Further to yesterday’s news that Scottish gamekeeper Russell Mason, 49, had pleaded guilty to battering a trapped Goshawk to death on a shooting estate in Perthshire (see here), the Daily Record has published more detail about this case, which is quite disturbing.
The article is reproduced below in case this URL is broken/removed at a later date.
Russell Mason, 49, lured the protected goshawk into a baited trap before battering it several times with a cosh to cause its agonising death.
He was also found to have left nearly 200 rounds of live ammunition lying around in his bedroom and unsecured within his Polaris Ranger vehicle.
Fiscal depute Karon Rollo told Perth Sheriff Court: “Goshawks are rare birds of prey. They hunt birds and small animals. They have a wingspan of up to four feet and weigh between two and three pounds.
“They were persecuted to extinction in Scotland in the last century, but have been reintroduced, with now around 100 breeding pairs in existence.
“A crow cage trap was visited by RSPB staff on 9 January 2024. At the time this trap was set, it had a meat bait, and the door was chained and padlocked shut.
“It had a sign on the trap stating that the Scottish Government pays the estate to catch carrion crows from 1 March to 30 June to increase the chick survival rates for conservation-listed bird species.
“To continue observations and continue with this research, it was decided to install a continuous recording static camera covering this crow cage trap“.
She said RSPB staff visited the camera several times to review the captured footage and became aware of a male visiting the trap on 12 February 2024.
“At this time there was a goshawk and a crow in the trap,” Ms Rollo said. “The male opened and entered the trap. After entering he used a hand-held net to capture the goshawk and put it to the ground.
“He then struck the bird six times with a cosh. He placed the bird into a carrier bag, rolled it up and put the package under his arm.
“He left the trap, placed the net in the back of the vehicle and the bag in the cab. He locked the trap and drove off“.
The prosecutor said: “The male was identified from the footage by police officers, who knew him as being gamekeeper Russell Mason. The crow cage trap number related to the accused.
“Footage on other dates, including him putting a decoy bird in the trap, confirmed his identity. An avian vet specialising in raptors was shown the footage.
“He opined that the goshawk looked healthy and was exhibiting the normal behaviour of a captured raptor. Goshawks, in his experience, as ‘particularly flighty and stressy birds’ and this one was no exception.
“He describes it as showing a man beating a goshawk to death with a cudgel with the bird having been first netted within a crow cage trap.
“He states there were six blows to the body, which may have caused broken wings or rib fractures during the trauma, and that it was quite obviously not killed outright with one blow.
“He is of the view that it is extremely unlikely that it would have been lying passively in the net and therefore there is a high possibility that it would have sustained painful fractures and injuries before dying“.
A search of Mason’s cottage found unsecured ammunition, along with clothes matching those seen on the CCTV footage. A bag and cosh were found in his vehicle.
The bag was analysed and found to have goshawk DNA on it. The search team recovered 195 illegally stored rounds of ammunition.
Mason admitted intentionally or recklessly killing a goshawk on 12 February 2024 by seizing it with a net before repeatedly striking it with a cosh on Cochrage Moor, Bridge of Cally, Perthshire.
He also admitted breaching the terms of his firearms certificate by failing to store ammunition securely.
Sentence on Mason was deferred for the preparation of social work reports until next month by Sheriff Alison McKay and he was granted bail.
Mason was previously placed on the sex offenders register after being spotted carrying out a solo sex act in his car by a resident of a sheltered housing complex.
He was spotted by an elderly woman with his trousers down as he sat in the car beside a path used by children to walk to and from school.
When officers told Mason they were at the scene to investigate reports of someone masturbating in a car, he said: “That was me.”
Mason admitted carrying out an act of public indecency outside the sheltered housing complex in Harriet Court, Blairgowrie, and was placed on the register for a year.
ENDS
A reminder – sentencing for Mason’s latest convictions (wildlife crime & firearms offences) has been deferred until 24 April 2026 for background reports.
A Scottish gamekeeper has pleaded guilty to killing a Goshawk after he battered it to death after it was caught inside a Crow cage trap on a shooting estate in Perthshire.
At Perth Sheriff Court this morning, on what should have been the opening day of a criminal trial, gamekeeper Russell Mason, 49, changed his plea to guilty in relation to the charge that he had killed a Goshawk on Cochrage Moor (Muir), believed to be part of the Milton of Drimmie and Strone estate near Blairgowrie, on 12 February 2024 (see here for background to this case).
Goshawk with a Crow. Photo by Ronnie Gilbert
The court was shown a six-minute video of Mason killing the Goshawk – the footage had been filmed covertly by the RSPB’s Investigations Team and was crucial to providing the Crown Office with sufficient evidence to prosecute.
Mason also pleaded guilty to various firearms offences but it is believed that charges relating to alleged snaring offences were dropped, probably as part of a plea bargain.
The court heard that Mason has a previous conviction (the details were not discussed) and sentencing was deferred until 24 April 2026 for background reports. The Sheriff mentioned that a ‘restriction of liberty order’ may be considered. This is a direct alternative to a custodial sentence and usually involves electronic monitoring/tagging.
I expect the RSPB will publish its gruesome footage once sentencing is complete.
Congratulations to Police Scotland, RSPB, Scottish SPCA and the Crown Office & Fiscal Service for an exemplary investigation and prosecution. This is what effective partnership-working looks like.
Incidentally, this is the third successful conviction for raptor persecution in as many months where covert video evidence provided by the RSPB has been pivotal to the case.
The other two cases so far this year were:
12 January 2026, Scarborough Magistrates’ Court: gamekeeper Thomas Munday pleaded guilty to battering to death a Buzzard that had been caught inside a Crow cage trap on a Pheasant shoot at Hovingham, North Yorkshire (here)
and
29 January 2026, York Magistrates’ Court: gamekeeper Racster Dingwall pleaded guilty to conspiring to kill a Hen Harrier as it came in to roost on a grouse moor on the Conistone & Grassington Estate in the Yorkshire Dales National Park (here).
Many of you will be aware of the game-shooting industry’s recently ramped-up efforts to try to discredit and smear the reputations of RSPB Investigations Team members; these three convictions shouldn’t leave you in any doubt of the industry’s motivation.
Without the skill and expertise of the RSPB’s ability to capture such covert footage, these criminals would have escaped justice and the game-shooting industry’s claims of respectability and adherence to the law would go unchallenged. It’s as simple as that.
We can expect more news on the repercussions of today’s conviction in due course – i.e. was Mason a member of the Scottish Gamekeepers’ Association? Was he a member of the Tayside & Central Regional Moorland Group? (certainly someone with the same name and affiliation has previously signed an official letter to the Scottish Parliament about snaring regulations). Will NatureScot impose a three-year General Licence restriction on this estate? Is the estate a member of the landowners’ lobby group, Scottish Land & Estates? And will there be a prosecution for alleged vicarious liability?
NB: As legal proceedings have now concluded, comments are open on this case, with the usual caveat that offensive/libellous posts will not be published.
UPDATE 18 March 2026: Convicted Scottish gamekeeper Russell Mason – more disturbing details about this case (here)
On Monday this week, former gamekeeper Thomas Munday appeared at Scarborough Magistrates’ Court where he was convicted of killing a Buzzard in March 2024 on land owned by the Hovingham Estate in North Yorkshire and was fined £1,215 (see RSPB press release here).
The case drew wide media attention, not least because it centered on disturbing footage captured on an RSPB covert camera showing Munday brutally beating to death the Buzzard that had been captured inside a Crow cage trap. The violence was appalling, and according to a piece on ITV news, even Munday’s solicitor told the court that his client had done “an incredibly cruel thing, it wasadisgusting aberration“.
Thomas Munday (on the left) leaving court with his solicitor (screengrab from ITV News footage)
I said I’d return to this case to provide some commentary. I’m interested in three different aspects of the case: the charge against Munday, the sentence he received, and the location of the crime.
THE CHARGE
Munday was charged with intentionally killing a protected wild bird, a Buzzard. That’s an obvious offence and was clearly evidenced by the RSPB’s video footage. Munday pleaded guilty at the first available opportunity.
But to my mind there were other charges that could have been brought against Munday. For example, using a cage trap to kill or take a protected wild bird, possession of an article (the stick) capable of being used to commit an offence, and perhaps even going equipped (the ATV) to commit an offence.
However, the main additional charge I would have expected to see, based on the video footage, was that of causing unnecessary suffering to the Buzzard (Section 4 of the Animal Welfare Act 2006).
It’s beyond doubt, to me, (and apparently to Munday’s solicitor – see above) that that Buzzard suffered unnecessarily due to the two bouts of inhumane and cruel beating caused by Munday.
The courts are expected to treat animal cruelty seriously, as evidenced by the guidelines provided by the Sentencing Council – see here.
If you follow the step-by-step process outlined by the Sentencing Council, Munday’s actions could be determined as being of either High Culpability or Medium Culpability, and the harm caused (death) falls under Category 1 (the most serious level of harm caused).
Sentencing guidelines for offences determined to be High Culpability Category 1 start at two years’ custody. For Medium Culpability Category 1 offences, the starting point is 26 weeks’ custody.
I wonder why the CPS chose not to bring any charges other than that of intentionally killing a protected wild bird (the Buzzard)? Or maybe the CPS did bring other charges and there was a plea bargain? Along the lines of, ‘My client will plead guilty if the other charges are dropped’? That’s a common and legitimate feature of many criminal prosecutions but if that did happen in this case, why did the CPS accept? Was it a case of getting a quick and easy conviction in the bag and let’s move on to the next case?
This is all conjecture, of course, and until there’s better (any!) transparency about charging decisions then we’ll never know.
THE SENTENCE
Munday was fined a total of £1,215 for killing the Buzzard. This amount was broken down as follows:
£807 – fine
£323 – surcharge
£85 – costs
Some people, and I’m one of them, will consider that this level of fine does not reflect the seriousness of the offence and is at the lower end scale available to the courts. As the RSPB stated in its press release after Munday’s conviction, ‘This penalty provides little deterrent to others who may consider committing similar crimes and fails to reflect the casual and callous acts of cruelty involved‘.
I’ve seen some argue that the other consequences Munday faced (i.e. losing his firearms and shotgun certificates, losing his job, losing his home), in addition to the fine, is sufficient penalty for him. I disagree. Losing a job and home is no different to someone being made redundant, through no fault of their own, and having to relocate to find work.
According to media reports, Munday has re-trained (now a tree surgeon, apparently, so need for firearms/shotgun certs), is employed and has moved away from the house he was renting. Paying off a £1,215 fine shouldn’t be too much of a burden to him.
In addition, this case utilised forensic expertise (including examination of the bloodied stick to identify Buzzard DNA, and swabs taken from the vehicle in to which the bludgeoned Buzzard had been thrown). This work was conducted by the Wildlife DNA Forensic Unit at SASA in Scotland, paid for by the Forensic Analysis Fund (to which organisations like Wild Justice, Northern England Raptor Forum, Tayside & Fife Raptor Study Group, Devon Birds, Rare Bird Alert and many individual donors, including this blog’s readers, have contributed – see here).
One of the conditions of using the Forensic Fund for raptor persecution cases is that if the case progresses to court and costs are recoverable, an application must be made to the court to recover those costs, and any amounts recovered must be reimbursed back into the Forensic Fund to be used for other cases.
In this case, an application was made to the court to recover the costs of the forensics work but the magistrates said that a reimbursement wasn’t possible because the forensics work ‘wasn’t necessary’ to the case.
To explain – Munday committed his offence in March 2024. The RSPB passed on the video evidence to North Yorkshire Police who executed a search warrant (date unknown) at an address and retrieved several items for forensic examination. However, Munday wasn’t interviewed at that time (for reasons best known to North Yorkshire Police).
Munday was only interviewed by North Yorkshire Police in December 2025, some 21 months after the crime was committed. Had he been interviewed in 2024, Munday’s solicitor told the court that his client would have held up his hands and pleaded guilty. Hence, in the magistrates’ opinion, the forensics work wouldn’t have been needed.
THE LOCATION OF THE CRIME
If you’ve read a lot of the media reports about this case, including the RSPB’s press release and North Yorkshire Police’s press release, you might have noticed that the name of the estate where this crime took place has not been reported. It’s invariably been described as ‘near Hovingham’ and ‘near Malton’ – even the CPS charge apparently described the location as being ‘near Ripon’, which is unusual as typically the exact location is included in the charge. The exception was an article on the BBC’s website, which stated, ‘Thomas Munday was filmed killing the buzzard on land which is part of the Hovingham Estate, in North Yorkshire, in March 2024‘.
The court was told that Munday was employed by a ‘management company’ (un-named) who leased the land on an estate for a Pheasant shooting syndicate. According to an observer in court, Munday’s solicitor ‘spent a long time’ telling the court that the estate had nothing to do with the Pheasant shoot, and that as soon as the estate found out about the Buzzard being killed, it terminated the lease. Apparently he went as far as to say he hoped the press would report this sensitively. That’s bizarre – it’s almost as though the solicitor was acting for the estate.
I was intrigued by this apparent reluctance to name the estate and did some digging.
Hovingham Estate (also known as Hovingham Hall) has been in the ownership of the Worsley family for over 450 years. Sir William Worsley (6th Baronet) apparently resides there with his family. He’s big into forestry and conservation, according to Wikipedia, being the former Chairman of the National Forest Company, the former Government’s National Tree Champion, and is the current Chair of the Forestry Commission.
The estate has won awards for its woodland management, including winning a silver award in the 2023 Bede Howell Award for Excellence in Silviculture (the year before the Buzzard was beaten to death in the woods). The judges commented:
“We were impressed by the co-ordination achieved between the several estate departments. For example, the woodlands present an attractive landscape of high amenity and biodiversity character. They also host an important pheasant shoot by paying especially close attention to the character of woodland edges. The result is a profitable woodland enterprise containing excellent stands of timber. this integrates effectively with sporting and other estate priorities“.
I can see why a man of this standing would want to distance the estate from the disgusting and barbaric crime committed by gamekeeper Thomas Munday, and the estate deserves full credit for immediately terminating the shooting lease. I wish more landowners would follow this example and act so quickly and decisively when dealing with sporting agents.
But that Bede Howell awards committee statement about Hovingham Estate made me pause for thought. “They also host an important pheasant shoot….” (emphasis is mine).
If you look on the Hovingham Hall website, it includes a statement about what goes on at the estate:
It says the estate includes ‘a shoot’, which suggests to me that the estate may be more involved in Pheasant shooting than simply renting the land to a tenant sporting agent.
However, when I looked around the rest of the website, I couldn’t see any further mention of ‘a shoot’, until I looked at the estate’s privacy policy (dated 2024).
This privacy policy lays out how the estate handles its responsibilities under the Data Protection Act and how personal information is used. There’s an interesting entry under the header ‘Shoot’, which suggests the estate is involved in the administration of the ‘shoot syndicate and Let Days’.
Hmm.
I decided to phone the estate and ask them about their involvement in Pheasant shooting and whether they still had a Pheasant shoot after terminating the shoot lease in 2024.
I spoke to a nice lady in the main office who gave me a prepared statement, as follows:
“Hovingham Estate is aware of an incident involving one of our tenant’s employees. We take a zero tolerance approach to issues of this kind and therefore we took immediate action to terminate the tenant’s lease. We must emphasise that none of our employees are involved in any way“.
That’s pretty clear, but didn’t answer my questions. I asked the questions again and the nice lady told me:
“I’m sorry, I’m not at liberty to comment“.
To be absolutely clear, there is no evidence to suggest that Hovingham Estate knew about the criminal activity of gamekeeper Thomas Munday, and when it did become aware, it acted responsibly and terminated the lease.
If this estate is still hosting Pheasant (or Partridge) shooting, whether leased to another tenant or managed by the estate, I hope that lessons have been learned and close attention is paid to what might be going on in those award-winning woodlands.
Kudos again to the RSPB’s Investigations Team for securing the evidence that led to this conviction.
Further to last week’s blog about a gamekeeper being due to appear in court charged with killing a Buzzard on a Pheasant shoot at Hovingham, North Yorkshire (here), the case was heard today at Scarborough Magistrates’ Court and Thomas Munday pleaded guilty.
In March 2024, secret RSPB filming caught gamekeeper Thomas Munday brutally killing a protected Buzzard whilst it was caught in a cage trap on a pheasant shoot near Hovingham, North Yorkshire.
Today, at Scarborough Magistrates Court, Munday pleaded guilty to killing a Buzzard and was fined £1,215.
Although cage traps can be legally operated under government licences, they have a history of being repeatedly used in unlawful ways to catch and kill birds of prey on land managed for gamebird shooting. These incidents are generally related to attempts by the operator to remove any potential threat to gamebird stocks, reared for commercial shooting.
The RSPB is urging the UK Government to introduce a licensing scheme for all gamebird shooting to deter bird of prey persecution and to promote better practices.
On 30 March 2024, a covertly deployed RSPB camera caught a gamekeeper brutally beating a protected Buzzard to death inside a cage trap set in woodland near Hovingham, North Yorkshire.
Screengrab from the RSPB’s covert footage showing gamekeeper Thomas Munday clubbing the Buzzard to death, having already bludgeoned it inside the crow cage trap. The casual level of brutality and the suffering he caused is very disturbing.
The footage shows a Buzzard entering the crow cage trap. Four hours later, a masked and hooded individual arrives at the trap in an all-terrain vehicle. He enters the trap and is seen repeatedly striking the Buzzard with a stick. The injured and incapacitated Buzzard is then removed from the trap – clearly still alive – and beaten several more times with the same stick. The individual then picks up the bird by its wing and throws it into the vehicle before driving away from the site.
The RSPB shared the footage with North Yorkshire Police, who later identified the individual in the footage as Thomas Munday – employed as a gamekeeper.
Of all individuals convicted of bird of prey persecution-related offences between 2009 to 2023, 75% were connected to the gamebird shooting industry and 68% were gamekeepers.
A police-led search of the land, assisted by the National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU), resulted in a number of items being seized including the stick used to kill the Buzzard. Forensic testing by the Scottish Agricultural Science Agency (SASA) funded by the Partnership against Wildlife Crime (PAW) Forensic Analysis Fund found traces of Buzzard DNA on the stick. Munday was subsequently charged with the illegal killing of the Buzzard, an offence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.
On 12 January 2026, at Scarborough Magistrates Court, Thomas Munday pleaded guilty to killing a Buzzard and was fined £1,215.
Crow cage traps can be legally used under Government General Licence, issued by Natural England, to control corvid species such as Carrion Crows or Magpies, on condition that licence conditions are adhered to. Under these conditions, if a bird of prey or any other non-target species is caught in the trap, on discovery the bird must be released at point of capture without undue delay.
Sadly, this method of targeted killing of birds of prey is a persistent problem in the UK particularly on land managed for gamebird shooting. In a period of ten-years (2015-2024), 30 confirmed incidents of birds of prey being caught and/or dying in unlawful crow cage traps were recorded in the UK. 97% of these incidents were associated with land managed for gamebird shooting. 34 birds of prey were involved in these crimes with Buzzards, Goshawks and Sparrowhawks the most common victims associated with these crimes.
Howard Jones, RSPB Senior Investigations Officer: “The casual and brutal killing of the Buzzard is extremely upsetting to watch and it’s clear that Munday has a complete disregard for the law, and the legislation that protects these birds. Frustratingly, this incident isn’t a one off but is just the latest example of the cruel and disturbing lengths some individuals will go to in order to illegally kill birds of prey.
“These crimes and the wider issue of bird of prey persecution is significantly linked to the gamebird shooting industry. Without long overdue regulation of gamebird shooting we expect to see these crimes continue.”
James Robinson, RSPB Chief Operating Officer said: “Although we welcome Defra’s recent announcement of a review of corvid traps, this latest incident underlines a far wider and deeply entrenched issue for our protected birds of prey.
“For decades, these species have been illegally killed on land managed for pheasant, partridge and grouse shooting. More than half of all 1,529 confirmed persecution incidents recorded from 2009-2023 were linked to gamebird shooting. These crimes will continue without meaningful legislative change.
“Through the introduction of a robust licensing system for all gamebird shooting across the UK, the illegal killing of birds of prey could be effectively deterred. Scotland took this welcome step in 2024 when it introduced licensing for grouse shooting. We need the Government to take action, now.”
Though we welcome the guilty verdict in today’s case, we are disappointed that the sentence imposed is at the lower end of the provisions available to the court. This penalty provides little deterrent to others who may consider committing similar crimes and fails to reflect the casual and callous acts of cruelty involved.
The RSPB thanks the North Yorkshire Police, the NWCU and the Crown Prosecution Service for their vital role in investigating and prosecuting this case.
Members of the public are urged to report any suspected incidents of bird of prey persecution by contacting the police on 101 and by submitting a report to the RSPB.
This can be done via the RSPB’s online reporting form at www.rspb.org.uk/report-crimes or by calling the RSPB’s confidential Raptor Crime Hotline on 0300 999 0101. Reports via the RSPB’s reporting form and Raptor Crime Hotline can be made anonymously.
ENDS
The RSPB covert footage can be viewed here, but BE WARNED, it includes animal cruelty, suffering and death.
My commentary:
I’ll keep this brief because I’m short of time today but I’ll be returning to this particular case later in the week as there are several important points that were not covered in the RSPB’s press release.
For now, the RSPB deserves huge credit for capturing this horrific crime on camera and ultimately securing a conviction. It’s interesting that the defence did not challenge the admissibility of the RSPB’s video footage and the court accepted it without question.
More soon…
UPDATE 16 January 2026: Commentary on the conviction of gamekeeper Thomas Munday (bludgeoned Buzzard to death on Hovingham Estate, North Yorkshire) here
Three days before Xmas, DEFRA published its Animal Welfare Strategy for England, laying out the Westminster Government’s priorities and a framework for the changes it seeks to achieve by 2030.
The policy paper is wide-ranging and covers farmed livestock, companion animals and wildlife.
Two Labour manifesto pledges are included – “We will ban trail hunting and snares“, and it’s encouraging to read, “We will also conduct a review of the use of other wildlife traps“.
The strategy document can be downloaded / read here:
The key ‘actions’, of interest to me, are as follows:
We will put an end to trail hunting and consult in early 2026 on how to deliver a ban on trail hunting.
We will deliver on the manifesto commitment to ban the use of snare traps in England.
We will conduct a review of other traps used to catch wildlife in England for which welfare concerns have been raised and carefully consider any recommendations for further action. (E.g. Older spring traps, mole traps and live capture traps used to catch corvids).
We will consider how to bring forward and introduce a close season for hares.
We will review and look to strengthen penalties for cruelty against wildlife so that they are consistent with higher levels of sentencing available for animal welfare offences against pets and livestock.
We will improve our understanding of the welfare issues on how gamebirds are reared in the gamebird sector through issuing a call for evidence.
Whilst a timeframe for the consultation on how to implement a ban on trail hunting has been given as ‘early 2026’ (good!), no timeline has been given on when the ban on snares will be implemented.
Given the indiscriminate level of cruelty and suffering caused by snares, this ban really needs to enacted without delay. Snares have already been banned in Wales (since October 2023) and Scotland (since November 2024).
YouGov polling commissioned by the League Against Cruel Sports last year showed 71% support for a snare ban in England (the figure rose to 80% among people living in rural areas) – see here.
Last month, in response to DEFRA’s animal welfare strategy, the independent and authoritative Wild Animal Welfare Committee (WAWC) published an excellent position paper on snares – well worth a read:
I’m especially pleased to see in the animal welfare strategy for England that a review on other wildlife traps will take place (although again, no timescale is given for this), and particularly pleased to see that it includes crow cage traps.
The use and mis-use of these traps have featured heavily on the pages of this blog over the years, especially on gamebird shooting estates. Apart from the appallingly low welfare standards they afford to both decoy and trapped birds, they are also frequently used to facilitate the illegal killing of birds of prey.
This Buzzard was caught in a crow cage trap on a grouse-shooting estate in Scotland. Instead of being released, in the dead of night ‘somebody’ arrived on a quad bike, entered the padlocked trap, appeared to strike at something on the ground, removed something from the trap, and then drove off. As the cameras continued to roll, at dawn it became apparent that the Buzzard was no longer in the trap. [Screengrab from video footage on an RSPB covert camera)
Sometimes the use of these traps for illegal persecution is targeted (i.e. by using decoys specifically to attract raptors, e.g. pigeons and doves) but it can also be non-targeted. When a raptor is caught, accidentally, inside one of these traps, by law the trap operator should release the bird, unharmed, at the earliest possible time. However, repeated evidence, usually provided by RSPB covert cameras, has shown gamekeepers taking the opportunity to kill the trapped raptor, typically by bludgeoning it to death with a big stick there and then, or in recent years, the trapped raptor has been bagged up and carried away from the location, presumably to be killed without the risk of it being filmed.
Any proposal to improve animal welfare standards is to be welcomed and I applaud the Westminster Government for acknowledging that measures are needed across the board.
There’s clearly a lot of work to do and we are fortunate to have some excellent animal welfare charities and organisations in the UK whose input will be crucial to ensure this strategy is implemented as comprehensively, robustly and quickly as possible.
Gamekeeper Thomas Mundy is due to appear at Scarborough Magistrates’ Court next week after being charged with killing a Buzzard on a Pheasant shooting estate at Hovingham, North Yorkshire in April 2024.
Buzzard photo by Ronnie Gilbert
No plea has been entered yet and this will be the first hearing in this case.
NB: As criminal proceedings are live, comments have been turned off.
UPDATE 12 January 2026: Gamekeeper Thomas Munday convicted after brutally clubbing trapped Buzzard to death on a Pheasant shoot at Hovingham, North Yorkshire (here)
UPDATE 16 January 2026: Commentary on the conviction of gamekeeper Thomas Munday (bludgeoned Buzzard to death on Hovingham Estate, North Yorkshire) here
At the recent REVIVE conference in Perthshire I met a couple of people from a relatively new Scottish-based charity called the KITH Trust, who, along with the University of Edinburgh, had earlier this year bought the Glen Turret Estate in Strathbraan, Perthshire.
Approximate location of Glen Turret Estate in Perthshire
Regular blog readers will know that Strathbraan is dominated by a number of estates with driven grouse moors and the area has been identified in a Government-commissioned report as being a hotspot for raptor persecution. It’s also the area where NatureScot (formerly SNH) licensed a controversial raven cull in 2018 (see here) but then came under fire from its own scientific advisory committee who stated the scientific rigour of the licence was “completely inadequate“.
Glen Turret Estate has been at the centre of police investigations into alleged wildlife crime over a period of many years (no prosecutions or General Licence restrictions, natch) so the news that it is under new management and no longer operating as a driven grouse moor is very welcome indeed.
This should mean an end to the use of things like crow-cage traps, commonly deployed [legally!] on grouse moors in all seasons, where non-target species like this Long-eared owl can no longer be caught and held for over 24 hrs in appalling weather conditions (photo by RSPB).
This screengrab shows the new ownership details, from Andy Wightman’s brilliant website, Who Owns Scotland:
This map shows the boundary of the area under Kith Trust management, in addition to the Barvick Burn Wood, now under the management of the University of Edinburgh:
The Kith Trust has kindly provided some information about its plans, for publication on this blog:
The KITH Trust (SC049902), a small Scottish family run charity, took on stewardship of Glenturret Estate in January 2024 in partnership with the Department for Social Responsibility and Sustainability at The University of Edinburgh to facilitate their similar goals of ecological restoration.
KITH Trust is dedicated to restoring and protecting natural ecosystems and supporting biodiversity as well as supporting local community activities and enterprise.
The University intends to fence off part of the estate for a mixed tree planting scheme. They have carried out a community engagement project, archaeological surveys and ecological surveys to ensure any activities are undertaken to work with the natural environment and local communities.
KITH Trust has stewardship of the remainder, mainly hill ground. This land has historically been dedicated to the preservation of red grouse. This practice is no longer a primary aim of Glenturret Estate and it no longer operates as a driven grouse moor. There is a farming enterprise on Glenturret that has been in operation for many years. One of the aims of KITH is to reduce, over time, grazing pressure through farming practices that look after both agriculture and the environment. Another is to restore peatland areas. As a result natural regeneration is supported. Active deer management will be undertaken in collaboration with other members of the South Perthshire Deer Management Group and in conjunction with Nature Scot.
ENDS
The University of Edinburgh has a useful website outlining its plans for the restoration of Barvick Burn Wood here.
No doubt certain organisations from the grouse shooting sector will be very unhappy at the loss of another driven grouse moor and over the coming months/years will be misrepresenting the ecological restoration work, just as they have done with other rewilding efforts (e.g. here).
Some of us don’t want to wait for the buy-out of individual driven grouse moors, we’d like to see a widespread ban on driven grouse shooting sooner rather than later. If you share that view, please sign the new petition from Wild Justice calling for a ban – HERE.
Press release from North Wales Police (7th March 2024):
Wrexham man charged with wildlife offences
A man has been charged with attempting to take Goshawks in a cage trap on land on the outskirts of Wrexham.
Young goshawk in a cage trap. Photo by RSPB (file photo, not linked to this case)
Birds of prey such as Goshawk are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.
The 47 year old man from the Wrexham area was postal charged with using a trap for the purpose of killing or taking a wild bird and possessing an article capable of being used to kill or take a wild bird.
He is due to appear before Wrexham Magistrates Court on Thursday, March 28th.
North Wales Police rural crime team will pursue anyone targeting wildlife and continue to work with our partners the RSPB and National Wildlife Crime Unit.
ENDS
This press release is quite vague, and I believe deliberately so. Definitely one to watch. Comments are closed until criminal proceedings have concluded.
UPDATE 9th March 2024: This blog article has been picked up by Nation Cymru, the Welsh news service, here.
UPDATE 27th March 2024: Gamekeeper Stuart Hart due in court tomorrow to face charges of alleged wildlife crime (here)
This weekend Sky News ran several pieces about raptor persecution and how the wildlife killers are getting with these crimes, with a prosecution rate of less than 4%.
They produced a written piece (here) featuring quotes from the RSPB’s Investigations Team and they also conducted several interviews, one with Howard Jones, RSPB Senior Investigations Officer, one with Mark Thomas, Head of RSPB Investigations and one with Chris Packham.
The interview with Mark Thomas showed some covert video footage by the RSPB showing two gamekeepers removing live buzzards from a crow cage trap, putting them inside fertiliser sacks, tying the top and putting the bags inside a vehicle. It doesn’t show what happened to them next but you can probably imagine; there have been enough previous cases where gamekeepers have been caught on camera bludgeoning trapped birds of prey to death (e.g. see here, here, here) to make an educated guess. These earlier convictions probably explain why these days its common to see the trapped birds being removed from the trap and taken away, presumably to be killed away from potential covert cameras. It’s also telling that the gamekeepers involved in more recent cases typically wear face masks in an attempt to hide their identities. They’ve learned from the mistakes of others.
As Mark discusses during the interview, it’s not an offence to catch birds of prey in crow cage traps – they often get in and can’t then find a way out. If the trap operator releases them, unharmed, immediately after discovering them, then no offence has been committed. Putting them inside a sack and taking them away is a clear offence and is indicative of further offences (i.e. killing the birds elsewhere).
This particular footage hasn’t previously been published, and there’s a reason for that. I’ll return to this case in a separate blog.
I can’t find the full interviews in one place but there are various clips that can be watched via Twitter, which I’ve linked below.
Press release from the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics (4th December 2023):
‘Predator control’ on Scottish grouse moors causes tremendous, unjustifiable suffering to animals, say academics.
Over 120 academics worldwide have backed a report that calls for an end to snaring, trapping, and poisoning animals on Scottish moors. Animals are killed in order to artificially inflate grouse populations for shooting.
“The best available estimates indicate that as many as 260,000 animals are killed as a result of legal ‘predator control’ practices each year in Scotland” maintains the Report.
The Report is signed by numerous ethicists and philosophers, including Scottish academics from the universities of St Andrews, Edinburgh, Stirling, and Aberdeen, and the Nobel Laureate, J. M. Coetzee.
Titled “Killing to Kill,” the 71-page report by the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics graphically details how each method of control “causes suffering, or prolongs suffering, or makes animals liable to suffering.”
Snares are condemned because they “inevitably mean that animals can struggle for hours in considerable pain and distress.” Even the supposedly most humane trap, the DOC (Department of Conservation) trap, only kills 80% of its victims quickly, while the remaining 20% are left to suffer appalling injuries, with no requirement for inspection. And poisons mean that animals suffer for days.
“This is a major moral issue” claims Centre director the Revd Professor Andrew Linzey, “it simply cannot be right to cause tremendous suffering for non-essential purposes. When we began the report, we knew hardly anything about these control measures, but we have been staggered by the degree of suffering. Few people are cognizant of the situation. It is a much neglected and overlooked area of animal cruelty.”
The report concludes by calling for a new charter for free-living animals. “Scotland could lead the way in pioneering legislation that encompasses not only domestic animals, but also free-living ones. This legislation should begin with the recognition of sentiency and enshrine in law the value and dignity of free-living animals such that their right to live unmolested is respected.”
The report is written by a fellow and the directors of the Centre, Dr Katie Javanaud, Dr Clair Linzey, and the Revd Professor Andrew Linzey. It was commissioned by the Scottish charity, the League Against Cruel Sports, but is an entirely independent report and at no point did the League seek to influence the Report’s findings or conclusions.
Director of the League Against Cruel Sports Scotland Robbie Marsland, commented: “The League Against Cruel Sports is not surprised that many people believe Scotland’s “grouse moors” are an animal ethics free zone. Polling shows that 76% of Scots do not support the practice of ‘predator control’ to kill hundreds and thousands of animals so that more grouse can be shot for entertainment.
“This report clearly outlines the ethical case against this uncontrolled killing. The biggest surprise is that any suggestion that this killing should stop is met with incredulity by the shooting fraternity. We hope the report will open the eyes of politicians considering the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill to the enormous ethical issues before them.”
Raptor Persecution UK 