Category: News

Egg-thief Gonshaw gets unprecedented ASBO banning him from Scotland

Following earlier posts about four-times jailed egg thief Matthew Gonshaw (see here and here), his ASBO hearing was finally heard at Stratford Magistrates’ Court, London, on Friday (24 February).

In perhaps one of the most creative choices of punishment, in addition to his earlier six-month prison sentence, Gonshaw was given an ASBO (anti-social behaviour order) that bans him from coming to Scotland during the bird nesting season (1 Feb – 31 Aug) for the next ten years. Ten years is the maximum ASBO term, and if he breaks the conditions, he could receive a £20,000 fine and a five-year jail term. Gonshaw is further prevented from visiting all RSPB and Wildlife Trust land for the next ten years – presumably this means in England and Wales.

Strangely though, Ian Thomson of RSPB Scotland is quoted in The Herald as saying, “Gonshaw is, in fact, due to appear at Inverness Sheriff Court on March 8 facing charges relating to the theft of wild birds’ eggs in Scotland only last year“. It’s not clear how he can appear at Inverness in March if he’s now banned from travelling to Scotland until 1 Sept at the earliest. Ah well, not our problem.

Well done to everyone involved and especially the smart person who thought about trying for an ASBO and the magistrate who agreed to its use.

Article in The Herald here

Scottish gamekeepers want licensed ‘control’ of one of Scotland’s rarest mammals

Here we go again – the Scottish Gamekeepers’ Association is calling on the Scottish Government to issue licences to ‘control’ one of Scotland’s rarest mammals – the pine marten. Why? Because they claim the pine marten (along with other predators such as raptors, foxes and badgers) are having a major impact on the declining population of capercaillie.

According to the BBC, RSPB Scotland says the SGA’s position is “riddled with basic inaccuracies and sheer prejudice“. Nothing new there then.

BBC News article here

Information on the pine marten from The Mammal Society here

Pigeon post

There’s a cracking post on Mark Avery’s blog today, written by guest blogger Gary Burgess, a pigeon fancier from Lancashire.

You’d struggle to find a finer example of ignorance about rudimentary ecological principles, unless you look at Gary’s website, where this staggering ignorance is expanded. It’s so bad it’s actually funny (after reading the home page, make sure you click on some of the sub-headers, like ‘The Raptors Have Risen’, to experience the full effect). And he wonders why nobody takes him seriously!

Gary’s post on Mark Avery’s blog here

Gary’s website Save Our Racing Pigeons here [UPDATE: 22 March 2012, this website appears to have been taken down].

Scottish willdife management: have your say

Here’s your chance to have your say on how Scotland’s wildlife is managed. Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) has commissioned an on-line survey to find out what people think.

SNH says the questionnaire is primarily aimed at individuals and organisations with a direct interest or involvement in wildlife management activities, such as gamekeepers, stalkers, farmers and recreational shooters. An SNH spokesman is reported to have told the BBC: “It is important that we provide a service that best meets the needs of our customers“. We would argue that SNH  ‘customers’ include every member of the public whose taxes go towards SNH running costs and who have an interest in how Scotland’s wildlife is managed. If SNH restricts the survey to the game-shooting lobby then the results will be all-too predictable – “There are too many raptors and we want licences to kill them”.

So, if you want to tell SNH how badly you think they’re performing in their statutory duty to protect some of Scotland’s iconic raptors on Scottish grouse moors (see recent publications on the conservation status of golden eagles and hen harriers, for example), but to congratulate them on their support of other species such as the white-tailed eagle reintroduction, then this is your chance. You might also want to comment about the annual slaughter (sorry, ‘management’) of an estimated 25,000 mountain hares on Scottish shooting estates for no good conservation reason (see here for background info), or the continued wholesale slaughter of so-called ‘vermin’ (basically any predator) on shooting estates, all in the name of gamebird shooting.

The questionnaire will be available from 5-19 March 2012 and we will provide a link to it when the survey goes live.

BBC News story here

Egg-collector Matthew Gonshaw’s ASBO hearing delayed

Four-times jailed egg thief Matthew Gonshaw was due to find out last Friday (17 February) whether he was to be the subject of an Anti-Social Behaviour Order (ASBO) following his latest conviction for egg-collecting (see here for background). If granted, the ASBO could see him facing a £20,000 fine and five years in prison for further offences.

The case was adjourned and is now due to be heard this Friday (24 February).

Re: a big, big day in court today

A high-profile case of significant interest was due to be heard today, but unfortunately the accused’s solicitor was apparently unavailable to attend.  A date has now been fixed for a ‘notional diet’ – often used for the discussion of a legal point. This is due to take place next month.

At this stage we are not naming the accused, or the charges he faces, or details of the alleged incident. These will be reported in due course, pending the outcome of the next hearing. These self-imposed restrictions are tighter than perhaps is neccessary, but you’ll understand the need for this caution if/when the case details emerge.

Your chance to sign an open letter to the Environment Minister about the problems of wildlife crime reporting in Scotland

Well, it looks like the COPFS decision not to prosecute the individual who was filmed apparently beating crows to death with a stick inside a crow trap has struck a nerve (no pun intended). See here, here and here for background info.

The ensuing publicity has generated widespread public outrage, and now there’s an opportunity to channel that frustration into something positive. The charity OneKind, whose staff member filmed the gamekeeper apparently beating the trapped crows, has written an open letter to the Environment Minister, Stewart Stevenson, calling on him to ensure that all reports of wildlife crime are pursued by the authorities with the utmost vigour. Anyone who supports this view is encouraged to add their name to the letter (go here to view and sign the letter).

This is your opportunity to let your views be heard – it takes seconds to complete – please do it, even if you’ve already written to the Minister (and we know many of you have), so these seemingly absurd legal obstacles can be examined and reviewed, with urgency and with transparency. This ridiculous situation, where the witness becomes the accused and the alleged perpetrator(s) escapes scot free, has gone on for far too long.

Case against Inverness man accused of buying & selling raptor eggs continues

The case against Keith Liddell, charged with buying and selling hundreds of birds’ eggs and of being in possession of wild birds’ eggs, has been continued.

This case against Liddell, who has denied the charges, has been on-going for some time (see here) and was heard again at Inverness Sheriff Court last Tuesday (14 Feb 2012). The case has now been continued and the next court hearing will be on 9 May 2012.