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A rare opportunity to join the dynamic RSPB’s Investigations team on the front line, tackling illegal raptor persecution and other crimes against birds in Wales.

[Photo: an illegally killed sparrowhawk being retrieved by an RSPB Investigations Officer. Image by Guy Shorrock]

Here’s the job spec from the RSPB:

Assistant Investigations Officer

Location: Bangor, Wales

The illegal killing of the birds of prey is a stain on the UK’s reputation. It affects almost all of our raptor species, and particularly impacts those of high conservation concern such as the hen harrier and peregrine.

This role is working within a dedicated and unique team combating this issue alongside partners including the Police and statutory agencies.

You will be on the front line, following up reports of dead birds, monitoring the nests of some of our rarest breeding species or carrying out targeted fieldwork in areas with a history of criminal activity.

You will develop relationships with volunteer raptor fieldworkers to monitor the nests and roosts of priority raptors in target areas of known persecution (including poisoning of other species). You will also organise monitoring of hen harrier nests to identify suitable candidate broods for satellite-tagging, which will be undertaken under licence by a qualified ringer.

You will liaise with Natural Resources Wales area teams to ensure that measures are taken to protect rare breeding raptors, particularly on designated sites

You will raise the profile of priority raptors in Wales, through local community talks and media, so being able to communicate in Welsh will be an advantage.

You need to be robust, persistent, focussed, able to work in pressured situations and have excellent bird identification skills.

You will frequently be required to work unsociable hours, in remote upland environments where excellent navigation skills, an awareness of lone working procedures and health & safety are essential.

Experience of upland conservation issues, raptor monitoring projects, including using satellite transmitters, and intelligence handling would be beneficial.

This is a rewarding job, in a small team that makes a big difference.

The successful applicant will need to be based in Wales and prepared to travel throughout the country and occasionally farther afield.

Salary starting at £19,602 to £21,236 per annum

Hours: Full time
Contract: 12 months

Application closing date: 14 February 2020
Interview date: 27 February 2020

For further details and the application forms please click here

Quelle surprise! It’s another year and another opportunity for a load of dead pheasants to be dumped.

Here are two more cases reported on social media in recent days, one load dumped in North Yorkshire and another in West Yorkshire, to add to previous reports of shot dumped birds in Cheshire, Scottish borders (here), Norfolk (here), Perthshire (here), Berkshire (here), North York Moors National Park (here) and some more in North Yorkshire (here), Co. Derry (here), West Yorkshire (here), N Wales (here), mid-Wales (here), Leicestershire (here) and Lincolnshire (here).

The latest gruesome discovery in North Yorkshire included a potato sack full of dead pheasants dumped by the side of the road in York:

The pheasant dumping incident in West Yorkshire was reported on twitter by West Yorkshire Police but no photos available:

Gamebird dumping continues to be a widespread problem. That’s hardly a surprise when the game shooting industry is permitted to release as many non-native pheasants and red-legged partidge as it likes (conservatively estimated to be almost 60 million EVERY YEAR), with minimal regulation, and no requirement to report on what happens to those birds once they’ve been shot for a bit of a laugh.

And let’s not forget this is the same game shooting industry that is responsible for the vast majority of illegal raptor persecution, done, it says, to protect gamebirds. That’ll be the gamebirds that are shot and then dumped, with no respect for the quarry and no respect for the local residents who’ll have to foot the bill to have the carcasses removed.

In a letter to the Daily Telegraph in November 2005 headed ‘Game birds for eating not dumping’, Tim Bonner of the Countryside Alliance said this:

“Every bird shot in Britain goes into the food chain, whether into participants’ freezers, or through game dealers into an increasing number of supermarkets, butchers, pubs and restaurants“.

That statement wasn’t true in 2005 and nor is it true 15 years later in 2020, despite the game shooting industry’s extensive (but flawed, e.g. see here) PR efforts to persuade the public that everything that’s killed is done ethically and sustainably.

Last year DEFRA admitted, after a legal challenge by Wild Justice, that gamebird releases need to be assessed properly for their potential ecological damage to protected nature conservation sites. As the clock counts down to more gamebird releases this year and with no indication that DEFRA will sort itself out in time, Wild Justice is preparing to re-visit the legal challenge.

If you want an example of desperate, nasty vindictiveness, then look no further than this piece from the Countryside Alliance and Daily Mail, who have gone after Chief Inspector Lou Hubble (Head of the National Wildlife Crime Unit) for participating in the spoof rap video we posted here on Xmas Eve (see here).

The headline itself provides a wonderful insight in to the mind of a Daily Mail ‘journalist’ –

EXCLUSIVE – that’s because no other self-respecting newspaper would touch this ridiculous story

TOP FEMALE POLICE CHIEF – what’s her gender got to do with anything?

SPARKS FURY FROM COUNTRYSIDE ALLIANCE – an organisation that gets off on killing wildlife is ‘furious’ about a spoof rap video?

BY PERFORMING X-RATED RAP SONG – x-rated? Good grief

DRESSED AS TINIE TEMPAH – er, no, she was dressed as Police Supt Nick Lyall in an exaggerated spoof of his infamous red rapper coat

WITH AN ANTI-HUNT EXTREMIST – er, any evidence of this so called ‘anti hunt extremism’? Of course not.

BY HOUSE OF COMMONS – watch out, terror alert, there’s an ‘extremist’ dancing (badly) across the river from the Parliament building.

And if the headline hasn’t got you guffawing then the main article will….

‘A thick fake gold chain hanging around her neck with a large dollar sign on it completes the high-ranking officer’s unusual edgy, urban look‘

and

‘At one stage, the Chief Inspector holds her fingers in the air and then runs them down her face as she menacingly stares into the camera‘

and

‘She is also seen rubbing her fingers as if she is counting money before going on to spread her arms wide’

and

‘In another part, the officer and Dr Tingay hold up £10 notes as the words to the song go: ‘Trying to change a tenner to a hundred grand.’ They are then filmed tossing the notes away‘.

Seriously, this would be laughable if there wasn’t a more sinister motive behind this attack, and yes, we agree with Mark Avery that this is very clearly an attack.

It’s not about Lou Hubble featuring in a light hearted spoof video, with a load of partner organisations (including BASC, one of whose staff members was quite happy to don the red coat and bust some rap moves as a friendly way of showing support for Supt Nick Lyall). No, in our view this is about the Countryside Alliance exploiting an opportunity to try and undermine Lou Hubble’s integrity simply because she’s been working hard, along with Nick Lyall, to try and tackle the illegal killing of raptors by the game shooting industry.

Remember the attack on Nick Lyall’s integrity last year (see here)? Well this is exactly the same, just executed with more force.

This time, a formal complaint has been lodged about Lou and as a result she is now under formal investigation.

What utter bastards.

Lou Hubble has more integrity in her little fingernail than the Countryside Alliance could ever hope to achieve. She’s dedicated her career to tackling wildlife crime and has worked exceptionally hard since taking on the role of Head of the NWCU. Part of her responsibility has been to develop effective partnership-working with a whole range of organisations, as is demonstrated by this video, ironically. Attending the Game Fair last year as an invited guest on the BASC stand doesn’t mean she favours that organisation, just as appearing in this tribute video doesn’t indicate that she favours raptor conservationists. It’s pathetic to suggest otherwise.

Lou has approached her role with skill and patience and enthusiasm. As a result we now have a strong working relationship, better than we’ve ever had with any of her predecessors and particularly on the subject of satellite tagged raptors. Lou has put in hours and hours of work, much of it in her own time, to understand satellite tag data, how to interpret the data and comprehend what the data can and can’t tell us, and she’s subsequently facilitated extensive training for other police officers. She’s also put in to place a highly efficient protocol for investigating the suspicious disappearance of satellite-tagged raptors.

If you’d like to thank Lou for her efforts or would just simply like to show your support in the face of this vicious attack, please consider adding a comment to this blog. Her senior officers will be reading it.

UPDATE 3 February 2020: Daily Mail forced to apologise for publishing defamatory ‘extremist’ slur (here)

Wildlife campaign group Wild Justice has today sent a formal legal letter to the Secretary of State, asking about the apparent lack of action from DEFRA on the need to properly assess the annual release of millions of non-native gamebirds.

The letter is a pre-action protocol letter, which gives DEFRA notice of a proposed claim for judicial review if an adequate response isn’t received by 3rd February 2020.

For background detail and a copy of the letter see the Wild Justice blog here.