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Is SNH about to impose a General Licence restriction on Leadhills Estate?

Last week RSPB Scotland published a blog called ‘Why vicarious liability is failing to have an impact in Scotland‘.

Written by Duncan Orr-Ewing, Head of Species & Land Management, it’s the latest in a series, following on from the excellent blog challenging the Scottish Gamekeepers’ ignorance on satellite tags, written by Ian Thomson, Head of Investigations at RSPB Scotland.

Duncan’s blog is well worth a read. It questions the Crown Office’s recent decision not to prosecute anyone for alleged vicarious liability following the conviction of Scottish gamekeeper Alan Wilson for a series of barbaric wildlife crimes on the Longformacus Estate in the Scottish Borders.

It also considers the potential benefits of having the threat of a vicarious liability prosecution, and how this may have driven down the use of illegal poisons as a method of killing raptors, but been replaced by shooting and trapping methods which are much harder to detect.

The really interesting part of the blog, as far as we’re concerned, is the section on the Leadhills Estate in South Lanarkshire. Blog readers will recall this is where a male hen harrier was found with an almost severed leg caught in an illegally-set spring trap next to his nest earlier this summer. Despite the heroic efforts of a number of experts, he didn’t survive. The estate denied all knowledge and responsibility and nobody has been charged.

[The trapped hen harrier found on Leadhills Estate. Photo by Scottish Raptor Study Group]

Regular blog readers will know this poor hen harrier is not the only victim reported from the Leadhills Estate. The list is long and goes back more than a decade (e.g. scroll down this page). Duncan’s blog discusses some of the most recent incidents including the witnessed shooting of a hen harrier in May 2017; the witnessed shooting of a short-eared owl just a few weeks later and whose body was recovered; the discovery of a buzzard in 2018 that was found to have been shot twice; and the filmed buzzard that according to the RSPB was likely killed in a crow trap in January 2019.

Nobody has been charged for any of the above, but significantly, Duncan’s blog says this:

“We are advised that only now is an Open General Licence restriction, another sanction in the public authority wildlife crime “toolbox”, to be imposed here”.

SNH has had the power to impose General Licence restrictions since 1 January 2014. This was instigated by former Environment Minister Paul Wheelhouse in response to continuing difficulties of securing criminal prosecutions and was an instruction to SNH to withdraw the use of the General Licence (available for legal predator control) on land where crimes against raptors are believed to have taken place but where there is insufficient evidence to instigate criminal proceedings. The decision to withdraw the licence is based on the civil standard of proof which relates to the balance of probability as opposed to the higher standard of proof required for a criminal conviction.

This measure is not without its limitations, particularly as estates can simply apply for an individual licence instead which allows them to continue predator control activities but under slightly closer scrutiny.

SNH has only imposed four such restrictions since 2014 – a pathetically small figure when we are aware of at least a dozen other cases where a restriction should have been applied. SNH has claimed it is ‘not in the public interest‘ to explain those failures.

We’ve looked on the SNH website to see whether Leadhills Estate has been listed as having a General Licence restriction imposed (SNH does publicise the details when it imposes the restriction) but so far Leadhills Estate is not named. Potentially the estate has been notified and is currently in the period where it may challenge SNH’s decision, as per the framework for a General Licence restriction.

Watch this space.

UPDATE 26 November 2019: SNH imposes General Licence restriction on Leadhills Estate (here)

More detail emerges about SSPCA/Police Scotland raid at Millden Estate

A couple of weeks ago the Scottish SPCA, assisted by Police Scotland, conducted a pre-dawn raid on properties in Angus and Aberdeenshire as part of an investigation in to suspected animal fighting (see here).

This story has attracted huge media attention and more details have been emerging as journalists begin to dig.

The first insight came when journalist David Leask from The Herald exclusively revealed that the property raided in Angus was the Millden Estate, a grouse shooting estate in the Angus Glens (see here). We learned that as a result of the raid, the estate had suspended an employee pending further investigation.

We’ve now learned that the suspended employee was apparently a gamekeeper, according to this article by Charlie Parker in The Times, published two days ago: (see copy of article at foot of this blog)

Some may already have made the assumption that the suspended employee was a gamekeeper but this wasn’t previously clear; Millden Estate employs multiple people in multiple roles and they’re not all gamekeepers (e.g. in the Millden Estate 2011 sales brochure 16 employees were listed).

We’ve also learned something else about this raid. It had previously been reported that the SSPCA had seized dogs during the raid at Millden but their condition was unreported. However, according to this article by Jim Millar in The Courier, an SSPCA spokesperson is quoted as follows:

“We were made aware of animal fighting and secured a warrant to investigate further. This has been a successful raid and we are happy with the outcome. We have seized a number of dogs, which have injuries consistent with animal fighting and taken them into our care where they are getting all the love and attention they need“.

There is still no further detail about the dead buzzards that were reportedly recovered by the police/SSPCA, nor any indication of how they died.

We’ll await further information as and when the investigating authorities publish it. At this stage we are not aware of anyone being charged with any offences.

Sorry but as this is a live investigation we won’t be accepting any comments on this post.

UPDATE: Here is the text of the article in The Times:

A gamekeeper at Scotland’s most prestigious shooting estate is the subject of an investigation into organised animal fighting, The Times has learnt.

The Scottish SPCA last week led raids at two private lodgings on the £17.5 million Millden Estate in the Angus Glens. Specialist officers, backed by police, recovered computer equipment and dead buzzards among other evidence after obtaining warrants to search the properties.

They were said to be acting on intelligence gathered on animal fighting activities. Dogs and several other animals are understood to have been rescued in the operation.

Sources familiar with the raids said a gamekeeper was being investigated as part of the inquiry but no arrests have been made.

Millden Estate confirmed it immediately suspended a staff member after being contacted by officers but stressed that the investigation concerned an individual and not the estate itself.

The estate was recently visited by Alan Werritty, who is leading a Scottish government review of grouse shooting. He looked at Millden as an example of best practice for managing moors.

Robbie Marsland, director of the League Against Cruel Sports, which assisted the Scottish SPCA in its investigation, said: “We look forward to anyone found responsible experiencing the full weight of the law.”

A spokesman for Millden Estate said it was carrying out its own internal investigation. He added: “The estate will continue to liaise with the appropriate authorities. It has a robust system of compliance with the law including a zero tolerance approach to any wildlife offences or animal welfare issues.”

The Scottish Gamekeepers Association said: “If the allegations are correct, this type of abhorrent organised activity will not be condoned by anyone associated with gamekeeping.”

The Scottish SPCA issued a formal statement on Monday saying it had conducted raids in Angus and Aberdeenshire after intelligence led to concerns for the safety of dogs and wild animals. An undercover officer in its special investigations unit said: “We uncovered intelligence to suggest illegal animal fighting was taking place at these locations.”

ENDS

UPDATE 3 December 2020: Animal cruelty charges follow SSPCA/Police raid at property on Millden Estate (here)

UPDATE 2 November 2021: New trial date for Millden Estate gamekeeper accused of animal fighting offences (here)

Missing hen harrier Rosie reported to be alive and well

Following last Thursday’s news that a fourth satellite tagged hen harrier had ‘disappeared’ this autumn  – one called Rosie who vanished in Northumberland on an unknown date (here), news emerged last night on Supt Nick Lyall’s twitter feed that apparently she is alive and well.

There is no further detail at the moment.

[Hen harrier Rosie, photograph from Natural England]

We’d be very interested to find out from Natural England when, exactly, they called this bird as ‘missing’ (the original appeal for information from Northumbria Police strangely excluded this detail) and for how long the tag was actually offline.

If it was a genuine technical tag malfunction then nobody should be the least bit surprised. Assuming Rosie’s tag is the same type of tag as used in previous years, it’s known to have a 94% reliability rate. We’re aware of only one other hen harrier tag that was listed as a ‘stop no malfunction’ (i.e. a suspicious disappearance) but the bird was identified alive and well several months later (‘Highlander‘, a HH tagged by the RSPB) so if Rosie’s tag has temporarily malfunctioned that’s well within the expected 6% failure rate.

And of course even if this was a genuine tag malfunction it doesn’t change the fact that three of the five brood meddled hen harriers are still missing in suspicious circumstances and that 72% of all hen harriers sat tagged by Natural England have either been illegally killed or have disappeared presumed illegally killed on grouse moors. We’re expecting to see a similar figure from RSPB -tagged harriers when their tag analyses have been completed.

UPDATE 27 October 2019: Re-discovery of hen harrier Rosie not quite as it’s being portrayed (here)

Police called as grouse shooting supporters threaten disruption at Packham gig in Harrogate

A small gaggle of anti-Chris Packham pro-grouse shooting protesters turned up in Harrogate last night to demonstrate outside the theatre where Chris Packham was presenting a show to help raise awareness of wildlife in the Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).

Much to the bemusement (and amusement) of theatre-goers, the protesters held banners aloft claiming ‘Packham’s lies are destroying moorland communities‘ and ‘Pack it in Packham you are destroying our jobs‘.

Er, no, that’ll be the unidentified criminals in Nidderdale, who not only are poisoning and shooting red kites, hen harriers, buzzards, marsh harriers on Nidderdale grouse moors (as reported by the AONB partnership just last month), but who have also managed to turn the local community against them, all by themselves. Unsurprising really, when according to the Chair of the Nidderdale AONB these crimes are “starting to have a damaging effect on tourism businesses”. 

Here’s a map we produced a while ago showing the boundary of the Nidderdale AONB (yellow line), illegally killed red kites (red dots), missing satellite-tagged hen harriers (orange stars), shot hen harrier Bowland Betty (red star), shot hen harrier River (red triangle, which we now know should be closer to the red star on the Swinton Estate).

According to one of the organisers of Chris’s event at the theatre yesterday, she told us that her social media accounts promoting the event had been “inundated with a relentless list of abusive responses” from those within the game-shooting industry and how shocked she’d been at the “depth of hatred and nastiness” from the pro-shooting trolls. They’ve got a lot to learn about winning friends and influencing people!

It’s not known if any of those abusive trolls were present at the protest last night but she told us that when she went outside to speak to the protesters about their “aggressive chanting” and to ask them to be respectful of theatre-goers she was told that they intended to come inside and disrupt the event to make sure they were heard. The police were called to ensure the protesters didn’t turn violent.

It’s believed a few of them did have tickets to enter the theatre but no trouble was reported. Not even when Chris started talking about Nidderdale’s reputation as being one of the worst raptor-killing hotspots in the entire country; not a claim he’d made up at all but a factual statement that has been robustly evidenced, including by the AONB Partnership’s very own report.

So who were last night’s protesters?

Well, it turns out they’re quite an interesting bunch. According to this website it’s a newly formed group called ‘Campaign 4 Protection of Moorland Communities’. Here’s a copy of the group’s web report about last night’s protest:

Moorland communities protest in Harrogate against unjust attacks on their livelihoods

Demonstrators from the Yorkshire Moorland Communities braved the weather to take a message to BBC Presenter Chris Packham as he arrived at the Royal Hall in Harrogate to give a talk this evening (Saturday, 19th October).

That message could not have been clearer: livelihoods and whole communities are under threat by misleading statements and actions by the likes of Chris Packham.

A famously outspoken critic of driven grouse shooting, the presenter, campaigner and author was met outside the theatre by over 100 fed-up members of the moorland communities, who depend on moorland activities for their livelihoods. They held placards reading “Chris Packham – ignoring science since 04.05.1961!” (Packham’s date of birth), and a large banner declared: “Moorlands are our lives, our livelihood and our community. We stand in unity to protect them.”

Chris Packham and his followers are wilfully misrepresenting facts and distorting clear scientific evidence” said Roy Burrow’s, estate manager at a nearby moorland. “These are large communities who live and work in these uplands, and rely on the moorland for their livelihoods. The simple fact is that stopping grouse shooting, or rewilding the moor, could destroy many local businesses, local livelihoods and the very social fabric that makes the moorlands such a wonderful place to live in and to visit.”

Packham makes no secret of his dislike for grouse shooting, frequently posting about it on social media. He even spoke at last month’s Green Party conference about his campaign to ban driven grouse shooting. However, many argue that the BBC should not allow him to use his platform to promote his personal agenda when there is extensive scientific evidence available to show the environmental and conservational benefits brought from well managed moorlands.

The protestors sang chants including: “From bus drivers to gamekeepers, together we thrive, we need to protect, moorland community lives”.

A spokesperson for The Campaign for the Protection of Moorland Communities, said: “The moorland management system which grouse shooting sustains creates a unique landscape that encourages rare and endangered wildlife, as well as being the foundation of the moorland area’s rural economy. This is reinforced by clear scientific evidence, which is too often wilfully ignored by our opponents. The facts are very clear: without grouse shooting these areas would lose millions of pounds in investment each year causing lives and livelihoods would be destroyed, alongside one of Britain’s most unique habitats. It is disgraceful that a rich celebrity from Hampshire thinks it is okay to dictate to the hard-working people of Yorkshire how we should live our lives. Moorland and other rural communities seem to be the only cultural minority Chris Packham and others think it is okay to abuse. Enough is enough.”

ENDS

It’s ironic that the group accuses Chris of abusing a cultural minority. According to our own research, one of the main instigators behind this new group appears to be someone called Simon Grace, ‘a shooting enthusiast’ from Yorkshire whose activities have previously been promoted by articles in Shooting Times and on the Fieldsports TV website.

Simon Grace’s twitter feed makes for a fascinating read and perhaps explains why he’s managed to attract only four followers since June 2016.

He’s not a racist, homophobic xenophobe abusing cultural minorities. No siree Bob. Not at all.

What is it about game shooting and hunt supporters that attracts the right wing mob? There’s probably a PhD topic there for someone.

Decision on next Hen Harrier brood meddling licence to ‘take into account the results to date’

Yesterday, before the news that a fourth satellite-tagged hen harrier had vanished in suspicious circumstances this autumn (see here), DEFRA published the following blog:

We’re still waiting to learn from Natural England what, exactly, is the exit strategy for the hen harrier brood meddling trial and specifically, what are the criteria for making that decision?

Well what a relief to learn that the decision on whether to renew the hen harrier brood meddling licence ‘will take into account the results to date‘.

Those ‘results’ will be the suspicious disappearance of three of this year’s five brood meddled hen harriers (we understand the two surviving brood meddled birds have flown off to France) plus the suspicious disappearance of at least one other satellite-tagged hen harrier (Rosie) in recent weeks and there’s absolutely no doubt there’ll be more before this year is out.

The decision whether to renew or not should be easy and it should already have been made. Nobody in their right mind can think that brood meddling has (a) been successful and (b) is in any way helping hen harrier conservation.

But then look at that last paragraph in the DEFRA blog, above. It claims that the ‘ultimate aim’ of the DEFRA Hen Harrier (In)Action Plan, of which brood meddling is a part, is to ‘reduce hen harrier predation of grouse chicks on driven grouse moors……’

Eh?

Why is a Government department (DEFRA) and the statutory conservation agency (Natural England) focusing on protecting excessive numbers of red grouse (that are going to be shot for fun) at the expense of a protected red-listed bird of prey in population free-fall due to illegal killing on aforementioned grouse moors?

Another satellite-tagged hen harrier goes missing – Northumbria Police appeal for info

A fourth young hen harrier has vanished in suspicious circumstances this year.

The first three disappeared in September from moors in County Durham (here) and the Yorkshire Dales National Park (here and here).

The latest one to go, ‘Rosie’ is not believed to be part of Natural England’s outrageous brood meddling trial, but is believed to have hatched at a protected nest site in Northumberland earlier this summer and tagged by Natural England staff.

[Photo from Northumbria Police]

Here is the appeal for information issued by Northumbria Police this afternoon:

Unfortunately it does not say when this hen harrier disappeared nor does it give any more specific location than ‘near Whittingham’. (Come on Northumbria Police, this is basic information).

Whittingham is a village and parish just outside the Northumberland National Park, as outlined on these two Google maps:

UPDATE 20 October 2019: 

Sup Nick Lyall has tweeted this evening to say Rosie is alive and well. No further information has been provided.

UPDATE 21 October 2019: Missing hen harrier Rosie reported to be alive and well (here)

UPDATE 27 October 2019: Re-discovery of hen harrier Rosie not quite as it’s being portrayed (here)

Millden Estate named in joint SSPCA/Police raid as part of investigation in to suspected animal cruelty

Further to Monday’s blog about a joint Scottish SPCA/Police Scotland raid on various properties as part of an investigation in to suspected animal fighting (here), it has emerged that one of the addresses was the Millden Estate in the Angus Glens.

An exclusive article by journalist David Leask is on the front page of this morning’s Herald and reads as follows:

This looks to be a significant investigation, led by the Scottish SPCA and supported by Police Scotland, with input from other partner agencies including the RSPB.

Further updates will be posted as they become available.

Please note, as this is a live investigation we will not be accepting any comments on this blog.

UPDATE 2 November 2021: New trial date for Millden Estate gamekeeper accused of animal fighting offences (here)

Still waiting for Werritty

Autumn is here; Werritty’s report is not.

For new readers, the long anticipated and long overdue Werritty Review is a Government-commissioned report on grouse moor management in Scotland. Environment Cabinet Secretary Roseanna Cunningham commissioned it following the publication of the authoritative, ‘exemplary and thorough‘ Golden Eagle Satellite Tag Review in May 2017, which revealed the magnitude of ongoing raptor persecution on some Scottish grouse moors (read that report here).

The Werritty Review Group was announced in November 2017 and we were told to expect the report by spring 2019.

Spring 2019 came and went, the report didn’t appear, but we were told that Professor Werritty was ill and the report would be delayed by two months (new expected date: June 2019). Fair enough.

June 2019 came and went, the report didn’t appear.

Then we heard it would arrive in July 2019.

July 2019 came and went, the report didn’t appear then we heard from Professor Werritty himself that it’d be submitted ‘during the summer‘.

At the end of July, in response to public fury about on-going illegal raptor persecution on Scottish grouse moors, a Government spokesperson told us the report ‘was due in the next few weeks’ (see here).

It’s now mid-October and the report still hasn’t appeared. According to Environment Cabinet Secretary Roseanna Cunningham, writing to an MSP in response to a query about the publication date by a constituent (and blog reader!), the report is “expected within the next couple of weeks“!!

To be perfectly frank, events this year have overtaken whatever recommendations Professor Werritty might suggest – the discovery of this spring-trapped hen harrier on a grouse moor in Perthshire, this spring-trapped hen harrier caught next to his nest on a grouse moor in South Lanarkshire, this spring-trapped golden eagle photographed flying above a grouse moor in Royal Deeside, and the suspicious disappearance of two more satellite-tagged golden eagles from a grouse moor in Perthshire have demonstrated that we now need a radical approach to bring this to an end.

Nevertheless, we’re still keen to see the Werritty report appear because until it does, the Scottish Government has the perfect excuse, that it has used repeatedly since May 2017 when the review was first commissioned, to do absolutely naff all to tackle these ongoing serious organised crimes.

“It is right and sensible that Scottish Government should wait for that report“, says Roseanna Cunningham. How can it possibly be “right” or “sensible” that the Government should continue to sit on its hands and watch these atrocities taking place, suggesting it’s powerless to act?

 

3rd brood meddled hen harrier ‘disappears’ in suspicious circumstances

Following the news that two of this year’s five brood meddled hen harriers had ‘vanished’ on grouse moors in the north of England in September 2019 (one in County Durham here and one in the Yorkshire Dales National Park here), we now learn that a third harrier has disappeared, also in the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

[Hen harrier photo by Laurie Campbell]

Here’s the press release from North Yorkshire Police, published today:

Second satellite-tagged hen harrier goes missing in North Yorkshire

Police appealing for information about whereabouts of hen harrier

North Yorkshire Police is appealing for information after another satellite-tagged hen harrier has gone missing in the region just weeks after another one also stopped transmitting a signal.

The hen harrier is a young female bird tagged at the release site in the Yorkshire Dales on 30 July 2019 as part of the hen harrier brood management scheme. The bird has not been named and is known to the Natural England monitoring team as 183703.

It is known from satellite tag data that the bird had the bird stayed in the Hawes area since her release, with one excursion to the Sedbergh area on 16 September, then south to the West Pennine Moors near Horwich 17-19 September before returning to land near Semerwater where she had remained for at least a fortnight.

The last transmission from the bird’s satellite tag was received on the 29 September on Thornton Rust moor, 3.37km east of Semerwater, but the bird could have flown on for some distance since the last transmission.

Since then no further transmissions have been received from the tag. Natural England field staff have carried out checks with a hand-held scanner and monitored the area with no findings and North Yorkshire Police have also searched the area with colleagues from the Yorkshire Dales National Park Ranger team, as well as making extensive local enquiries.

The bird is a juvenile female, brown in colour and ringed with the BTO ring number FJ48404.

This appeal for information sadly follows the disappearance of another satellite-tagged hen harrier in the area, this one a juvenile male known as 183704 who was last known to be in the area of Askrigg Common on 19 September.

At this time North Yorkshire Police are keen to locate both birds safe and well, but if found deceased the birds can be subject to post mortem to establish if the cause of death was from natural causes or if criminal activity was involved.

If you find the bird or have any information please contact North Yorkshire Police on 101 and quote reference number 12190186540.

ENDS

Here is an RPUK map showing the approximate last known locations of the three brood meddled satellite-tagged hen harriers that have ‘disappeared’ this year: 1 = the HH that vanished on 9th September; 2 = the HH that vanished on 19th September; 3 = the HH that vanished on 29th September:

Here is an RPUK map showing the approximate last known locations of the two brood meddled hen harriers that have disappeared on moors in the Yorkshire Dales National Park:

So within weeks of those five brood meddled hen harriers being released back in to the uplands of northern England, three of them (60%) have disappeared without a trace.

This isn’t unusual nor is it unexpected – we know from authoritative research published earlier this year that 72% of young satellite-tagged hen harriers will disappear in suspicious circumstances on grouse moors in northern England, probably having been killed illegally.

What this is, though, is a bloody joke. This brood meddling ‘trial’, sanctioned by DEFRA and carried out by Natural England, in cahoots with the very industry responsible for the species’ catastrophic decline in England, is supposed to test whether those people responsible for killing hen harriers illegally would stop if the chicks were brood meddled (removed from the grouse moor in June at the critical grouse-rearing stage and then returned to the wild in August). We all knew this wouldn’t work because we know that young hen harriers are killed routinely during the grouse shooting season, and especially in September and October and yet still DEFRA, Natural England and their grouse shooting mates pressed ahead.

No doubt we’ll now have to endure more bollocks from Natural England, DEFRA, the Moorland Association and all the rest of the persecution deniers, pretending that nothing’s going on, everything’s fine and isn’t the grouse shooting industry doing great things for conservation.

What we will be doing is asking Natural England, again, what its exit strategy is for the hen harrier brood meddling trial and when will it implement it? We’ve asked several times, including at direct face to face meetings with senior staff, most recently last week. We were promised an answer – we haven’t had it yet.

Well done and thank you, North Yorkshire Police, for publishing a relatively swift appeal for information and for including enough detail to make it useful. And also for not including any grouse shooting propaganda in the appeal this time, in contrast to a previous appeal for info.

Scottish SPCA & Police raid suspected animal fighters in Angus

Press release from Scottish SPCA and Police Scotland, 14th October 2019

Double swoop on suspected animal fighters

Numerous dogs have been seized by the Scottish SPCA following two simultaneous raids at different addresses in Scotland

Working in partnership with Police Scotland, the Scottish SPCA led raids at an address in Angus and an address in Aberdeenshire last week. Scotland’s animal welfare charity acted on intel gathered on animal fighting activities in both areas.

An undercover officer in the Scottish SPCA’s special investigations unit (SIU) said: “We uncovered intelligence to suggest illegal animal fighting was taking place at these locations. With serious concerns about the welfare of both the dogs and wild animals being subjected to this, we worked with the police and external partners to raid both addresses. We’ve seized several animals and will be checking on their condition.”

“Offences such as this are incredibly difficult to investigate as they are very well-guarded by those involved. Our expertise, in conjunction with the police, has proven to be invaluable to tackling these underground crimes.”

“This is the latest in a string of animal fighting cases the Scottish SPCA has taken on recently. The Society is taking the fight to anyone engaging in this barbaric practice and sending out a clear message that it is not acceptable.”

“As it is an ongoing investigation, we are unable to give any more specific information at this time.”

A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “Officers supported the Scottish SPCA in relation to search warrants at an address in Angus and an address in Aberdeenshire. Officers from Police Scotland will continue to work with the Scottish SPCA and partner agencies.”

So far this year, the Scottish SPCA has taken an average of a call on animal fighting every other day. Approximately 50% of the jobs the charity’s SIU take on relate to it.

The investigation continues.

ENDS

You may be wondering why we’ve posted a press statement about suspected animal fighters on this blog. Unfortunately we’re not able to comment further at this stage but it will become apparent in due course if this case progresses.

As this is a live investigation and a potential case of huge significance, we won’t be accepting any comments.

We’ll be blogging updates when they become available.

UPDATE 17 October 2019: Millden Estate named in joint SSPCA/Police Scotland raid as part of investigation in to suspected animal cruelty (here)

UPDATE 21 October 2019: More detail emerges about SSPCA/Police raid at Millden Estate (here)

UPDATE 3 December 2020: Animal cruelty charges follow SSPCA/Police raid at property on Millden Estate (here)

UPDATE 2 November 2021: New trial date for Millden Estate gamekeeper accused of animal fighting offences (here)

UPDATE 3 December 2021: Angus Glens gamekeeper in court today on animal fighting charges (here)