk or call North Yorkshire Police on 101, select option 2 and ask for PC Tom Gaunt.
If you wish to remain anonymous you can contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or online at crimestoppers-uk.org
Please quote NYP reference 12240059635 when passing on information.
ENDS
This is a bit of an odd press release. The appeal for information is in relation to a ‘suspected shooting’ so I guess we can assume an injured/dead buzzard wasn’t found otherwise it’d have been x-rayed which would have confirmed whether it’d been shot or not.
It wouldn’t be a surprise to learn that another buzzard had been shot here though. This so-called National Park, where the landscape is dominated by driven grouse moors, is a well-known hot bed of raptor persecution where there are repeated crimes against birds of prey, mostly involving shooting or poisoning (e.g. here, here, here, here, here, here, here).
West Yorkshire Police are appealing for information after the discovery of a shot buzzard that was found dead in the East Morton area of Bradford, which is on the edge of Ilkley Moor.
Many of you will know that Professor Colin Galbraith was appointed Chair of NatureScot’s Board last year (see here); a four year appointment until June 2027.
Screen grab from NatureScot website
Professor Galbraith was invited to speak at the Scottish Gamekeepers Association’s (SGA) recent AGM (1 March 2024) and I was curious about what he said to them. This is pertinent to another issue that I’ll come on to in another blog.
I submitted an FoI to NatureScot asking for, amongst other things, a copy of Professor Galbraith’s presentation to the SGA.
Here’s part of the response I received from NatureScot:
Here is a copy of the bullet points provided to Professor Galbraith by NatureScot staff for his speech at the SGA’s AGM:
Press release from North Yorkshire Police (18 April 2024):
HEN HARRIER OPERATION ON THE HUNT FOR SUSPECTS IN THE YORKSHIRE DALES
On Wednesday, (17 April 2024), a National Harrier Task Force operation was held at an undisclosed location in the Yorkshire Dales.
Our Rural Task Force deployed with the National Wildlife Crime Unit on a warrant to search land and premises that are suspected to be linked to the illegal killing of Hen Harriers and the theft of satellite tags.
Photo supplied by North Yorkshire Police
Photo supplied by North Yorkshire Police
Police Sergeant David Lund, of the Rural Task Force, said:
“The searches were conducted by dedicated police officers and staff who used detection dogs, drones, radio tracking and metal detectors.
“We are pushing the boundaries with new tactics and equipment as well as with innovative new partnerships. This includes the use of wildlife crime detection dogs and drones.
“With these additional assets, we are able to expand our search parameters significantly which will strengthen our chance of bringing perpetrators to justice.
“We want to send a strong message that the persecution of Hen Harriers will not be tolerated in North Yorkshire.”
The investigation is ongoing and North Yorkshire Police’s Rural Task Force are appealing for anyone with information about suspected offending to get in touch.
If you can help, please make a report via the North Yorkshire Police website or by calling 101, option 4, and speak to the Force Control Room.
Alternatively, contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or make an online report.
ENDS
This is very encouraging and well done to North Yorkshire Police for publicising what looks to be an enthusiastic search effort.
The location hasn’t been disclosed but from the photos provided by the police it’s quite clear this is a grouse moor (muirburn strips in the background and a medicated grit tray and marker to the right of the officer holding the metal detector) and it wouldn’t be difficult to make an educated guess about which estate this is.
It’s also not clear whether the search warrant was granted on the basis of a new, yet-to-be-reported recent hen harrier persecution incident or whether it was based on previous evidence of widespread hen harrier persecution in the Yorkshire Dales National Park – e.g. at least 24 of the 123 hen harriers known to have ‘disappeared’ in suspicious circumstances or been illegally killed in the UK since 2018, took place in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, with a number of them clustered around one particular area – see here.
I was on BBC Radio 4’s Farming Today programme this morning, discussing Wild Justice’s successful legal challenge against DEFRA’s unlawful gamebird release licences.
DEFRA conceded that Ministers Therese Coffey and Richard Benyon had unlawfully authorised gamebird release licences for the Deben Estuary and Breckland Special Protection Areas but refutes Wild Justice’s claim that those decisions were tainted by the appearance of bias.
The thing is, it wasn’t just Wild Justice that had those suspicions of bias – the Ministers’ own civil servants had warned of the perception of bias and had urged the Ministers to take additional advice from organisations such as the RSPB and the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) instead of just relying on the advice of the pro-game-shooting Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT).
The Ministers chose to ignore that advice.
You can listen to the interview here (starts at 08.29 mins), available on BBC Sounds for 29 days.
Wild Justice will be releasing some of the documents released in this case over the coming weeks. Keep an eye on the Wild Justice blog or better still, sign up to their free newsletter (here) delivered straight to your inbox.
Conservation campaign group Wild Justice is celebrating another successful legal challenge this morning, this time over the backroom dealings of former Environment Secretary Dr Thérèse Coffey and her minister Lord Richard Benyon with pro-shooting organisation Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT), resulting in the unlawful release of gamebirds on sites of high conservation value in eastern England last year.
Young captive-bred gamebirds about to be released into the wild to be shot at. Photo by Ruth Tingay
Press release from Wild Justice’s legal team at Leigh Day (16th April 2024):
Government concedes that former Environment Secretary unlawfully granted gamebird release licences for protected areas against Natural England advice
The Government has conceded a claim by environmental group Wild Justice alleging the unlawful grant of licences for the release of gamebirds in and around two protected habitats.
Documents disclosed to Wild Justice showed that the licences had been granted against the advice of Natural England and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ expert panel.
Between July and October 2023, the former Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Thérèse Coffey, along with Lord Richard Benyon, who at the time was Minister of State for Biosecurity, Marine and Rural Affairs, unlawfully granted 28 gamebird release licences in and around the Breckland and Deben Estuary Special Protection Areas (SPAs).
They allowed the release of gamebirds such as pheasant and red-legged partridge into areas specially selected to protect rare or threatened species of wild birds.
Wild Justice applied for a judicial review of the decision to grant the licences, arguing:
The decisions were taken in breach of the Habitats Regulations in that there were no cogent reasons given to depart from the judgement of Natural England, the Government’s statutory adviser on nature conservation under the regulations, that licences should not be granted.
Regulation 63 of the Habitats Regulations was not complied with, which requires an “appropriate assessment” by a competent authority to be carried out.
The decisions appeared to be tainted by bias.
This week the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) conceded it had acted unlawfully in failing to provide cogent reasons for departing from Natural England’s advice and failing to undertake an appropriate assessment that complied with the Habitats Regulations.
Its disclosures to Wild Justice and the court revealed that advice was given by civil servants to Dr Coffey and Lord Benyon which said that the grant of the licences might be unlawful.
Natural England’s advice was that, in order to prevent any adverse impacts on rare wild birds as a result of the spread of bird flu from the release of the gamebirds, licences for one of the SPAs should not be issued at all and that licences could only be issued for the other SPA under strict conditions. However, licences were granted for releases in and around both SPAs without complying with Natural England’s advice.
Instead, the Secretary of State and Lord Benyon took advice from the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT), which has strong links with the shooting industry and promotes game management as a key part of nature conservation. Lord Benyon had also previously been a GWCT trustee until 2021.
In light of this, the Secretary of State was advised by her civil servants to request information from other groups such as the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) in order to avoid the perception of bias. This advice from DEFRA was not followed.
A number of the licencing applicants were also personally known to Lord Benyon and civil servants advised that an alternative minister should make the licensing decisions in those cases. That also did not happen.
A spokesperson from Wild Justice said:
“Defra had ‘No cogent reasons’ to disregard Natural England’s expert advice. So to find out that Therese Coffey and Richard Benyon have licensed releases of pheasants and partridges into what are supposed to be some of our most precious places, against that advice – and during a catastrophic outbreak of bird flu – it frankly reeks of both recklessness and arrogance.
It seems to us they may have had more regard for the interests of the shooting industry than those of the environment in this matter. Natural England has faced legal challenges by Wild Justice in each of the past five years, but in this case we support them and have stood up for them. We challenged these decisions because government is bound by the law, just as the rest of us are. We shall expose more about this reprehensible behaviour over the next few weeks.”
Wild Justice is represented by Leigh Day solicitors Ricardo Gama and Carol Day, and barristers David Wolfe KC and Katy Sheridan of Matrix Chambers.
Carol Day said:
“We are pleased that the Government Legal Department has conceded that the decision to grant the licences was unlawful, with key documents in the claim revealing that the decision breached the Habitats Regulations and failed to explain why the Secretary of State went against Natural England’s advice. Our client maintains the view that these decisions were influenced by apparent bias.”
ENDS
Wild Justice has published a blog about its latest successful legal challenge (here). More detail about the Ministers’ unlawful shenanigans will be published in the coming weeks – to be the first to hear about it, sign up to receive WJ’s free newsletter (here), which is emailed roughly twice a month.
Wild Justice relies entirely on donations to function – its three Directors, Dr Mark Avery, Dr Ruth Tingay & Chris Packham CBE, are unpaid volunteers. Wild Justice was able to take on this legal challenge thanks to the generosity of supporters who donate to a central pot, allowing the Directors to move quickly on cases which are often time-sensitive. If you’d like to support Wild Justice in this way, please visit the WJ donation page to find out how.
Thank you.
UPDATE 18th April 2024: Wild Justice on BBC Radio 4’s Farming Today programme discussing DEFRA’s unlawful gamebird release licences (here)
The election for the first York and North Yorkshire Mayor will take place on Thursday 2nd May 2024.
Whoever is elected will also take on the role of Police, Fire & Crime Commissioner in North Yorkshire. This is an important role, responsible for holding the Chief Constable to account for an efficient and effective local police service. The Commissioner also sets policing and crime priorities via their plan, and oversees the police budget.
Given the persistent volume of raptor persecution incidents in North Yorkshire, going back many, many years, whoever gets this role can have a significant influence on how these crimes are policed (or not, as in this recent case of a poisoned red kite found dead on Swinton Estate – here).
The list of candidates standing for the position can be viewed here:
One is Keith Tordoff, who I wrote about in 2021 when he was preparing to stand for the role of Police & Crime Commissioner – see here. Keith is an ardent raptor champion and has supported previous campaigns in Nidderdale to catch the notorious raptor (and dog) poisoners on the region’s grouse moors – and has suffered the consequences when his shop was targeted and he also received death threats.
Keith has pledged that if he is elected on 2nd May he intends to establish a steering group within the first 100 days to tackle these wildlife crimes and make sure that North Yorkshire Police are properly resourced to thoroughly investigate crime reports.
The other name that stands out on the list of candidates is Felicity Cunliffe-Lister, a co-Director of Swinton Estate, which has featured many times on this blog, and whose husband, the Earl of Swinton Mark Cunliffe-Lister is the current Chair of the Moorland Association (grouse moor owners’ lobby group) who had the brass neck to appear on Radio 4 last summer and say:
“Clearly, any illegal [hen harrier] persecution is not happening” (unbelievable, but he did say it – see here).
Which of these two candidates do you think is going to address North Yorkshire’s awful reputation for being one of the worst raptor persecution hotspots in the country?
The election takes place on 2nd May 2024. Please ensure you’re eligible to vote – if you’re not already registered, the deadline to register online is midnight on Tues 16th April 2024 (tomorrow night). Register here.
Further details about this election and requirements for voters can be found here.
Police Scotland have arrested and charged a 29 year old man from the Jed Forest Hunt with three alleged fox hunting offences after receiving video footage from the League Against Cruel Sports.
Another man, aged 55 and from a different hunt, has been arrested following allegations of a further three illegal hunting offences. He has been released pending further enquiries.
These arrests (and charges in the case of the 29 year old man) are highly significant as I believe they may be the first following the new Hunting with Dogs (Scotland) Act which came into force in October 2023 (see here).
They’ll be a good test of whether enforcement measures are sufficient for new legislation designed to tackle persistent wildlife crime – an issue we’ll all be monitoring closely when the Wildlife Management & Muirburn (Scotland) Act is enacted later this year on Scottish grouse moors.
Previous footage from the League Against Cruel Sports, showing a hunter throwing a fox to a pack of hounds, led to the enactment of the new legislation last year. NB: This footage is NOT related to the current arrests.
Penalties under the new fox hunting legislation include a custodial sentence of up to 12 months and/or a fine up to £40,000 (on summary conviction) or a custodial sentence of up to five years and/or a fine (on indictment, i.e. more serious cases).
Since the new legislation was enacted last autumn, investigators from the League Against Cruel Sports have been undertaking covert surveillance (via drone and on the ground) of five mounted hunts (The Berwickshire, Jed Forest, Lauderdale, Duke of Buccleuch, and Dumfries and Stewartry) and have submitted their findings to Police Scotland, resulting in the two arrests.
The League has published video footage from its observations (here) and an end of season report, which can be read/downloaded below:
Please note: As the 29 year old has now been charged with three alleged hunting offences, comments about his specific case will not be published until criminal proceedings against him have concluded. However, comments about the hunting legislation in general and the League’s findings are welcome, subject to the usual blog policy on libel, personal abuse etc.
A new report commissioned by REVIVE, the coalition for grouse moor reform in Scotland, has been published this week.
Authored by Dr Craig Dalzell, Head of Policy & Research at Common Weal (one of the five partner organisations at REVIVE), the report examines the potential for a proportionate land tax which could cover land as well as domestic buildings.
Raptor Persecution UK 