Category: News

Why is Natural England sitting on post mortem results of 2 x brood meddled hen harriers?

On 28th October 2021, the corpses of two brood meddled hen harriers (hatched 2021) were found by Natural England staff, collected and submitted for post-mortems.

These are the two individuals:

Brood meddled male Hen Harrier R2-M2-21, tagged on 20th July 2021 from nest site ‘BM R2 Cumbria’. The date of last contact is given in NE’s data table as 27th October 2021 and the location is given as ‘Cumbria, site confidential, hen harrier roost site’. The notes section says, ‘Recovered dead 28th October 2021, awaiting PM results’.

Brood meddled male Hen Harrier R2-M3-21, tagged on 20th July 2021 from nest site ‘BM R2 Cumbria’. The date of last contact is given as 27th October 2021 and the location is given as ‘County Durham’. The notes section says, ‘Recovered dead 28th October 2021, awaiting PM results’.

We know about these two harriers because Natural England included a small paragraph about their deaths in a blog published on 15th December 2021. At the time, I commented how strange it was that the post-mortem results apparently weren’t available, even though the corpses had been collected some seven weeks earlier (see here).

So I submitted an FoI request to Natural England on 27 January 2022 and asked for the post-mortem results of those two young harriers.

[A young hen harrier. Photographer unknown]

The response was due tomorrow. However, today Natural England has sent me this:

It wasn’t a complex request at all. It was a simple, straightforward request. According to the pathologist’s report, how did these two young hen harriers die?

Now, why would Natural England want to delay the publication of these results?

And while we’re at it, Natural England, are you going to say anything about the dead hen harrier whose wings were undoubtedly pulled off, perhaps when the bird was still alive (see here and here)? Two months ago you said you couldn’t comment further as a police investigation was underway. How’s that going? It seems to have been underway for almost a year – it’s going nowhere, isn’t it? Nobody will be brought to justice, will they? Just like nobody has been brought to justice for the other 59 hen harriers that have been killed since 2018 (here).

UPDATE 7th March 2022: Natural England publishes post-mortem summaries of two brood meddled hen harriers (here)

NatureScot refuses to publish details of Leadhills Estate’s general licence restriction appeal

This is a long and sorry saga, and it’s not yet over.

As many blog readers will know, the notorious Leadhills Estate, a grouse-shooting estate in South Lanarkshire that has been at the centre of police wildlife crime investigations at least 70 times since the early 2000s, is currently serving an unprecedented TWO General Licence restrictions imposed by NatureScot after ‘clear evidence’ of wildlife crime was provided to the statutory regulator by Police Scotland (see here and here), including the illegal killing of short-eared owls, buzzards, hen harriers and the discovery of two stashes of banned poisons.

Incredibly, Leadhills Estate with its double General Licence restriction is STILL a member of the lobby group Scottish Land & Estates, which claims to have a ‘zero tolerance’ approach to raptor persecution. Convincing, eh?

[Grouse moor on the Leadhills Estate. Photo by Ruth Tingay]

The first three-year General Licence restriction was imposed on Leadhills Estate in November 2019 (here). The estate appealed this decision, with an hilarious letter of objection (here), but its appeal failed.

The second General Licence restriction was imposed on Leadhills Estate in September 2021 (here) after Police Scotland reported even more wildlife crime while the estate was still serving its first restriction.

Once again, Leadhills Estate appealed the decision with a written objection letter.

It is this letter of objection that I have been trying to get from NatureScot since September 2021. Five months on, it is still being withheld, for what I have argued are spurious reasons.

Here’s a short summary of what’s happened so far:

On 30th September 2021 I submitted an FoI to NatureScot to request copies of Leadhills Estate’s appeal.

On 3 November 2021 NatureScot responded as follows:

‘We have withheld a letter from an agent acting on behalf of Leadhills Estate, pending an appeal against NatureScot’s decision to restrict General Licence. This information is of a sensitive nature and disclosure into the public domain could prejudice the applicant’s right to a fair hearing’.

I didn’t see how public disclosure could possibly prejudice a hearing given that it’s all done in-house at NatureScot but fine, I could wait.

In December 2021 it was announced that Leadhills Estate had lost its appeal against the second General Licence restriction (here) so I wrote back to NatureScot on 3rd December as follows:

‘You told me in the letter dated 3 November 2021 that you were withholding a letter from an agent who was acting on behalf of Leadhills Estate, and the reason you gave for withholding it was that releasing it may prejudice the applicant’s right to a fair appeal. As the appeal process has now concluded and therefore the applicant’s right to a fair hearing cannot be affected, please can you send me the agent’s letter that was previously withheld‘.

On 5th January 2022 NatureScot responded as follows:

‘We have completed our information searches, and we have identified eight documents comprising 126 pages relevant to your request. We shared a redacted version of these documents with the solicitors acting on behalf of Leadhills Estate, who have provided additional legal arguments as to why certain information should be withheld. We will need additional time to assess these arguments and, potentially, take further legal advice.

Regulation 7 of the EIRs allows public authorities to extend the time for compliance with requests for up to an additional 20 working days. This means we must respond to your information request by 3 February 2022 at the latest‘.

Hmm. Why might Leadhills Estate not want the details of its appeal to be made public? And what legal arguments might it use to block the transparency of the decision-making process of a statutory agency?

On 7th February 2022, NatureScot sent this explanation:

That’s all very interesting. Obviously, I’ve appealed this decision and asked for a review. I don’t believe there are further proceedings to ‘prejudice’ as Leadhills Estate has now exhausted the appeals process for the General Licence restriction. I also don’t believe that correspondence between an agent and a public authority qualifies as ‘legal privilege’ and especially when it’s in the public interest to understand how the statutory agency has reached its decision with transparency and fairness.

Let’s see. Another 20 working days to wait, which will take us to six months since I made the original request.

Does your elected representative ‘welcome birds of prey’?

Ten days ago, following the news (here) that two white-tailed eagles from the Isle of Wight Reintroduction Project had been found dead in suspicious circumstances (one in Dorset, one in Sussex), Dorset Conservative MP Chris Loder published an extraordinary statement on Twitter, whipping up some Victorian anti-eagle hysteria by declaring that ‘Dorset is not the place for eagles to be reintroduced‘ and suggested that Dorset Police shouldn’t waste ‘time and resources‘ on investigating (see here and here).

Twitter went in to meltdown and the story was picked up by several national newspapers, including the Independent and the Guardian.

The story prompted a new hashtag on social media, #BirdsOfPreyWelcome, with people from around the country sharing stories about how welcome birds of prey are in various locations.

Conservation group Wild Justice launched a Twitter poll (runs for three more days, here); the results so far indicate overwhelming support for birds of prey.

But given the ongoing persecution of raptors across the UK, Wild Justice is also asking members of the public to email/write to their elected representatives, whether they be in England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, to ask whether they, too, support birds of prey.

Wild Justice has provided some guidance about what your email/letter might look like (here).

I’d encourage as many of you as possible to participate. We know that letter-writing campaigns like this can be incredibly powerful when enough people get involved. It sends a clear message to our elected representatives that raptor persecution is an issue of concern that needs addressing.

Thank you

Police officer, gamekeeper & son in court for peregrine theft case

Three people appeared in court last week charged with a number of offences in relation to alleged peregrine theft in the Scottish Borders.

Serving police officer WPC Suzanne Hall, 43, part-time gamekeeper Timothy Hall, 46, and their 21-year-old son, Lewis Hall, are accused of breaching The Control of Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Enforcement Regulations and also face two charges under the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981 by being in possession of protected birds and eggs of wild bird, in this case, peregrines.

Timothy Hall also faces further charges of two firearms certificate offences and a culpable and reckless conduct offence.

This case relates to a joint Scottish SPCA and Police Scotland raid on the family home at Lamberton Holdings in Berwick-upon-Tweed in May 2021 as part of an on-going investigation into allegations of serious organised crime (see here).

It is understood a search warrant was executed and officers seized a number of peregrine falcon chicks and eggs from the property.

All three defendants made no plea at this latest court hearing and the case was continued for further examination. They were granted bail by Sheriff Peter Paterson.

PLEASE NOTE: As this is a live case and charges have been laid, I won’t be accepting any comments on this article until legal proceedings have concluded. Many thanks for your understanding.

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

Parliamentary questions challenge absurd ‘sanction’ of General Licence restrictions

Mark Ruskell has submitted a couple of timely Parliamentary written questions on General Licence restrictions:

These questions are very relevant right now given the recent General Licence restrictions imposed on Lochan Estate in Strathbraan (here) and Invercauld Estate in the Cairngorms National Park (here) after evidence of wildlife crime was detected.

For new readers, a three-year General Licence restriction can be imposed on a game-shooting estate if Government agency NatureScot receives notification from Police Scotland that there is evidence of wildlife crime taking place on the estate but it is insufficient evidence to initiate a prosecution of a named individual.

The GL restriction does not affect the shooting of gamebirds on the estate but it does restrict the estate from undertaking any activity that would normally be covered by a General Licence, e.g. catching and killing certain so-called ‘pest’ species such as carrion crows.

Well, it’s supposed to restrict those activities, but in reality it does no such thing because the estate can simply apply to NatureScot for an Individual licence which allows the estate to continue its activities as if the General Licence restriction doesn’t exist!

It’s bonkers, and I’ve called it out many times in the past (e.g. see here, here, here, here) and I even gave evidence to this effect alongside RSPB Scotland and others to a Scottish parliamentary committee in 2019 (here).

I believe this absurd situation is a legal quirk, outlined in the proceedings of a Judicial Review in 2017 of NatureScot’s decision to impose a GL restriction on Raeshaw Estate. I don’t believe it’s NatureScot’s fault that this situation has arisen, although NatureScot could be doing a lot more to point out the system’s failings to the Scottish Government.

As I understand it, if a penalised estate isn’t provided with an opportunity to apply for an individual licence then the estate could argue the system was unfair and the legality of the General Licence restriction probably wouldn’t stand. If further wildlife crimes are discovered on the estate when an individual licence is in place, NatureScot can revoke the individual licence but the estate can simply reapply for another one. NatureScot may refuse to issue another individual licence, but then it risks a costly legal challenge.

I’m pleased Mark Ruskell has asked for clarity on this situation because it strikes me some clever legal minds should be looking to close this loophole so that when a GL restriction is imposed on an estate, it actually has a meaningful application.

I’ll blog again on this when Mark’s questions have been answered.

UPDATE 8th April 2022: Absurd & ineffective General Licence restrictions for wildlife crime are ‘fair and proportionate’, says Environment Minister (here)

‘Insane’: Outrage after gamebirds dumped in Angus

I’ve got a few blogs to write that were scheduled for last week but the news of the two dead eagles in southern England took priority, so now I’m playing catch-up.

Remember those shot pheasants and other assorted species that had been dumped in a lay-by in Angus a week ago (see here and here)? I’m pleased to report that journalist Peter John Meiklem picked up the story from this blog and ran it as a news item in The Courier last week, which will have reached a wide audience:

The Scottish Gamekeepers Association was asked to comment for the article and a spokesperson is quoted, “It is difficult to establish the truth or motivation from photographs appearing on an anti-shooting website, so we will not speculate“, which I think implies that they think it was a set-up.

That the SGA has drawn such a conclusion shouldn’t surprise anybody. These are the people who have also said:

“Professional gamekeepers do not poison raptors” (May 2011)

“It is unfair to accuse gamekeepers of wildlife crime” (June 2011)

“Will these very large creatures [white-tailed eagles] differentiate between a small child and more natural quarry?” (September 2011)

“Raptors are thriving on game-keepered land” (July 2013)

“I strongly believe the goshawk was never indigenous to the United Kingdom and there is absolutely no hard evidence to suggest otherwise” (September 2013)

When asked whether gamekeepers are involved with the poisoning, shooting & trapping of raptors: “No they aren’t. We would dispute that” (March 2014)

“In the last ten years we have stamped out poisoning. We’ve absolutely finished it” (October 2014)

“We kill animals because probably we’re the doctors and nurses of the countryside” (January 2015)

“Grouse moors are a birdwatcher’s paradise” (December 2020)

On the need to phase out the use of toxic lead ammunition within five years, “The SGA remains unconvinced by present evidence…” (September 2021)

Whilst the SGA is busy trying to out-dinosaur some of the other game-shooting organisations, another blog reader has sent in a photograph of some more dumped gamebirds, which he tells me he ‘found dumped over a roadside gate at Sutton Bingham Reservoir in South Somerset on 20th November 2021‘.

It’s a couple of pheasants and a red-legged partridge, tied together with baler string as they often are at the end of a shoot.

Perhaps a member of the shooting party was given the birds to take home but he/she wasn’t interested in eating them, just shooting them, so chucked them over a fence and drove off.

Or perhaps some anti-shooting extremists got hold of some weapons, did a bit of armed trespass and shot the birds without anyone seeing and then tied them together and lobbed them over a random gate in the vague hope that someone might come along and see them, take a photograph and submit them for publication on this blog.

8 million blog views

This blog passed another milestone over the weekend, reaching eight million views.

Here’s the photograph that I publish every time a new milestone is reached. This is a golden eagle that was found dead on a grouse moor in the Cairngorms National Park in 2006. It had been illegally poisoned. It epitomises everything in its pitiful, poignant, senselessness.

Have attitudes changed since 2006?

No! The RSPB reported that 2020 was the ‘worst year on record‘ for bird of prey persecution in the UK. Eagles and other raptors are still being killed by poisoning, trapping, bludgeoning or shooting, even inside our National Parks.

A white-tailed eagle was found poisoned on a grouse moor in the Cairngorms National Park in 2020 (here) and a golden eagle was found poisoned on another grouse moor in the Cairngorms National Park in 2021 (here).

The toxicology results from two white-tailed eagles recently found dead in suspicious circumstances on two game-shooting estates in Dorset and Sussex are anticipated with grim inevitability.

Thank you to everybody who supports and contributes to this blog, including those who share its content on social media channels and in conversations with friends, family, colleagues and associates.

Eight million views is a lot, but it’s not enough. There’s still so much work to do. The Scottish Government has promised new regulatory powers, but 15 months later we’re still waiting for those to be implemented. The Westminster Government is still at the denial stage, although I suspect the death of these two reintroduced eagles is about to provide an effective wake-up call for Ministers.

I intend to keep writing this blog for a while longer and hope you’ll all stay with me.

Thanks for your continued support.

Badger killer and red kite chick thief avoids prison

This is such a weird case and there’s a lot about its progress through the judicial system that I don’t understand and haven’t found anyone yet who can provide a decent explanation.

Way back in December 2020 I blogged about the trial at Newport Magistrates Court of a 39-year-old man, Dewi James Price, who had been found guilty in his absence of killing a badger in the Builth Wells area of Powys on February 18, 2018. He was also convicted of taking a red kite in Gelligaer, Caerphilly, on May 19, 2019, and was found guilty of intentionally or recklessly disturbing a red kite while it was in, on or near a nest containing eggs or young and of intentionally or recklessly disturbing the dependent young of a red kite. He had filmed himself committing these crimes and boasted about his activities online. He was due to be sentenced the following week at Newport crown Court (see here).

However, it was then reported that sentencing had been switched to Cardiff Crown Court but sentencing had been deferred until 8th January 2021 because the defendant’s barrister had told the judge her client wanted to appeal his conviction (see here).

This made no sense to me. I thought appeals were undertaken after sentencing, not before.

Anyway, after that newspaper report nothing more was heard of this case. I’ve asked a few people about it during 2021 but nobody seemed to know anything about it.

Until a few days ago.

On the 9th February 2022, the Wales Online website published the news that Dewi Price had appeared at Swansea crown Court for sentencing.

He was sentenced to a total of six months in prison – comprising five months for the badger offence and one month for the Red Kite offences to run consecutively – suspended for 12 months.

He must also complete a rehabilitation course and pay a £125 contribution to the £9,946 costs of bringing the prosecution. The court ordered two dogs be taken off Price, and the defendant was banned from keeping dogs for two years – the judge said the period of the ban would likely have been “much longer” had the case come to court sooner.

The judge also said she was “quite sure” it would have been immediate custody had the case come to court sooner.

Eh? I don’t understand why he wasn’t sentenced back in Dec 2020 after being convicted, nor why it has taken 14 months to get him back into court for sentencing, nor why this delay would lessen his sentence.

If there are any blog readers from law enforcement who could offer an explanation it’d be welcome!

UPDATE 14.20hrs: There’s another news item about this case published by the South Wales Argus on 10th February 2022. This article claims Price was found guilty at a trial at Cardiff Crown Court on 4th February 2022. I’m not sure this is accurate reporting.

Dorset MP Chris Loder’s farming connections may explain his anti-eagle hysteria

Yesterday, Dorset MP Chris Loder’s Twitter notifications must have been off the scale as hundreds of angry people took him to task for his shocking comments (here) about not wanting Dorset Police to investigate the suspicious death of a white-tailed eagle, found dead on a Dorset shooting estate in January (here).

[The dead white-tailed eagle being collected for post mortem. Photo by Dorset Police]

Last night Chris Loder added fuel to the fire by posting this on Twitter:

This ridiculous statement (“plaguing our farmers“, FFS!) attracted plenty of well-deserved ridicule but it also generated even more anger and in some cases, unfortunately, personal abuse towards Mr Loder. But even when photographer Pete Cairns pointed out that the two photos of the eagle with a lamb had been staged, by Pete, for a separate project and then mis-used to illustrate the Scotsman article to which Mr Loder was referring, (this was a captive eagle with an already-dead lamb placed in front of it), Mr Loder was not for backing down.

It’s a familiar argument, of course, to those of us who have listened for years to prejudicial-driven hysteria about white-tailed eagles, although typically this has come from the Scottish Gamekeepers Association (who remembers them writing to the Scottish Government warning that sea eagles might not be able to distinguish small children from prey?!) but to hear it from an elected MP in southern England was quite a shock, especially a Conservative MP whose senior Ministers keep pretending that bird of prey conservation is important to them (e.g. see here and here).

However, even DEFRA Minister Richard Benyon could read the room on this one and yesterday typed a suitably-exasperated tweet to Chris Loder, which was probably code for, ‘Shut up, you’re not doing us any favours here’:

I’d speculated yesterday that perhaps Chris Loder’s dissatisfaction that Dorset Police’s time and resources were being put towards an investigation into the suspicious death of the sea eagle might have something to do with the fact that the Conservatives have received substantial local party donations, over a number of years, from a prominent Dorset estate that just happens to be owned by a very wealthy landowner who appears to be part of the hunting set and whose spouse appears to have played a prominent role with the Countryside Alliance (here).

That may well be part of the story, but it’s also clear from his posts last night and from online information about his farming background that he’s susceptible to, and believes in, the anti-eagle propaganda routinely pumped out by the National Farmers Union, an organisation who refused, formally, to support the Isle of Wight Eagle Reintroduction Project because of a perceived fear of the impact the eagles would have on livestock, despite extensive consultation and evidence-based assurances by the project team that live sheep would not be at high risk. [But note that not all farmers agreed with the NFU’s stance and a number are supportive of the project].

This morning I’ve been sent some more information that suggests Chris Loder’s position may also be influenced by his family’s farming connections. Detailed research undertaken by Guy Shrubsole (author of the brilliant website Who Owns England) has revealed that Chris Loder’s family appears to run a tenanted farm on a large Dorset estate (a different estate to the one that’s been making donations to the local Conservative party) and on that estate there’s also a sizeable pheasant shoot.

As before, there is no suggestion whatsoever that either Chris Loder, his family, or the estate on which his family runs a tenanted farm, has anything whatsoever to do with the death of the white-tailed eagle in Dorset. What I am suggesting is that it is worth bearing in mind that when Chris Loder is proclaiming eagles as the farmers’ enemy and pronouncing that the police shouldn’t be spending time and resources on investigating the suspicious death of one of those eagles, found dead on a Dorset game-shooting estate, it’s worth remembering these vested interests of his.

And as interesting as this all is, I think it’s also a distraction from the main topic of interest here, and that is, when are we going to see the toxicology report of the dead eagle found on a game-shooting estate in Dorset in January and the dead eagle found on a game-shooting estate in Sussex last October?

And on that same subject, when will Natural England release the post mortem results of the two satellite-tagged hen harriers found dead in October last year (see here)? Or tell us about the investigation into the satellite-tagged hen harrier that probably had its wings pulled off 11 months ago (see here)?

Dorset MP Chris Loder doesn’t want Police to investigate suspicious death of white-tailed eagle

Further to yesterday’s news that two reintroduced white-tailed eagles have been found dead in suspicious circumstances on game-shooting estates in southern England and that Dorset Police are investigating the circumstances of the one found in Dorset (here), local conservative MP Chris Loder has made an extraordinary statement on Twitter this morning.

[The dead white-tailed eagle found in Dorset. Photo from Dorset Police]

Here’s his tweet:

Is this guy for real?

This is a suspected wildlife crime of a very serious nature. The three most common methods for killing birds of prey on UK game-shooting estates are shooting, trapping (and then clubbing to death) and poisoning. We don’t know which of these methods, if any, have been deployed in this case but all are potential features of the case. The fact that Dorset Police have stated the eagle has gone for toxicology analysis suggests that poisoning is a possibility.

The poisons most frequently used to kill birds of prey in this country are highly toxic substances – banned in many countries because they’re so dangerous that just a tiny amount is enough to kill a human. The effects of using poisonous baits are indiscriminate. Not only may the baits kill the target species but any other species that happens to come into contact with it, or any pet dog, or any inquisitive human, including a child.

If the eagle has been shot, there’s a dangerous armed individual on the loose in Dorset.

If the eagle has been trapped and clubbed to death, there’s a dangerous psychopath on the loose in Dorset.

Why on earth wouldn’t Mr Loder MP want Dorset Police to spend time and resources investigating this incident?

It wouldn’t have anything to do with the local conservative party receiving donations from a prominent Dorset estate, would it? [Note: I am not in any way suggesting that the donor estate is linked to the death of this eagle, I’m pointing out that on the Parliamentary register of interests Mr Loder has listed substantial party donations from a Dorset estate whose owner appears to be linked to ‘country sports’].

Dorset Police’s Rural Crime Team have hit back at Mr Loder:

Mr Loder’s response:

FFS. As if it isn’t difficult enough for under-staffed, under-resourced police officers to investigate wildlife crime. Imagine being on this rural crime team, which, by the way, has a deserved reputation for being diligent and sincere when dealing with alleged raptor persecution crimes, trying to get to the bottom of what will be one of the highest profile cases this year, under huge public pressure to deliver results (quite rightly, IMHO), and the local MP publishes demoralising tosh like this.

I hope his inbox is flooded with complaints.

UPDATE 12th February 2022: Dorset MP Chris Loder’s farming connections may explain his anti-eagle hysteria (here)

UPDATE 14th April 2022: Dorset Police refuse FoI request for correspondence between them and Chris Loder MP on poisoned eagle (here)

UPDATE 5th March 2025: Natural England quietly releases intriguing grouse moor location where two shot brood meddled hen harriers found dead (here)