Tag: buzzard

estate owner gets apology after being called an “arrogant old bastard” by wildlife crime officer

The Police Complaints Commissioner for Scotland, John McNeill, has told Tayside Police that they must deliver an ‘unreserved apology’ for derogatory comments made about an estate owner during an alleged wildlife crime incident.

The investigation centred around allegations from two former gamekeepers that their employer had instructed them to kill any buzzards that were caught in crow traps on the estate. During the investigation, the estate owner became aware that Tayside Police’s civilian wildlife crime officer had referred to the estate owner as an “arrogant old bastard”. The estate owner made a formal complaint to the Police Complaints Commissioner, and also complained about his arrest, which he said caused “unneccesary distress” to his family.

Alan Stewart

The civilian wildlife crime officer in question might be Alan Stewart, a high-profile former police inspector who has been investigating wildlife crime in Tayside for a number of years and is the only one listed on the Tayside Police website: http://www.tayside.police.uk/wildlife/officers.php

To read the Police Complaints Commissioner’s report in full: PCCS_-_1004-2010-00491-PF-TP_-_Final_report

Of course, while all this name-calling and crying to the police has been going on, the real issue of importance (the alleged illegal killing of buzzards on this estate) has been conveniently buried.

This is not the first time that Tayside Police’s effectiveness has been called into question. Earlier in 2010, the RSPB launched a stinging attack on Tayside Police for its apparent ‘lack of follow up’ on several alleged wildlife crimes in the region. The most prominent of these was the incident involving a poisoned white-tailed sea eagle that had been found dead on Glenogil Estate in August 2009. Tayside Police did not make an appeal for information until 6 months later, and only then because a local newspaper began to ask questions: http://news.scotsman.com/birdsofprey/RSPB-claims-police–less.6012566.jp

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

Gamekeeper sentenced for wildlife crimes on Redmyre Estate, Abernyte, Perthshire

Further to the blog entry of 3 March 2010……

Gamekeeper Graham Barclay Kerr (53) of Mary Findlay Drive, Dundee, who had earlier pleaded guilty to shooting a buzzard and being in possession of illegal and deadly poisons on the Redmyre Estate, Abernyte, Perthshire on 9 September 2009, has now been sentenced.

His punishment? A pathetic £400 fine for shooting the buzzard with a .243 rifle, and an even more pathetic ‘admonishment’ (which means a telling off) for being in possession of Carbofuran and Alphacloralose. Sentencing him at Perth Sheriff Court on 24 March 2010, Sheriff Robert McCreadie told Kerr, “You may not have appreciated how serious the courts take the illegal destruction of wildlife. I think you will be aware of that now”.

Really? A £400 fine for deliberately shooting a protected species is not what I would call a deterrent for other gamekeepers or their employers. And an admonishment for the possession of illegal and highly toxic poisons is nothing but lamentable. When oh when will the public see the full force of the law being handed down to convicted wildlife criminals? The Scottish judiciary has been given the powers to impose large fines or custodial sentences for convicted wildlife criminals, because that is the punishment that society deems fitting for these crimes. The Scottish government claims to be ‘stamping out’ wildlife crime. Perhaps the government and the judiciary need to get together and make sure they are reading from the same book, let alone the same page, because so far their actions speak louder than their words. This case speaks volumes.

Full story: http://www.perthshireadvertiser.co.uk/perthshire-news/local-news-perthshire/perthshire/2010/03/26/buzzard-killed-my-former-perthshire-gamekeeper-73103-26110898/

Inside case details from Tayside Police: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Environment/Wildlife-Habitats/paw-scotland/Resources/Newsletters/Issue2/Inthecourts/GrahamKerr2010

shooting times magazine names the countryside’s “most wanted pests”

Game shooting’s top magazine, The Shooting Times, has published an article on the countryside’s “most wanted pests”, which speaks volumes on the true attitude of the game shooting industry to our protected wildlife.

The Shooting Times, 6th February 2006 reports,  The golden eagle, red kite, osprey, heron, peregrine falcon and buzzard stand accused with the hedgehog, otter, badger and the domestic cat of being “voracious predators” that affect the game shooting and fishing industries.

The 114-year-old title describes the animals on its list as “pricey pests” that devour pheasant, partridge, grouse, salmon, trout, hare, pigeon, woodcock, snipe, duck, goose and deer or snatch wild birds’ eggs. The losses hit the profits of estate owners and shooting and fishing syndicates.

Jim Knight, the Rural Affairs Minister, joined animal welfare groups and the Countryside Alliance in criticising the magazine for vilifying wildlife. He was shocked by the article’s emotive language. “The list includes a number of precious species that are protected by law. Readers of this article may agree that some species can be a nuisance — but this does not excuse their destruction.”

Camilla Clark, editor of Shooting Times, said: “The purpose was to assess the economic impact of predators and pests on game birds in the UK. Shooting Times would never advocate the illegal killing of a protected species.”

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

Eight buzzards killed in suspected poisonings

Irish Times May 6th 2009. Eight buzzards have been killed in suspected poisoning incidents in the northeast in the last two months. The National Parks Wildlife Service (NPWS) said yesterday it was investigating the discovery of buzzard carcasses on farmlands in north Dublin, Louth and Meath.

The broad-winged birds of prey have only recently re-established themselves in Ireland after becoming extinct in the early 20th century through poisoning and hunting. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0506/1224245993542.html

Gamekeeper guilty of wildlife & welfare offences at Culter Allers, Lanarkshire

David Alexander Whitefield, a 41 year old gamekeeper (and a member of the Scottish Gamekeepers Association) at Birthwood Farm, Culter Allers nr Biggar, Lanarkshire, has been fined £300 for the illegal use of a crow trap.

On 4 March 2008, a hillwalker discovered a buzzard caught inside a crow trap. No food, water or shelter was available in the trap, and there was no door to allow the release of non-target species (all requirements of the law). Four inches of snow covered the ground, and no footprints or vehicle tracks were in evidence around the trap, indicating that it hadn’t been checked for at least 48 hours (it is a legal requirement that traps are checked every 24 hours).

On 1 October 2008 at Lanark Sheriff Court, Whitefield pleaded guilty to charges of failing to ensure the welfare of the bird and of recklessly taking a buzzard. In addition to his £300 fine, Whitefield was also banned from using his Scottish Open General Licence for 5 years. http://www.rspb.org.uk/Images/le57_tcm9-212748.pdf

News story here

According to the RSPB report, “The illegal killing of birds of prey in Scotland in 2009”, the following were found at Culter Allers during 2009 –

October 2009: 1 x dead buzzard, 1 x rabbit bait containing alpha-chloralose

November 2009: 2 x dead buzzards, 1 x rabbit bait containing alpha-chloralose

Gamekeeper guilty of killing buzzard on Blakehope Estate, Scottish Borders

A Scottish Borders gamekeeper was convicted of killing a buzzard, setting a poisoned bait and possessing 3 proscribed pesticides on 25 October 2005.

The gamekeeper (name removed under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974) at Blakehope Estate in the Borders pleaded guilty at Jedburgh Sheriff Court on 14 December 2006 to five offences under the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981.

He was sentenced to 100 hours community service.

Readers could be forgiven for thinking Sheriff Woody had left Toy Story for a day’s work at Jedburgh Sheriff Court.

Gamekeeper convicted of crimes on Innes House Estate, Moray

Police raided Innes House Estate near Elgin, Moray in November 2006 after dying buzzards and crows were seen in a nearby field. Later laboratory testing confirmed the birds carried traces of Carbofuran.

At Elgin Sheriff Court on 30 April 2007, head gamekeeper Michael Royan was found guilty of possessing proscribed pesticides (Carbofuran, Cymag & Alphachloralose) and he was also convicted of a firearms offence. He was fined £1,000.

According to the 2010 Innes House Estate website, Michael Royan is still employed as Head Gamekeeper.