Category: Persecution Incidents in England

Young red kite shot dead in Cumbria

30 young red kites were released into the Grizedale Forest in August 2010

Just five weeks after being released as part of the latest red kite reintroduction scheme, a young male kite has been found dead in Artengill, Cumbria. A post mortem examination revealed the young bird had been shot 4 times in the chest.

Police have begun an investigation, in partnership with the Forestry Commission and Natural England.

Will the culprit be brought to justice? Unlikely. It is yet another disgusting mindless act of violence by someone in the shooting community who knows he/she will get away with it. How many more of these incidents are we going to have to read about?

BBC news story here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-11264438

Cumbria Police Appeal for Information here: http://www.cumbria.police.uk/news/latest-news/police-appeal-after-cumbrian-red-kite-found-shot

The young male was identified by his wing tag

2 more northumbrian kites found dead

A pair of red kites which became well known to birdwatchers and tourists have been found dead near Stocksfield, Northumberland. The bird carcasses have now been sent to the London Institute of Zoology for forensic analysis to determine how they died.

Numerous birdwatchers travelled to the kites’ nesting site near Whittonstall, Northumberland, last year, where they were clearly visible at long-range for several months. Visitors used the vantage point provided by the Highland Cattle Centre on the opposite side of a small valley to view the isolated nest high in trees.

This suspected case of persecution comes only a few months after 2 red kites were found dead illegally poisoned near Hexham, Northumberland.

2 Northumberland red kites confirmed poisoned

2 Northumberland red kites have been confirmed as having been poisoned.

The birds were found close to each other in Hexham, Northumberland on 12th February 2010  and were sent for post mortem analysis to a specialist veterinary surgeon in Newcastle. It was recently confirmed that the birds died as a result of eating meat which had been laced with poison.

Full story. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tyne/10490567.stm

police investigation underway as six buzzards found poisoned

Derbyshire dead buzzards 2010A police investigation is underway in Derbyshire after the recent discovery of six dead buzzards. All had been poisoned.

On February 22nd 2010, two dead buzzards were found in Jebbs Lane, Idridgehay, near Ashbourne. Tests showed they had been poisoned.

On April 7th 2010, a farmer discovered 4 dead buzzards to the north of Kirk Ireton, near Ashbourne – just a few miles north of the Idridgehay poisonings.  The 4 dead buzzards were found next to the body of a dead pheasant and tests showed that the pheasant had been used as a poisoned bait.

Full story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/derbyshire/8634955.stm

another gamekeeper convicted of illegal poisoning

26 year-old Ben Walker, a gamekeeper on the Sufton Estate, Herefordshire, has been convicted of 17 (yes, 17) charges relating to killing protected species with poisonous baits.

After a tip off, an undercover team from the RSPB spent several weeks in October and November 2009 making covert surveillance videos of Walker tending to his illegal baits on the Estate. He killed two buzzards and five ravens and told police he did it because they were a ‘threat’ to the birds he was rearing for a commercial shoot.

Walker received a £1,000 fine at Hereford Magistrates Court on 21 April 2010.  Once again, a judge has not imposed a custodial sentence, even though this option is available for these types of wildlife crime.

Well done to the Sufton Estate though, who sacked Walker for these offences. A second former employee is currently under investigation for wildlife crimes on this Estate.

Full story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hereford/worcs/8635231.stm

Red kite death being investigated by North Yorkshire police

Dead red kite

Police are investigating the death of a red kite found in North Yorkshire last week, amid concerns that it may have been poisoned. The kite was found by a farmer in a field and police have now organised for toxicology tests to be conducted.

The kite was found in an area where numerous poisoning incidents have taken place.

More on this story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/north_yorkshire/8582433.stm

Mark Osborne – another amazing coincidence

(John) Mark Osborne must be the victim of an amazing series of coincidences, according to shooting journalist James Marchington: http://jamesmarchington.blogspot.com/2009/07/poisoned-eagles-and-osborne-connection.html. What else could explain his connection to a number of shooting estates where wildlife crimes have allegedly been committed? Here’s the latest coincidence –

In 1991, Osborne apparently set up the West Wycombe Shooting Ground on the Dashwood Estate near High Wycombe, Bucks, along with Sir Edward John Francis Dashwood. The estate incorporated the Bradenham Hill Shooting Syndicate.

On 15 July 1998,  a 29 year old gamekeeper (Gamekeeper A) for the Bradenham Hill Shooting Syndicate, appeared before High Wycombe magistrates accused of an appalling litany of alleged wildlife crimes between 1996-1997. A journal found at his house documented the alleged massacre of 127 badgers, several cats and dogs, 3 owls, 2 sparrowhawks and a buzzard on the Dashwood Estate. An underkeeper on the estate told the court that Gamekeeper A had admitted killing badgers and feeding live fox cubs to his dogs. Gamekeeper A was cleared of the wildlife crime offences because of ‘insufficient evidence’ and was fined £150 with £50 costs, for keeping ammunition unsecured.

On 21 April 2005, Gamekeeper A was back in court, this time as head keeper on the Dashwood Estate. He and his co-accused, Gamekeeper B, both of West Wycombe, were charged with clubbing a buzzard to death on the Dashwood Estate on 23 February 2004. The buzzard had been caught inside a crow trap, and Gamekeeper B was videoed by RSPB undercover investigators as he clubbed the buzzard to death with a piece of wood while Gamekeeper A looked on. Both men were found guilty and fined £2,000 each, with an additional £500 costs. http://www.docstoc.com/docs/22523459/232-0574-04-05_legal-eagle-45

Eton-educated Sir Dashwood (45), chairman of the Countryside Alliance’s Campaign for Shooting, appears to have further links with Osborne. According to Companies House records, both became Directors of West Wycombe Corporate Entertainment Ltd in 1991. They were also both allegedly involved with the lease of the notorious Leadhills Estate (owned by Hopetoun Estate) in South Lanarkshire in 2003. However, in 2008, the shooting rights were put up for sale after a series of police raids in relation to alleged raptor persecution incidents. The Estate’s owner, the Marquess of Linlithgow, had apparently leased the estate to Dashwood & Osborne in 2003 on the condition that they complied with the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981. Dashwood claimed the sale of the shooting rights was ‘entirely unconnected’ with the police raids.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/apr/18/wildlife.conservation

The Mark Osborne Coincidences Continue…

Even casual readers of this blog will be aware of the frequency with which the name “Mark Osborne” occurs. His connection to locations with both actual and alleged raptor persecution incidents, which must of course be coincidental, is not confined to Scotland.

February 2008. Three gamekeepers working on the Snilesworth Estate, near Northallerton in North Yorkshire, have pleaded guilty to a range of charges relating to the use of cage traps containing live pigeons to take birds of prey.

In May 2007, following allegations of traps being set to catch birds of prey, the North Yorkshire Police, supported by the RSPB and RSPCA, visited the Snilesworth Estate. The estate is reportedly part of a network of shooting estates managed by Mr (John) Mark Osborne (56) of Banbury, Oxford, according to the RSPB link, below, and this link here.

James Benjamin Shuttlewood, the headkeeper of the Snilesworth Estate with 20 years experience, pleaded guilty to five offences, relating to the setting of illegal traps by his subordinates. He was fined £250 for each offence.

Charles Lambert Woof pleaded guilty to one offence of mis-using a cage trap. He was fined £100.

Eighteen-year old David George Cook pleaded guilty to two offences of setting cage traps. Cook, who was 17 at the time the offences were commited, was given a conditional discharge for 12 months.
Additionally, the three convicted keepers have each been asked to pay £43 costs.

Full story here: http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/2032154.0/?act=complaint&cid=1114142

RSPB story here: http://www.rspb.org.uk/news/details.aspx?id=tcm:9-183005

RSPB Investigator’s blog about this case here

2006 article in the New York Times about Snilesworth Estate, with James Chapel listed as ‘manager of a Snilesworth Moor estate’ (here). James Chapel is Director of William Powell Sporting (see here), a company owned by Mr Osborne.

Ian West, Head of RSPB Investigations added: ‘As a major manager of shooting estates Mr Osborne has a real opportunity to show leadership and signal an end to the Victorian tradition of intolerance towards birds of prey.’
The illegal killing of birds of prey is a major factor limiting the range and populations of many species across the UK.

goshawk shot in North Yorkshire

The dead goshawk.

Although the main focus of this blog is raptor persecution in Scotland, we will also be documenting incidents in other parts of the UK.

In early March 2010, a young goshawk was killed in Bransdale, North Yorkshire. An x-ray revealed the bird had been shot. A police investigation is underway.

According to a 2009 report by the RSPB, North Yorkshire has the worst record for raptor persecution incidents in England.

http://www.maltonmercury.co.uk/news/Anger-after-Goshawk-shot-in.6117021.jp