Category: Persecution Incidents in England

Pathetic fine & curfew order for kestrel chick thief

Here’s a very good example of how just how useless the court system is at addressing wildlife crime.

Last week at Wolverhampton Magistrates Court, 38-year-old Cogoo Sherman Bowen was fined £210 and given a six-week curfew after his conviction for being in possession of four x 2-week-old kestrel chicks.

He was caught with the chicks in the dead of night on 19th June in the grounds of St Mary’s Church in Bushbury. The police had been alerted to suspicious activity on the church roof and had turned up expecting to find metal thieves; instead they found the defendant in his car with the bag of kestrels.

Quick-thinking RSPCA officials and the police wildlife crime officer, PC Chris Watson, found the nest ledge on the side of the church and were able to return the chicks, which fledged safely several weeks later.

Great work by the investigating authorities but a pathetic result in terms of the magistrate providing any sort of deterrent to other would-be chick thieves or indeed a meaningful punishment to the convicted criminal in this case.

Full story in the Express and Star here

Red kite poisoned N Yorkshire: police appeal 11 months later

North Yorkshire Police are appealing for information 11 months after a red kite was found poisoned in Tadcaster. The RSPB has also put up a £1,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and charge.

The dead bird (a three-year old believed to have been part of a breeding pair) was discovered by a member of the public at Toulston Polo Ground in October 2012. Toxicology results have revealed the bird had been poisoned with Carbofuran.

On the face of it, this looks like another farcical mishandling of a raptor persecution crime by the police, with an exceptionally long delay between the discovery of the victim and an appeal for information. However, rumours from colleagues in Yorkshire suggest that the initial testing (post-mortem) was not straightforward, leading to a prolonged delay. It is also rumoured that the bird was eventually submitted for toxicology analysis under a private submission co-funded by the Yorkshire Kite Group and the RSPB, leading to the detection of the banned poison Carbofuran.

The bird is believed to be the 20th poisoned red kite reported in North Yorkshire since 2000.

North Yorkshire police press release here

Young peregrine shot

peregrine shotPolice in Bristol are appealing for information after a young peregrine was found injured by the side of the road in Queen Charlton, near Keynsham earlier this month. An x-ray revealed the bird had been shot.

The bird, which had been ringed as a chick in July, is now in the care of a local rehabilitation expert.

More details in The Bristol Post here.

Peregrine shot, barn owl chick stolen, hen harriers remembered

It’s been quite a day. The so-called ‘Glorious 12th’ has been taken back by the conservationists and re-named Hen Harrier Day, in an inspired move by Alan Tilmouth (read his blog entry here).

Although he only came up with the idea yesterday, Twitter has been alive today with hundreds of people using the #henharrier tag to celebrate these spectacular birds and to express their anger at the virtual extermination of the species on grouse moors across England. Unsurprisingly, the game-shooting organisations were conspicuously absent.

Mark Avery also came up with a plan to help hen harriers. He’s called it BanGS – see here.

Meanwhile, news came through that police in Bolton are appealing for information after an injured and distressed peregrine was found by the side of a road. It had been shot. Full details here.

Elsewhere, the Suffolk Wildlife Trust is appealing for information after a barn owl chick was stolen from the Carlton Marshes Nature Reserve last night. Information here.

In other news, we’ve been having a look at some VERY interesting literature – a copy of the Leadhills Estate gamebook (don’t ask how we got hold of it!!) – which very helpfully documents annual counts of killed ‘vermin’ over a considerable number of decades. ‘Vermin’ in Leadhills-speak includes hawks, badgers, otters, cats and ravens amongst others. It’s fascinating. We’ll be writing more on this in due course…

Leadhills game book vermin lists

Hen harriers in England are fucked

RSPB press release here

If you’re offended by the title of this post then you really shouldn’t be here. Try getting offended by the news that there wasn’t one single successful hen harrier nest in England this year. Now THAT’s worthy of your outrage.

Here is some more media coverage from this morning:

BBC News here and good interview with RSPB’s Jeff Knott on BBC here.

The Guardian here, where the Moorland Association blames ‘the long cold winter’ for breeding failure!

The RSPB’s Skydancer blog here, where a fieldworker tells the story of one of the failed nests.

And then there’s a classic statement from the National Gamekeepers’ Organisation here, who accuse the RSPB of timing their press release to coincide with the start of the grouse-shooting season. Er, did they miss all the propaganda put out by the game-shooting industry this week about how good grouse-shooting is for conservation?? See here. They also suggest that hen harriers are doing well in the grouse moor stronghold [stranglehold] of Scotland! 505 territorial pairs in a country that has the capacity to support 1467-1790 pairs isn’t a very good example to show how great grouse moors are for hen harriers, especially when HHs are absent from large swathes of grouse moor in the Eastern Highlands and Southern Uplands!

Police appeal after 2 buzzards found poisoned in April

buzzardpoisonedchittlehamptonThe police are appealing for information after the discovery of two poisoned buzzards in Chittlehampton, North Devon. The birds were found in April.

More information here, but very little detail given.

Kestrel shot in North Yorkshire

North Yorkshire Police are appealing for information after a kestrel was found shot on Monday. The bird was found near the High Batts Nature Reserve at North Stainley, near Ripon, its wing shattered by shotgun pellets. It had to be euthanised by a vet.

North Yorkshire is one of the worst areas for raptor persecution crimes in the UK.

We’re impressed that North Yorkshire Police Wildlife Crime Officer PC Gareth Jones got the appeal for information out, in the media and on the North Yorks Police website, within 4 days of the bird being found. Really well done to him.

Anyone with information about this crime is urged to contact PC Gareth Jones – his details available in the following links:

Press release on North Yorks Police website here

Article in the Northern Echo here

Photo of kestrel hovering by davidchapman.org.uk

Buzzard shot in the head: police appeal for info

buzzard 3Police in Greater Manchester are appealing for information after a dead buzzard was found in a field in Bolton. X-rays revealed the bird had been shot in the head.

The bird was found by a dog walker on 25th June in a field close to Salford Road and St. Helens Road.

PC Randolph Lyle makes some frankly bizarre statements in the police appeal, e.g. “shooting and killing one [buzzard] can have a devastating impact on their habitat and biodiversity“. Eh? He also seems quite keen to put across an argument that this buzzard wasn’t killed by someone from the game-shooting industry…

Nevertheless, Greater Manchester Police should be credited for at least putting out a press statement, so well done to them for that.

Anyone with information can call GMP on 0161-856-5578 or can make an anonymous call to Crimestoppers on 0800-555-111.

Greater Manchester Police press release here.

Industry leaders respond to buzzard-killing gamekeeper case

The public’s reaction to what gamekeeper Colin Burne did to those trapped buzzards (see here) has been widespread disgust and condemnation. People have been commenting all over the social media networks, with many angered that Burne’s punishment was so pathetic (a 12 month suspended sentence – in other words, keep your nose clean for the next year and we’ll say no more about it).

We thought it’d be interesting to read what the game-shooting industry’s leaders had to say about the case. At the very least, we would expect outright condemnation of Burne’s activities and a warning to others that criminal activites will not be tolerated by the industry. We visited a few websites this morning and this is what we found:

National Gamekeepers Organisation: silence

British Association for Conservation & Shooting (BASC): silence

Countryside Alliance: silence

Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust: silence

Now, compare these responses with that of the National Association of Regional Game Councils in Ireland, who reacted to the illegal shooting of a buzzard in January this year. Here’s what NARGC Director Des Crofton had to say:

“The shooting of birds of prey, who are all protected, can only be condemned in the strongest possible terms. The person who shot this bird is not fit to have a firearm. I would urge the authorities, if the person is identified, that they are prosecuted, have their firearm licence revoked and never allowed have one again. This is inexcusable. If I ever found one of my members was responsible for something like this, he would be out of the association so fast his feet wouldn’t touch the ground“.

We blogged about Des Crofton’s statement at the time (see here), and mentioned that an equally strong leadership approach was required from industry leaders in England and Scotland. Sadly, it seems they’re not up to the job.

It would also be good to see a statement from the estate that leased the land to the Cliburn Shoot syndicate, stating that the lease had been withdrawn.

Burne dumping BZ in bucket

Buzzard-killing video – WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

Further to our earlier story (here) about gamekeeper Colin Burne, convicted for trapping buzzards and clubbing them to death, the RSPB has now posted the unedited version of their covert video surveillance.

WARNING – GRAPHIC CONTENT. Video can be viewed here.

Burne clubbing buzzard to death