Tag: buzzard

More on Aswanley Estate gamekeeper – how the finer details matter

Last month we blogged about the failed appeal of convicted Aswanley Estate gamekeeper Craig Barrie (see here). In October 2011, Barrie had been fined £520 at Aberdeen Sheriff Court for the illegal possession and control of a live wild bird (a pigeon) that had been discovered inside a cage trap on this Aberdeenshire estate.

More detail has now emerged about this case, reported in the latest edition (#66) of the RSPB’s Investigations Newsletter Legal Eagle. The article describes the background to the investigation, including how an RSPB Investigations officer had discovered the pigeon inside the trap in September 2010. Crucially, the trap doors were not ‘set’. The RSPB Investigator called out Grampian police, who came to investigate the trap, accompanied by Barrie. The article says: “They found the trap complete with captive pigeon and Craig Barrie admitted that he was responsible for operation of the trap“.

Interestingly, the article says that although Barrie was convicted for possession and control of a live wild bird (contrary to the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981), “a plea of not guilty to illegally using a cage trap was accepted“.

So here is a gamekeeper who has reportedly admitted that he was responsible for the operation of the trap, and has been convicted of being in control of the pigeon that was found inside the trap, and yet it was accepted that he was not guilty of illegally using a cage trap! Without knowing the complexities of the legal argument put forward, it may be safe to assume that this plea was accepted because even though there was a pigeon in the ‘lure/bait’ compartment of the trap, and Barrie was responsible for the pigeon being in there, the trap wasn’t actually ‘set’ at the time it was discovered, so it could be argued that the trap wasn’t ‘being used’ in the strictest sense of the word. Perhaps it was argued that because the live pigeon was inside the trap, it was being used just as a sort of make-shift aviary, not as a trap! The devil’s in the detail, as they say.

Legal Eagle #66 has yet to be published (we were given a sneak preview) but when it is published you’ll be able to find it on this page here.

Eyes wide shut

It’s often said that the number of reported raptor persecution incidents in Scotland represents just the ‘tip of the iceberg’, which means that many more incidents probably remain undetected and thus unreported (see here for an earlier blog post about this). This shouldn’t come as a surprise to any of our regular readers, who understand that the combination of remote locations, increasingly-aware gamekeepers and some less-than-interested police forces can often result in an inaccurate (under)-estimation of the number of persecution incidents taking place each year.

With the imminent publication of the Scottish government’s 2011 Raptor Poisoning Map, due out any day now if they follow the pattern of previous years, we’ll soon hear claims from the game-shooting lobby that poisoning figures have dropped. We’ll also hear from the conservationists that the officially reported figures may have dropped but that the real extent of persecution remains unreported. The poisoning maps are a good example of this, because apparently they only show the areas where poisoned birds have been detected. What they don’t show, we’re told, is the areas where poisoned baits have been discovered. If that’s true, why do you think poisoned baits are not mapped and reported?

The Raptor Poisoning Maps also don’t show the extent of other types of illegal raptor persecution, such as shooting, trapping, nest disturbance, egg-smashing, chick killing etc. Nor do they show the last known locations of satellite-tracked raptors that have mysteriously ‘disappeared’ into thin air. Perhaps it’s time that the Scottish Government started to publish other maps to depict the extent of these various other incidents. Why don’t they do this already?

Inevitably, many potentially illegal incidents will slip through the net. We’ve been told of one such incident that happened very recently on a shooting estate in Scotland. We’ve been asked not to identify the estate or the gamekeeper for operational reasons.

So, a member of the public (let’s call him John) goes for a walk on this estate and sees what he thinks is a buzzard, in some distress, flapping around with a Fenn (spring) trap dangling from one of its legs. John is fairly clued up and immediately calls the police to report it. It’s a Sunday afternoon, so the Police Wildlife Crime Officer isn’t available (?!). Instead, an ‘ordinary’ police officer is sent to investigate. Mr Police Officer heads onto the estate to look for the distressed buzzard. He is met en-route by a certain gamekeeper, who asks him what he’s looking for. Mr Police Officer explains, and Mr Gamekeeper tells him that, by pure coincidence, he is also looking for a missing Fenn trap that has disappeared from a site where he had set it (legally), inside a tunnel to prevent non-target species from getting caught. His explanation for what had probably happened went something like, ‘Oh, the buzzard must have got inside the tunnel and then got caught in the jaws of the trap and flew off with the trap still attached’. Mr Police Officer apparently believed this explanation and off they went together to find the buzzard. They located it, and Mr Police Officer apparently asked Mr Gamekeeper what to do, and Mr Gamekeeper said the buzzard wouldn’t survive and it would be best if he killed it and disposed of the body, which he duly did. No body, no trap, no evidence, end of story.

The following day, two people visited the area where the buzzard had been found. Mr Gamekeeper appeared, challenged them, apparently told them to ‘get ‘arf my land’ (although his language was reportedly more colourful than that) and then told them ‘come back and collect your car tomorrow’, before dashing off down the road to block the exit with a tractor and trailer, preventing the visitors from leaving. The police were called, and eventually Mr Gamekeeper was instructed to remove his tractor.

The incident in question may or may not have been a case of persecution. Mr Police Officer clearly thought is was just an accident, which of course it could have been. Had he been aware of this estate’s history though, he might have viewed the incident differently. The estate in question has a well-documented track record of alleged raptor persecution (although none of the incidents have ever resulted in a prosecution). The incidents include the reported discovery of at least three poisoned raptors, and multiple nesting failures of breeding hen harriers in suspicious circumstances. In addition, at least two gamekeepers on the estate have a reputation for what might be generously called ‘obnoxious behaviour’ towards members of the public, dating back over a number of years, including claims of alleged assault (prosecution failed) and the deliberate blocking-in of vehicles to inconvenience visitors (presumably to discourage them from further visits). The police would be well aware of this history. Whether Mr Police Officer knew is not known, but hopefully he has now passed on the details of this latest incident to the Police Wildlife Crime Officer. If nothing else, the WCO could pay Mr Gamekeeper a visit to make sure his Fenn traps are being set legally (ie. covered).

We’re told that this estate is one of the 250+ that have signed up for the new Wildlife Estates Initiative. Unfortunately this cannot be verifed yet as the Initiative doesn’t seem to be interested in transparency at this stage of its development, even though one of its stated aims is ‘to introduce an objective and transparent system that demonstrates how wildlife management undertaken by Scottish landowners, in line with the principles of biodiversity conservation, can deliver multiple benefits for society and rural communities’. We’re all looking forward to the time when the Initiative is opened up to public scrutiny.

news round-up: burned barn owls, shot buzzards & illegal trapping

Police in Merseyside are appealing for information after the charred bodies of six barn owls were discovered in a barn in Moss Lane, Formby. Police believe the owls had been deliberately set on fire. It is not known when they were burned, or whether these were wild or captive owls. Less than half a mile away, the body of a shot buzzard was found. News article in the Liverpool Echo here.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the country a joint police/RSPB investigation has started in North Lincolnshire after the discovery of three dead buzzards in the area since October 2011. At least two of them are believed to have been shot. News article in the Grimsby Telegraph here.

In Leicestershire, a previously convicted farmer/part-time gamekeeper, Ivan Peter Crane, has been fined £2,500 (+ costs) after being convicted of using a Larsen trap without an appropriate licence. Crane already had wildlife crime convictions from April 2011, for trying to kill raptors with an illegal pole-trap and also for the illegal and unsafe storage of pesticides (see here). It was because of these earlier convictions that Crane could no longer trap birds on the farm without applying for an individual licence, which he failed to do. Press release from Natural England here.

SSPCA continues to perform well in advance of govt consultation to increase their powers in wildlife crime investigations

A year ago in February 2011, former MSP Peter Peacock put forward an ammendment to the then Wildlife and Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill [known as the WANE Bill], to increase the investigatory powers of the SSPCA, to help with the effective investigation of wildlife crime, and particularly raptor persecution crime. The ammendment didn’t make it into the final WANE Act but former Environment Minister Roseanna Cunningham said it could be considered, after public consultation, in a later Criminal Justice Bill. Seven months later, in September 2011, MSP Elaine Murray raised the issue again (see here).

In November 2011, MSP Elaine Murray again raised the issue, and this time was told by the current Environment Minister, Stewart Stevenson, that the Scottish Government intended to begin a consultation during the first half of 2012 (see here).

So far we haven’t seen any movement on the impending consultation but there’s still another four months to go and when we do see some movement, we’ll blog about it here.

Meanwhile, the SSPCA has continued to enhance its hard-earned reputation for successfully bringing criminals involved in wildlife crime to justice. In terms of catching raptor persecutors, this was most recently demonstrated by the successful prosecution of gamekeeper David Whitefield, who was convicted of poisoning four buzzards on a shooting estate in South Lanarkshire (see here).

Their success doesn’t end there. Just last week, the SSPCA was instrumental in securing a ground-breaking conviction of a man who was guilty of keeping dogs used to fight against wild animals, including foxes and badgers (see here, here and here). A conviction for this type of crime isn’t novel – we’ve blogged about it all too often in recent months. What was ground-breaking about this case was that we believe it was the first conviction in Scotland for this type of offence (involving wildlife) under the Animal Health & Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006 – legislation usually reserved for incidents not involving wildlife. Perhaps this will start a trend and we’ll begin to see more use of this Act when dealing with raptor persecutors, for example, in cases where buzzards (or other protected raptor species) are illegally held in crow traps.

We look forward to following the public consultation in the coming few months on increased investigatory powers for the SSPCA.

Man charged with shooting a buzzard has case adjourned until March

John Winn Roberts, 43, of Woodend Meadow, Ballymagorry, Strabane, Northern Ireland, appeared in front of magistrates on the Isle of Wight last Friday (20 January 2012) and pleaded not guilty to intentionally shooting a wild bird (a buzzard) on 26 November 2011 at a quarry in Newport, Isle of Wight. The case was adjourned until 22 March 2012 and Mr Roberts was granted unconditional bail.

The alleged offence was reported in the Isle of Wight County Press on 18 January 2012 (see here). Hampshire Constabulary led the investigation, with assistance from the RSPCA and the company ‘Bardon Vectis’, which runs the quarry where the alleged offence took place. The fate of the shot buzzard has not been reported.

More on this case after the next hearing.

Gamekeeper & apprentice avoid jail in cruelty case

Following the blog post on December 9th 2011 (see here), gamekeeper Christopher Carter and his apprentice Luke Byrne have been sentenced for their involvement in an horrendous animal cruelty case on the West Acre Estate in Norfolk.

See here for the sentencing report published in the Daily Mail. Unbelieveable.

The National Gamekeepers’ Organisation has put out a statement to say that neither offender was a member of the NGO. They also say: ‘Independent research has shown that gamekeeping is a force for good in the countryside in terms of conserving wildlife habitat. Moreover, in many remote, rural areas, gamekeepers are in the frontline in the battle against wildlife crime‘. The statement was released by a massive porky pig as it flew over NGO headquarters and can be read here.

Another South Lanarkshire gamekeeper convicted of poison offence

Well well well. Another gamekeeper from South Lanarkshire has been convicted of possessing the banned pesticide, Carbofuran. Police were alerted to the location after a member of the public found a poisoned buzzard lying next to a pheasant bait near Loanhead Farm, Lamington, South Lanarkshire, in November 2010. Lab tests by SASA revealed Carbofuran in both birds.

Today at Lanark Sheriff Court, 63 year old keeper Cyril McLachlan was fined £635 after admitting possession of Carbofuran. Yet again, a weak penalty for what is supposedly considered a seriously grave offence by the Scottish Government. Not good enough.

It is not known whether McLachlan was a member of the Scottish Gamekeepers’ Association at the time of the offence. If anyone can shed any light on this, we’d be happy to hear about it. UPDATE: The SGA has now issued a statement to say McLachlan was not a member (see here).

Well done to RSPB and SSPCA and the other agencies involved in getting this case to court.

RSPB press release here

Joke sentence for second-time convicted gamekeeper

David Alexander Whitefield, the former gamekeeper at Culter Allers Estate in South Lanarkshire, was today sentenced following his December 2011 conviction for illegally poisoning four buzzards (see here for conviction report).

Before we discuss his latest sentence, let’s remind ourselves of Whitefield’s criminal record: This keeper, who was also a member of the Scottish Gamekeepers’ Association, was convicted in October 2008 for offences relating to the unlawful capture and subsequent welfare of a buzzard. His sentence for that conviction was a £300 fine. He kept his job as the sole gamekeeper and he was not expelled from the SGA. Just six months later, in April 2009, RSPB investigators were alerted to the signs of an illegal poisoning spree on this estate. Obviously, these subsequent poisoning activities, for which Whitefield has now been convicted, demonstrate that the £300 fine had zero effect as a deterrent (no great surprise really).

So then you might expect today’s sentence to reflect not only the seriousness of the crime of poisoning wildlife (and potentially any human and/or domestic animals that happened to wander through the well-used public walking trails on this estate), but also to acknowledge that Whitefield, already previously convicted for wildlife crime there, had shown a complete disregard for wildlife legislation.

You might reasonably expect that the sheriff in this case, Nicola Stewart, might utilise her full sentencing powers and go for the most serious sentence available for this type of crime, which includes a custodial sentence and/or a financial penalty for each poisoned bird. That would see Whitefield put away for a while and would send out a very clear message that this type of crime will no longer be tolerated in this country, just as the Scottish Government has claimed over and over again in recent years.

So why then, was Whitefield handed down a 100 hour community service order as his ‘punishment’?

According to an RSPB press release, Sheriff Stewart is reported to have said the punishment was a direct alternative to a custodial sentence and that poisoning is a serious offence. Why was he given a direct alternative to a custodial sentence and where, in his 100 hour community service order, is there any indication that illegal poisoning is considered a serious offence?

This is a joke sentence, to add to all the other joke sentences that have been handed out to the few criminals that are actually prosecuted for these crimes. As we keep seeing, over and over again, these punishments are not providing the required deterrent so surely it’s now time to introduce mandatory sentences for these offences, and that includes custodial sentences. These are already available to the judiciary – so far, for whatever reason, not one custodial sentence has been given to a convicted raptor poisoner. We need to be asking why that is, and we need to keep asking.

Well done to the SSPCA for some serious doggedness with this case – it’s been a long time in the works and looked at one point to be in danger of failing on a legal technicality. Perseverance paid off, and despite the pathetic sentence, those involved with the groundwork deserve much credit.

BBC news article here

RSPB Scotland press release on Birdguides Blog here

Eight red kites found poisoned in Ireland since November

We have been asked by the Golden Eagle Trust (Ireland) to publish the following press release:

“The Irish Red Kite Reintroduction Project is part of an all-Ireland effort to restore red kites. These attractive birds were extinct in Ireland for about 200 years. The Golden Eagle Trust, National Parks and Wildlife Service, and the Welsh Kite Trust have collected (from Wales) and released 120 red kites in Co. Wicklow between 2007 and 2011 and 39 red kites in Co. Dublin in 2011. The RSPB released 80 red kites in Co. Down between 2008 and 2010. There are now 10-15 pairs of red kites breeding in Co. Wicklow and 5-6 pairs breeding in Co. Down.

Following the successful release of red kites during the summer in Dublin and Wicklow, it is with disappointment that we report further recent kite deaths in Fingal. Since the release in July, this year, a total of eight (8) kites have now been recovered dead in Fingal since November.

The deaths include the satellite tagged kite known as ‘@’ which has flown as far as Co. Mayo on its travels and within a few weeks of returning to Fingal was found dead near Lusk.

Ms Phil Moore, from the Fingal LEADER Partnership expressed sadness saying ‘We just can’t believe ‘our baby’ is dead. We have all been following the satellite tagged kite since her release and have pictures all over the office of her journey; it is upsetting to know she is now dead’. 

There were 39 red kites, collected for Fingal under licence fromWales with project partners, the Welsh Kite Trust. The Fingal Red Kite release programme is part of the final and fifth year of an ambitious project to re-establish red kites in Ireland. The deaths represent just over 20% of the red kites released in the Fingal area.

The Golden Eagle Trust is managing the project, which is funded by Fingal LEADER Partnership through the Rural Development Programme 2007 – 2013 and the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS). Fingal County Council, at Newbridge Demesne, and a private landowner hosted and facilitated the two separate release cages.

The project is widely supported throughout local communities, a suite of volunteers and landowners. There were over 100 people involved in cage building, collections, feeding and subsequent monitoring of the released kites.

Each kite is fitted with a radio tag which has allowed the project team to follow the kites’ movements since release. Whilst these tags allow us to track their daily movements they have also led us to find the dead birds.

Dr Marc Ruddock, Red Kite Project Manager, said ‘There is nothing more heart-breaking than having to pick up the carcass of bird and putting it in a bag for post-mortem after having followed its development from a small, downy chick collected in Wales and then watching it flying free in Fingal’.

Earlier this year, a post-mortem protocol was agreed between NPWS, Department of Agriculture and the State Laboratory. Each of the red kite carcasses has been sent for testing at Backweston Campus, to establish the cause of death. This process and the rigorous work undertaken is fundamental to the growing understanding of environmental issues and the threats posed to kites and other wildlife. 

It has now been confirmed that at least four of the kites contained the second-generation rodenticide, brodifacoum. This is an anti-coagulant rat poison usually recommended for indoor use only, which causes internal bleeding. It is widely recognised that rodenticides can kill non-target species.

Dietary analysis of the red kites, both in Wicklow and Dublin has shown that they are clearly hunting and scavenging rats, providing a natural control on rodent populations. The red kite is a specialist scavenger and is therefore likely to be at high risk of secondary poisoning if feeding on rats which are dead or dying from rodenticides.

We recognise the requirement for rat and mice control in terms of human health and food safety. But we urge amateur and professional users alike to ensure that rodent control programs are carefully planned and follow a defined treatment period to be effective.

The over-use of some chemicals could lead to resistance and accumulation in the environment. Those in the countryside should ensure best practice use of these chemicals to allow for more effective rodent control in the long-term and minimise the secondary poisoning risk to non-target wildlife. This includes other rodent-eating native raptors and owls such as kestrels, buzzards, barn owls, long-eared owls and red kites.

Best practice rodent eradication strategies record information such as the quantity and location of all baits and require baits to be regularly inspected and not left exposed to non-target animals and birds. Furthermore, dead rodents should be collected and disposed of safely and baits should be removed at the end of the treatment. Urban and rural rodenticide users are urged to be mindful of the potential environmental effects of the use of chemicals.

The farming and shooting communities in Fingal are very supportive of the project and are anxious to continue to control rats and mice effectively and minimise unintentional consequences for natural rat predators”. -END-

The substance used to kill the other four kites that have been discovered since November has yet to be confirmed – toxicology tests are on-going. It’s possible they were also unintentionally killed by secondary rat poison, but it’s equally possible that they have been deliberately (and illegally) killed by other poisons. For example, at the beginning of November 2011, it was reported that a red kite and a buzzard had been illegally poisoned in County Wicklow by alphachloralose (see here). In addition, a map produced by the Golden Eagle Trust in 2010 (see figure) shows the extent of illegal poisoning across Ireland (the map does not include instances of unintentional secondary rat poisoning). Species affected include red kites, golden eagles, white-tailed eagles, buzzards and peregrines, killed with alphachloralose or carbofuran.

Golden Eagle Trust website here

Repeat after me: there are too many raptors

I looked for Kim Jong-il’s name listed on the editorial board of Modern Gamekeeping and was surprised not to find it nestled between the names of Peter Carr and James Marchington. I thought he might have been a guest editor in the final weeks before his death. It seems a reasonable explanation for what looks to be obviously editorial-led comments from their four guest gamekeepers in the January issue.

Each month, Modern Gamekeeping invites guest keepers from across Britain to comment about what has kept them busy during the previous month. In the latest issue, keepers from Northamptonshire, Gloucestershire and North Yorkshire all discuss suspiciously similar topics – Is it a coincidence that three of the four keepers mention ‘fox-dumping’ in their articles (a subject prominently covered on the front page of this month’s Modern Gamekeeping), even though all of them admit it’s not a current problem for them? As it seems to have absolutely nothing to do with what has kept them busy during December, why would three of the four keepers mention it at all, unless they’d been ‘influenced’ by the editorial team?

Predictably, all four of the keepers also write about what they perceive to be ‘the raptor problem’. Is this also a coincidence, or have they taken direction from the editorial staff, given that the magazine’s January editorial is all about how raptors need to be [legally] culled (see here)?

Here’s what the keepers had to say about ‘the raptor problem’:

Keeper on Ashby St Ledgers shoot: “The vermin haven’t really been a problem as we stay on top of them, but the buzzards and sparrowhawks are getting out of hand, they’re everywhere, and are a real worry“.

Keeper on Ozleworth Park: “We have a lot of buzzards that give us some problems early on in the season when birds go to pen. They are also sometimes a bother when we want to move pheasants across the valley when they show themselves and the birds flush the wrong way. Thankfully we don’t get goshawks very often, and when we do they seem to move on quickly, which is good as they could be a real problem“.

Keeper on Shortwood Estate: “Sparrowhawks and buzzards are out of control. Eight years ago you were lucky to see a pair of buzzards round here, now it’s a bad day if you don’t see five circling over your woods. There are far too many, and we also had a pair of goshawks this year that have caused me no end of trouble with the partridges“.

Keeper on Spaunton Moor: “The biggest threat to game management has to be increasing numbers of birds of prey. The North York Moors in particular have massive blocks of forestry and unkeepered farmland, and every week we’re seeing more and more of every raptor species. What people forget is that 20 years ago, there wasn’t a buzzard, red kite or goshawk up here. Now there are plenty of all of them, and they’ve got to eat something. So the biggest threat, I think, is the increasing number of birds of prey and not being able to address that increase“.

Perhaps I’m being unfair. Perhaps these keepers have not been indoctrinated at all and they all genuinely believe that raptors in their areas are ‘out of control’. Although if that’s the case, their claims are difficult to understand given that they also all wrote about how well their seasons have gone this year!! So, either keepers have been illegally killing raptors to get the fantastic bags that have been reported this year, or, raptors don’t actually have such a high impact on bags as the shooting industry would have us believe. If we believe certain organisations, it’s ‘only a few rogues’ that illegally kill raptors, so logically then, the latter explanation must be accurate. Therefore, there’s no need for licences to be issued to legally cull raptors. Sorted.