Press statement from Police Scotland (21st April 2022)
[Photo by Jerome Murray]
Appeal for information after buzzard is shot in Fife
Officers are appealing for information after a protected bird of prey was found shot in woodland at Mominail, near Ladybank, Fife.
The dead buzzard was found by a member of the public in the morning of Sunday, 9 April, 2022.
Wildlife crime liaison officer, Detective Constable Ben Pacholek, said: “It is sad and disappointed to find this dead bird which would have suffered a lingering and agonising death after being deliberately shot.
Buzzards are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act and I am appealing to anyone who may have seen anything suspicious in the wooded area to get in touch.
We reply on the public to help us tackle wildlife crime and I urge anyone in the local and wider community to come forward if they have any information about who may have been responsible.
If you can assist with our enquiries then please call us on 101, quoting incident number 2689 of Sunday, 9 April, 2022.”
Police Scotland encourages anyone without [sic!] information about wildlife to report it. This can be done via 101 and always call 999 if it is an emergency.
ENDS
UPDATE 27th May 2022: Police Scotland changes its mind about ‘deliberately shot’ buzzard in Fife (here)
I’ve written about the poisoned white-tailed eagle found dead on an as-yet undisclosed shooting estate in North Dorset and Dorset Police’s decision to close the investigation prematurely (see here, here, here, here and here).
I’ve also written about the suspected poisoning of another white-tailed eagle on another as-yet undisclosed shooting estate in North Dorset and a subsequent multi-agency raid in which items of interest have been submitted for toxicology assessment (see here).
Now there’s this – the suspected poisoning of a buzzard and a red kite on an as-yet undisclosed shooting estate in North Dorset, as revealed on Twitter this afternoon by Ian Denton:
The British Association for Shooting & Conservation (BASC) has expelled two of its members following convictions for wildlife crimes.
The two expelled members are gamekeeper Hilton Prest from Cheshire who was convicted in December 2021 and gamekeeper Shane Leech from Suffolk who was convicted in November 2021.
Unusually, BASC posted an announcement about the expulsions on its website last week:
I say ‘unusually’ because although I’m aware of previous expulsions from game-shooting organisations following wildlife crime convictions, these are not common and when they do happen we tend to see vague statements sometime later, such as, ‘The Scottish Gamekeepers Association has expelled five members in recent years‘, but there’s rarely any evidence provided by which to authenticate the claim.
I’d argue that this rare open & transparent statement from BASC is as a result of long-term campaigning by conservationists to get the shooting organisations to back up their claims of having ‘zero tolerance of raptor persecution’. I also see it as a sign that the shooting organisations are feeling the increasing pressure imposed by campaigners, forcing the shooting industry to show Government policy-makers that it can self-regulate and thus avoid the inevitable enforced regulation that is hurtling towards them in the near distance, following on the heels of the forthcoming regulation in Scotland.
Good work, everybody, and especially to the multi-agency teams (Suffolk & Cheshire Police, RSPB Investigations, Natural England, National Wildlife Crime Unit, Crown Prosecution Service) that secured the convictions of these two gamekeepers after months of painstaking work.
Multi-agency searches were conducted last week at a raptor-poisoning hotspot in Derbyshire.
Since 2015, at least eight illegally poisoned birds of prey including buzzards and kestrels, as well as poisoned pheasant baits, have been uncovered on farmland in the Glapwell / Ault Hucknall / Rowthorne / Pleasley area of north east Derbyshire. Toxicology analysis has confirmed they were killed by the poisons Aldicarb and Alphachloralose (see here).
[A dead buzzard found in the area. Photo by Derbyshire Constabulary]
Last week police officers from Derbyshire Police’s Rural Crime Team were joined by staff from the RSPB Investigations Team, Natural England and the National Wildlife Crime Unit to undertake a series of land searches. A number of follow-up investigations are now continuing as a result of those searches.
Derbyshire’s Rural Crime Team posted the following statement on Facebook yesterday:
‘Consider this post both an appeal for information and a public safety warning.
Over recent years there has been a concerning number of dead buzzards found to have died as a result of poisoning on land around the Glapwell / Ault Hucknall / Rowthorne / Pleasley area.
In response to this issue, last week Derbyshire Rural Crime Team, RSPB Birders , the NWCU and Natural England were involved in a day of action in the area. Land searches were conducted and other lines of enquiry pursued in what proved to be a very positive day.
Clearly these beautiful birds are being targeted. Killing birds of prey in any way is ILLEGAL but laying poison on land that can be easily accessed by the public poses a significant risk to public safety.
When out and about, should you find anything suspicious it is important that you contact the Police immediately. DO NOT touch or handle anything and do not let children or animals go near.
If you have any information that may aid this enquiry please contact Derbyshire Rural Crime Team’.
This is the latest in a surge of multi-agency investigations in response to raptor persecution crimes over the last 14 months, including a raid in Suffolk on 18th January 2021 (here), another raid in Nottinghamshire in January 2021 (here, resulting in a conviction of a gamekeeper in 2022 here), a raid in Lincolnshire on 15th March 2021 (see here), a raid in Dorset on 18th March 2021 (here), a raid in Devon on 26th March 2021 (see here), a raid in Teesdale on 21st April 2021 (here), a raid in Shropshire on 2nd August 2021 (here), a raid in Herefordshire on 12th August 2021 (here), a raid in Norfolk on 14th September 2021 (here), a raid in Wales in October 2021 (here), a raid in Humberside on 10th December 2021 (here) and a raid in North Wales on 8th February 2022 (here).
Press release from South Yorkshire Police & RSPB (4th March 2022)
Buzzard found shot dead in Peak District
South Yorkshire Police and the RSPB are appealing for information after a buzzard was found shot dead in the Peak District National Park.
The body of the bird was discovered in woodland at Flouch, near the popular visitor hotspot of Langsett in the Peak District National Park, in March 2021. The finder, a volunteer for the Peak District Raptor Monitoring Group, reported it to the police. Post-mortem examination revealed that the bird had been shot by a shotgun.
[The shot buzzard found on land owned by Yorkshire Water. Photo by Peak District Raptor Monitoring Group]
[RPUK map showing woodland areas around Langsett Reservoir in the Peak District National Park and its proximity to land managed for driven grouse shooting. The woodland where the corpse was found is believed to be owned by Yorkshire Water]
There have been several incidents of raptor persecution in this area, including a raven poisoned with the banned substance Aldicarb found on a nearby grouse moor in 2018. And recently, in February 2022, South Yorkshire Police, the RSPB and the National Wildlife Crime Unit conducted a search for a missing hen harrier in the Stocksbridge area. An investigation is ongoing.
Buzzards and all other birds of prey are legally protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. To intentionally kill or injure one is a criminal offence and could result in an unlimited fine or up to six months in jail.
Tom Grose, RSPB Investigations Officer said: “Here is yet another bird of prey which has been found shot dead within the National Park. This area of the Peak District is a place where people come to enjoy nature, yet it is one of the UK’s number one raptor crime hotspots. This simply cannot continue. Bringing persecution to an end inside and outside these landscapes will require government action, and we echo the recommendations found in the recently published UN wildlife crime report including the implementation of licences for driven grouse shooting, which can then be revoked if raptor persecution is found to have occurred“.
The RSPB’s most recent Birdcrime report showed that 2020 was the worst year in 30 years for the illegal killing of birds of prey, and that two-thirds of confirmed incidents were in connection with land managed for gamebird shooting.
In 2018, a paper published in the scientific journal British Birds proved a statistically significant association with land burnt for driven grouse shooting and persecution of birds of prey in the Peak District National Park. This, along with police intelligence and population studies of key raptor species, shines a bright light on the systematic killing of birds of prey in the Dark Peak.
Police Wildlife Crime Officer Liz Wilson said: “Raptor persecution is a national wildlife crime priority and we will endeavour to ensure that those responsible for such heinous crimes are brought before the courts.
“We are lucky to have beautiful areas to enjoy, but these areas are home to wildlife and animals, and must be respected.
“We are now appealing for information following the death of a buzzard near to Langsett Barn and urge anyone with information to come forward. If you can help please call 101“.
Steve Davies of the Peak District Raptor Monitoring Group added: “Here is yet another case of illegal raptor persecution tainting the image of the Peak District National Park. Wildlife Crime enforcement needs more teeth to enable it to be a successful deterrent. Licencing of shooting estates and the introduction and effective implementation of vicarious liability legislation, including suspension and clawback of any associated agricultural subsidies, would directly impact on the shooting estate landowners or shooting tenants and estate managers who are ultimately responsible and benefit directly from game shooting.”
Alternatively, if you have sensitive information about raptor persecution which you wish to tell us about in confidence, please ring our confidential raptor crime hotline on 0300 999 0101. This is for reporting information relating to birds of prey only.
ENDS
Once again we have a very late appeal for information, this time one year after the discovery of the shot buzzard. On this occasion it appears the delay is not the fault of South Yorkshire Police, who submitted the corpse for a post mortem soon after the discovery was made. The delay appears to be the result of an over-stretched and under-resourced laboratory, snowed under by the number of raptor corpses that require examination.
Sharp-eyed blog readers will note that the location of this wildlife crime is not a million miles from where a satellite-tagged hen harrier ‘disappeared’ in suspicious circumstances just a few weeks ago (see here).
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.
Gamekeeper John Orrey’s conviction was secured in December 2021 when he pleaded guilty to five wildlife crime offences and four firearms offences. Sentencing was deferred until yesterday when he was handed a suspended custodial sentence and a small fine (see here) – nowhere near as severe as he deserved for deliberately baiting a trap to attract buzzards and then casually but brutally beating those buzzards to death with a stick as if it was part of his daily routine.
[Screengrab from the RSPB’s covert footage of criminal gamekeeper John Orrey killing buzzards at Hall Farm, Kneeton, Nottinghamshire]
At the time of his guilty plea I checked around the websites of the five game-shooting organisations that claim to have a ‘zero tolerance’ for raptor persecution to read their statements of condemnation and see what efforts they’d made to distance themselves from this criminal gamekeeper, e.g. expelled him from membership (if he is a member) or blacklisted him to prevent future membership, blacklisted the pheasant shoot at Hall Farm in Kneeton, Nottinghamshire where Orrey is employed etc.
I found absolutely nothing about his conviction on any of the shooting org websites.
Perhaps they were waiting for sentencing before they took action?
Well let’s see. At the time of writing this blog, 24 hours after Orrey was sentenced, and with the story being covered widely online and in local, regional and national press, of the five shooting organisations claiming zero tolerance of raptor persecution, the National Gamekeepers Organisation has remained silent, the Countryside Alliance has remained silent, the Moorland Association has remained silent, and the CLA has remained silent. So has the GWCT. How telling is that?
The only shooting organisation to have published a statement is BASC, although it’s so weak and heavily disguised it really needn’t have bothered.
Here it is:
Note there is no mention of gamekeeper John Orrey or that he’s just been convicted of committing 5 wildlife crimes and 4 firearms offences on a pheasant shoot in Nottinghamshire. There are just generic statements suggesting, as BASC always does, that it’s a ‘tiny minority’ responsible for the wide ranging criminality found within the game-shooting industry, even though the most recent report shows the number of raptor persecution crimes is at a 30-year high.
Any casual visitor to the BASC website will struggle to know what the article is even about, and I’d argue that that is exactly what the BASC press team intended when it decided on what the headline and text would be. ‘Yeah, let’s make it look as though we’re condemning this gamekeeper’s actions without actually referring to him or his case or providing any details, because that would be too embarrassing/damaging for our industry‘.
BASC has added a link at the foot of its statement but this is a link to an article in the Newark Advertiser! No disrespect to the Newark Advertiser, but why on earth didn’t BASC include a link to the RSPB blog and the RSPB video? BASC even mentions in its statement its so-called partnership work with the Raptor Persecution Priority Delivery Group (RPPDG), a group on which the RSPB is also present, so why not share the work of an RPPDG partner that’s been at the centre of this criminal investigation, if BASC is genuinely interested in dealing with raptor persecution?
I’ll tell you why. Because the publicity about gamekeeper John Orrey’s criminality is highly damaging to the game-shooting industry’s reputation. BASC even admits this in its own press statement. BASC needs to be seen to be condemning the criminality because otherwise it looks to be supportive of the crime at best, complicit at worst, but it will go out of its way to avoid providing the abhorrent details that a casual visitor to its website will rightly associate with the game-shooting industry.
Orrey is the 4th gamekeeper to be convicted of wildlife crimes/raptor persecution since November 2021. The three others were gamekeeper Shane Leech (33) in Suffolk (here), gamekeeper Peter Givens (53) in the Scottish Borders (here) and gamekeeper Hilton Prest (58) in Cheshire (here). I didn’t see any publicity/condemnation from any of the shooting organisations in relation to these other convictions.
So why has BASC responded to Orrey’s conviction and not the others? Simply pressure to be seen to be doing the right thing, because Orrey’s case has been high profile and drawn plenty of media attention due to the brutality of his crimes that were laid bare in the RSPB video. That footage is shocking and has caused revulsion amongst the general public. How else do you explain BASC’s silence (and all the other shooting organisations’ silence) about these three other convictions?
I’ve asked whether Orrey was/is a member of these organisations and if so, whether he’s been expelled. I haven’t received any responses.
And what now of John Orrey?
We know that his firearms were removed from him by Nottinghamshire Police back in January 2021 when his house was raided but there is no indication that he lost his job at that time. Indeed, in court his defence solicitor highlighted the fact that Orrey had managed to go a whole year without killing any more buzzards (see here).
Orrey was (is still?) employed by Hill Farm in Kneeton, Ruchcliffe, Nottinghamshire. This is a working farm with an ancillary pheasant shoot. It’s been reported that Orrey’s role is a mixture of farm labourer and gamekeeper. His firearms certificates have now been revoked for an indeterminate period (it’ll be up to the Chief Constable to decide whether Orrey is fit to have them returned) and as a result of his fine and suspended sentence, it seems he will not be allowed to use the General Licences for two years until his conviction is considered ‘spent’ and he is considered to have been ‘rehabilitated’ (in the eyes of the law, at least).
This should restrict Orrey’s gamekeeping activities considerably assuming he’ll abide by the law (and if he doesn’t he’ll find himself in jail because the suspension on his custodial sentence will no longer apply). If anyone happens to be walking in the Kneeton area and particularly in the vicinity of Hall Farm (there are public footpaths) it will be worth keeping a look out to see whether any traps are being deployed to catch and kill so-called ‘pest’ birds such as crows, magpies, rooks, jays, woodpigeons etc. If you find anything that looks suspicious please report it to Nottinghamshire Police immediately.
Further to today’s news that gamekeeper John Orrey, 63, of Hall Farm, Kneeton, Nottinghamshire was sentenced today at Nottingham Magistrates Court for battering to death two buzzards he’d caught inside a trap (see here), here’s a piece from BBC journalist Simon Hare on East Midlands Today. Hare door-stepped Orrey as he left the court today but Orrey refused to comment.
Tom Grose from the RSPB Investigations team deserves credit for his poise and professionalism in what must have been a harrowing case.
Unfortunately this short video will expire at 7pm tomorrow (Saturday 29th Jan 2022) so watch it while you have the chance. Starts at 04.40 min:
A gamekeeper has been sentenced to a total of 20 weeks’ imprisonment suspended for 12 months and fined £1000 after pleading guilty to killing two buzzards on land managed for pheasant shooting after an investigation by Nottinghamshire Police and the RSPB.
Shocking footage was played in court, showing John Orrey, 63, of Hall Farm, Kneeton, brutally killing two healthy buzzards inside a cage trap, into which they had been lured.
The court heard how, early in January 2021, members of the public reported a live buzzard caught in a cage trap in Kneeton, Nottinghamshire. Following up the report, an RSPB Investigations Officer located the trap on a pheasant shoot. There was a live buzzard inside – later confirmed to be a different bird than the one first reported – along with the carcasses of a pheasant and two stock doves, used as bait to attract the buzzard.
Cage traps can be used legally under license for certain reasons to catch corvids such as crows and magpies. However the law states that traps must be checked at least every 25 hours, and anything caught accidentally must be released unharmed.
The buzzard was released due to concerns for its welfare and the RSPB Officer installed a remote camera.
A review of the footage revealed that the trap had been visited on several occasions by a man – later identified as John Orrey – driving a green 4×4. Two buzzards entered the trap on separate, consecutive days, no doubt attracted to the carrion in the harsh weather. On both occasions Orrey entered the trap and bludgeoned the buzzards to death with the long handle of a slash hook.
[Ed: A five-minute video of these offences has been produced by the RSPB’s Investigations Team. WARNING – it contains distressing footage]
Nottinghamshire Police were notified and swiftly identified the suspect as John Orrey, a gamekeeper on a pheasant shoot on the land in question. A warrant was obtained to search his premises. In a barn near his home was the same green 4×4 with a long-handled slash hook in the boot. The bodies of the buzzards had likely been disposed of. A forensic examination of the two stock doves confirmed they had been illegally shot.
Buzzards and stock doves are legally protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. To intentionally kill or injure one is a criminal offence and could result in an unlimited fine or up to six months in jail.
Orrey pleaded guilty to all charges in December 2021 and was sentenced today (28 January) at Nottinghamshire Magistrates’ Court. In relation to the killing of the buzzards, for each bird he received an 18-week suspended sentence to run concurrently and a £500 fine for each bird. He was also ordered to pay £650 costs and £50 victim surcharge, and £180 compensation to the Wild Justice Raptor Forensics Fund.
District Judge Grace Leong remarked: “This was a shocking and unnecessary act of cruelty and violence.”
Tom Grose, RSPB Investigations Officer, said: “When I first saw the footage I was shocked and sickened. The birds were subject to a repeated torrent of blows before being thrown into the boot of a vehicle. This was clearly a premeditated operation and yet again illustrates that the shooting industry has a serious problem that needs to be sorted. Killing birds of prey has been illegal for decades, and yet it is still commonplace. Why? Clearly the punishments are no deterrent and the courts must look at using the full range of sentences available – including jail – to signal clearly that this sort of behaviour is simply not acceptable.
“Better regulation is needed too. The RSPB has repeatedly asked for the conditions on cage traps to be tightened. The UK Government must follow the recommendations of the recent
UN assessment, which calls for stronger regulation of the shooting industry and to allow for the removal of licences to use these traps.”
Chief Inspector Heather Sutton, Nottinghamshire Police’s lead for rural crime, said: “This sentencing is extremely significant and I hope it demonstrates just how seriously Nottinghamshire Police takes reports of rural crime and how we will work together with our partners to bring anyone committing these horrific offences to justice. It is unacceptable that any wildlife should experience the kind of ordeal John Orrey subjected them to.”
Orrey pleaded guilty to 5 x WCA and 4 x firearms charges:
• Possession of two dead stock doves.
• Intentionally killing a common buzzard on 8/1/21
• Intentionally killing a common buzzard on 9/1/21
• Using a cage trap to kill or take a wild bird
• Possession of an article (slash hook) capable of being used to commit an offence
• Failure to comply with condition of shotgun certificate (weapon not securely stored)
• Failure to comply with condition of firearms certificate (ammunition not securely stored)
• Failure to comply with condition of firearms certificate (weapons and ammunition not securely stored)
• Possessing ammunition for a firearm without a certificate
I understand a blog from the RSPB is imminent, providing more detail and commentary than this press release.
I’ll post both as soon as they become available.
UPDATE 15.20hrs: An article in the Newark Advertiser provides more detail about the case and states that Orrey’s shotgun licence has been revoked (see here).
UPDATE 15.50hrs: The blog by the RSPB’s Investigations Team can be read here
UPDATE 18.50hrs: Photo of buzzard-killer John Orrey from BBC News:
UPDATE 19.10hrs: Wild Justice Raptor Forensic Fund helps secure conviction of buzzard-killing gamekeeper John Orrey (here)
UPDATE 21.00hrs: “A shocking and unnecessary act of cruelty and violence” says Judge sentencing gamekeeper John Orrey (here)
A gamekeeper will be sentenced at Nottinghamshire Magistrates Court today after he pleaded guilty to beating to death two buzzards that he caught inside a crow cage trap in Nottinghamshire in January 2021 (see here for previous blog). There are additional offences, including a firearms offence.
[Nottinghamshire Police visited the crime scene to collect evidence with the RSPB Investigations Team in January last year. Photo via Nottinghamshire Police Rural Crime Team].
I think we can expect to see extensive coverage of this case from the RSPB, including the video of the so-far-unnamed gamekeeper killing the buzzards, once sentencing has been handed down. I also understand there may be coverage on Channel 4 News this evening.
Raptor Persecution UK 