Tag: buzzard

landowners’ condemnation of raptor persecution exposed as a sham?

On 21 May 2010, this blog reported on the news that over 200 landowners (members of the Scottish Rural Property & Business Association – SRPBA)  had written a letter to Environment Minister Roseanna Cunningham MSP, condemning the continued practice of illegal raptor persecution on Scottish sporting estates.

This letter has now become available for public viewing: SRPBA LETTER MAY 2010

On close scrutiny of the signatories to this letter, it is now apparent that on 23 of the estates listed, wildlife crime incidents have been recorded, and on seven of them, estate employees have criminal convictions. Here they all are in their full glory:

Careston Estate, Brechin: Buzzard found poisoned by Chloralose 1992.

Dochfour Estate, Inverness: Buzzard found poisoned by Chloralose 1992.

Invercauld Estates, Braemar: Buzzard found poisoned by Chloralose 1992; Three Buzzards and a raven found poisoned by Carbofuran 2005; Gamekeeper convicted for illegal use of spring trap 1997.

Balmanno Estate, Bridge of Earn: Buzzard found poisoned by Carbofuran, illegal gin traps and egg collection – Gamekeeper convicted 2003.

Haystoun Estate, Peebles: Gamekeeper filmed allegedly removing Peregrine chick from nest – evidence ruled inadmissable in court (a legal technicality) – but keeper convicted of firearms offences 2003.

Haddo Estate, Aberdeenshire: Gamekeeper convicted for  laying poisoned baits and illegal traps and fined £2,600 in 1989.

Dunachton Estate, Kincraig: Buzzard found shot 1990; Buzzard found shot 1992.

Dougarie Estate, Isle of Arran: Eagle found poisoned by Chloralose 1991.

Rosehaugh Estate, Black Isle: Buzzards found poisoned by Mevinphos 1991.

Dinnet & Kinord Estates, Aboyne: Gamekeeper convicted for firearms offences and trespassing on neighbouring estate while carrying a firearm 2006; Golden eagle found poisoned 2006.

Straloch Farm, Blairgowrie: Buzzard found poisoned by Chloralose 1992.

Lothian Estates, Jedburgh: Osprey found shot 1993.

Glenfeshie Estate, Kincraig: Golden eagle found poisoned by Carbofuran 2006.

Islay Estates, Islay: Raven found poisoned by Mevinphos 1989; Buzzard found poisoned by Mevinphos 1989.

Dunecht Estates, Aberdeenshire: Buzzard found shot 2007.

Coignafearn Estate, Tomatin: Poisoned bait found 1983; Golden eagle found poisoned 1988.

Roxburghe Estate, Kelso: Buzzard found poisoned by Mevinphos 1989.

Seafield Estate, Strathsprey: Buzzard found poisoned by Chloralose 1991.

Innes Estate, Elgin: Dead Buzzards and crows found dying after poisoned by Carbofuran – Michael Royan (head gamekeeper) convicted of firearms offences and possession of illegal poisons 2007.

Carbeth Estate, Stirlingshire: Buzzard found poisoned by Chloralose 1989.

Wemyss & March Estates, Longniddry: Managers of the Barns Estate in Peebleshire, where gamekeeper was convicted of poisoning 20 raptors, described at the time as “Britain’s worst wildlife crime” 2004.

Alvie Estate, Kincraig: Golden eagle found poisoned 1980.

Aberarder Estate, Strathnairn: Eagle found poisoned 1993.

One has to ask, why are these estates still allowed a membership of SRPBA? Doesn’t their continued membership ruin any credibility of the SRPBA’s public pronouncements against illegal raptor persecution? Indeed, it seems to go against the SRPBA’s very own Code of Practice: http://srpba.com/view_item.aspx?item_id=136&open2=false

Although of course, we should point out that some of these Estates may have changed ownership/staff since some of these incidents occured – we should probably give them all the benefit of the doubt because after all, the SRPBA has ‘repeatedly condemned the illegal poisoning of wildlife’ and of course we should all accept that their members are all above board and not engaged in criminal activities.

The SRPBA is also a fully-fledged partner in the Partnership Against Wildlife Crime (PAW Scotland) – as a commited partner, I’m sure that the SRPBA has expelled any members that are associated with wildlife crime. Otherwise, what is the point of SRPBA being a partner in PAW Scotland? No point, other than paying lip-service to raptor conservation in a feeble attempt to protect their public image. But we are giving them the benefit of the doubt, aren’t we.

At the latest PAW Scotland meeting  that was held on 25 May 2010, Environment Minister Roseanna Cunningham MSP apparently congratulated the SRPBA on their letter. Let’s give her the benefit of the doubt too and assume she hadn’t read it yet.

licences have not been granted to kill birds of prey (yet)

It seems that the news report from The Sunday Times last weekend was a wee bit hasty, and was the result of the Scottish Gamekeepers Association’s Chairman Alexander Simpson Hogg opening his mouth when he’d have been better off keeping it shut.

According to a statement posted on several birding discussion groups’ websites from Stuart Housden, Director of RSPB Scotland:

“This [story about licences being granted to kill buzzards] is completely erroneous and is based on misinformation put out by the Gamekeepers organisation SGA [Scottish Gamekeepers Association].

We [RSPB] would be as concerned as anyone if this was to happen – but to strengthen our negotiating position with the Scottish Government you and others may wish to make your concerns known to our Environment Minister, Roseanna Cunningham MSP. The Scottish Government is considering clarifying how it issues licences to control birds alleged to be doing damage – and we have been active making the case as strongly as we can for conservation.

The article in The Sunday Times that started this rumour had a strong quote from the RSPB making clear we want the law upheld and that raptors fully deserved the protection they have”.

For anyone interested in expressing their views to Environment Minister Roseanna Cunningham MSP, here is her e-mail address: ministerforenvironment@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

Licences granted to kill birds of prey

In an astonishing act of short-sighted stupidity, the Scottish government, backed by Scottish Natural Heritage, the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, and the Scottish Gamekeepers Association, has announced that licences to kill protected raptor species such as buzzards will now be issued to gamekeepers who can demonstrate that 10% of their gamebirds have been killed by birds of prey, according to an article in The Times.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article7134049.ece

Roseanna Cunningham (Scottish Environment Minister) and SNH – you should be ashamed of yourselves – we expected better from you. Ministers claim that the new licensing scheme will help to prevent illegal raptor persecution. Just how thick are you? The illegal killing will continue, and its effects on the raptor population will be further magnified because ‘legal’ killing will now also be allowed.

Chairman of the Scottish Gamekeepers Association (SGA) Alex Hogg has been campaigning for licences to kill raptors for over ten years now. His latest statement that “growing buzzard predation is causing serious welfare issues” is nothing short of delusional. This is not about “welfare issues” but is all about financial issues. If Alex was so concerned about the welfare of gamebirds, he & his fellow gamekeepers wouldn’t be releasing over 43 million of them into the countryside each year, just so that commercial hunting parties can come along and blast them from the sky! Buzzards and other raptors have taken about 100 years to recover from the effects of Victorian persecution, and now this legal persecution is set to begin again. Have we learned nothing from our past mistakes?

Roseanna Cunningham, Environment Minister? You’re having a laugh. And this, the International Year of  Biodiversity.

This blog will be monitoring which estates are issued with these licences to kill our protected species and will report the findings here.

3 golden eagles & other raptors found dead on Skibo Estate, Sutherland

THREE golden eagles, a buzzard and a sparrowhawk have been found dead on Skibo Estate, Sutherland, in the last week. The bodies have been sent for toxicology analysis at the government laboratory in Edinburgh, on suspicion that they had been poisoned. Now, unless those THREE golden eagles all died of old age at the same time on the same estate, and the buzzard and sparrowhawk died of a heart attack at seeing the dead eagles, I think it’s fair to assume that the toxicology results will prove to be positive and that some of these birds have been illegally killed by someone with access to poison. Even PC Plod should be able to work out the connection here.

The police investigation is continuing and no arrests have been made. A statement from Skibo Castle said: “The owners and management of Skibo Castle are committed conservationists and do everything they can to support the welfare of wildlife and birds. We will cooperate fully with the authorities in their investigation”.

BBC news story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/8676871.stm

Skibo is a prestigious highland estate and was the location for Madonna’s marriage to Guy Ritchie in 2000. The estate includes a 3,000 hectare grouse moor and a members-only hotel. Skibo was bought for £23 million in 2003 by Ellis Short, an American multi-millionaire investment banker who also owns Sunderland football club. In 2007, his wife, Eve Short, is alleged to have threatened two pensioners who were walking their dogs on the estate, telling them she would have her gamekeeper shoot the dogs if they were seen again. According to the report, the estate later apologised to the pensioners after realising that the pensioners had every right to walk their dogs there, under the rules of the Scottish Access Code. http://dogblog.dogster.com/2007/01/07/obnoxious-owner-of-skibo-castle-threatens-to-shoot-pensioners-and-their-small-dogs-for-walking-on-property/

PAW gets into bed with an estate with a track record of wildlife crime

Oh dear. It looks like those fools who run PAW have made a serious error of judgement (again). The news section on the PAW website contains information about a recent deer training course for Police Wildlife Crime Officers and a Procurator Fiscal, helping them to understand the process from slaughter to table. All well and good….that is until you read where the training course was held…

Balmanno Farm.

For the eagle-eyed amongst you, you will recognise the name ‘Balmanno’ from the Named Estates section of this blog, and also from the blog entry on 5th March 2010. These entries refer to a conviction for wildlife crime of a gamekeeper on the Balmanno Estate.  A poisoned buzzard (killed by Carbofuran), gin traps and an egg collection were found on this estate in 2001-2002, and a gamekeeper was convicted of wildlife crimes at Perth Sheriff Court on 12th November 2003. A quick google search identifies Balmanno Farm as being part of the Balmanno Estate in Perthshire.

Click here for the PAW press release: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Environment/Wildlife-Habitats/paw-scotland/news/TrainingEvenReport190310

Well done PAW! Your credibility is plummeting to new depths.

spate of recent poisonings kills eagles, kites, buzzards & peregrine

One of the dead white-tailed sea eagles undergoing post mortem

A disgraceful spate of recent poisonings in Ireland has resulted in the death of 2 white-tailed sea eagles, 1 golden eagle, 3 red kites, 3 buzzards and a peregrine.

The sea eagles were poisoned by the illegal pesticide carbofuran. The golden eagle, kites, buzzards and peregrine were killed by alphachloralose, a pesticide still manufactured and legally available in Ireland.

Police investigations are underway.

For the full sorry story: http://www.goldeneagle.ie/news_viewnews.php?x=6&z=132&news_id=11&article=267

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