Tag: poisoning

New independent report reveals locations of poisoned raptors in northern England, 2015-2023 – information that has been suppressed by government

Press release from independent group, Wildlife Poisoning Research UK, 15th November 2025.

WHERE THE POISONED BODIES WERE FOUND!

Many people probably imagine that the use of poisons to kill protected wildlife is something out of the pre-Victorian era, like cock fighting and bull baiting.  However, this senseless and cruel slaughter is still happening in Britain, with many mammals and birds of prey suffering horrific and agonising deaths, even though this practice has been banned since 1911.

It is a crime which not only kills wildlife, but also kills much loved family pets and can even kill people.  This is a wildlife crime that frequently occurs on remote and private land where the chance of detection is very low and most victims are never found.  Those cases which are reported and then investigated must be considered to be a very small tip of a very large ‘iceberg’ of sickening rural felonies.

An illegally poisoned Red Kite (photo via WPRUK)

In 2017, in an attempt to combat this wildlife crime, the UK Government initiated a project to map incidents of illegal bird poisonings.  This provided information to the public and other interested parties as to where these crimes were taking place and it was intended that these maps would be updated annually to “provide an invaluable intelligence tool to help fight crimes against birds of prey” (Defra press release 2017).

It now appears that these wildlife poison crime maps have not been updated and there is very little governmental action informing the public that these crimes are still occurring and wildlife is still being deliberately poisoned.

Wildlife Poisoning Research UK (WPRUK) works to place information about the environmental impact of pesticides, biocides and other toxic chemicals into the public domain so that the general public and the media have a better understanding of this situation.  Data on cases of deliberate poisoning of birds has been obtained using Freedom of Information requests.  This has enabled WPRUK to produce maps showing where these poisoned birds have been found.  This is information which the Government, for whatever reason, has now apparently declined to put into the public domain.

WPRUK has now released a report pinpointing where the poisoned birds have been found in Northern England.  Future maps will cover other parts of the UK.

Between 2015 to 2023, the bodies of 73 legally protected birds, mostly birds of prey, were found in Northern England.  These birds had been illegally and deliberately killed using poisons; 31 birds being Schedule 1 Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981) species, which have the highest level of protection.  Due to the very small chance of poisoned birds being found, the real numbers of birds being killed by this criminal activity is likely to be far higher.  To date, no one has been convicted for killing any of these 73 birds.

There were two areas in Northern England where particularly high numbers of poisoned birds were found.  These were Nidderdale in North Yorkshire and the Glapwell area in Derbyshire.

Releasing the report, Dr Ed Blane from WPRUK said: “The fact that 114 years after this sickening practice was banned, individuals are still poisoning our wildlife is deeply disturbing.  People visit the countryside to enjoy nature and they will be truly alarmed to learn that poison is still being used to kill wildlife.”

If this continues it might severely impact on plans to re-introduce white tailed eagles to Northern England.  In the Southern England eagle project, at least 2 birds have been killed by poison.

A comment from Steve Downing Chairman Northern England Raptor Forum:

“We proudly, and rightly, identify ourselves as a nation of nature lovers.  Every year tens of thousands of tourists, both domestic and foreign, visit the historic and beautiful countryside throughout the North of England to enjoy the scenery and stunning birds of prey that it supports.  Collectively they spend £millions supporting our rural communities.  What the visitors don’t see is the underbelly of criminality in the countryside where the barbaric practice of deliberately poisoning raptors persists today, as highlighted by the bodies found in Nidderdale, North Yorkshire and around Glapwell in Derbyshire.  Thanks to Ed, a spotlight is being shone on this shocking pernicious activity raising public awareness of the danger presented by these lethal poisons, both to themselves and local birds of prey.”

Bob Elliot CEO of Wild Justice said:

“Illegal wildlife poisoning hasn’t faded into history; it’s still being carried out in the shadows with very little oversight.  These findings show that wildlife species are still being killed with impunity, and the public is being kept in the dark about the scale of it.  Without transparency, enforcement and the political will to confront those responsible, this criminal abuse of our countryside will continue unchecked.”

ENDS

The report can be read / downloaded here:

WPRUK report 25 4 15 11 25Download

Peregrine Falcon chicks at Worcester Cathedral died from ingesting poison

Three Peregrine chicks that hatched on Worcester Cathedral all died within a few weeks, earlier this spring. Two of the dead chicks were retrieved and sent for post mortem and the results have now shown they died from ingesting poison.

The name of the poison hasn’t been published but a statement by the group who monitor the adult Peregrines at Worcester Cathedral (‘Peregrine Falcons in Worcester’) says, ‘Both birds had internal bleeding consistent with death from poison‘, which suggests the poison was probably a Second Generation Anti-coagulant Rodenticide (SGAR).

The adult breeding pair (known as ‘Peter’ and ‘Peggy’) are fine.

The BBC News website has an article on the news (here) and states that West Mercia Police had received a report but the investigation has closed due to ‘evidential difficulties’.

One of the adult Peregrines at Worcester Cathedral. (Photo from Worcester Cathedral)

A recent report written by Dr Ed Blane and published on the Wildlife Poisoning Research UK website shows that there has been a substantial increase in Peregrine exposure to SGARs, and especially to the poison Brodifacoum. The same issue is affecting Foxes and Otters.

This follows a report published last year ‘Collateral Damage‘ by Wild Justice which reported an alarming increase in SGARs exposure in Buzzards and Red Kites and was heavily critical of the Rodenticide Stewardship Scheme and how the government was ignoring the evidence.

As a result, the Health & Safety Executive, which controls the approval regime in the UK for rodenticides and decides what can and cannot be used, ran a public consultation in September 2025 to look at alternatives to SGARs.

The results of that consultation are awaited.

BBC’s Highland Cops programme features investigation into shot out Goshawk nest in Cairngorms National Park

The BBC’s Highland Cops programme has entered its third series and episode 2 features the police investigation in to an active Goshawk nest that had been shot out on a sporting estate near Kingussie, on the western side of the Cairngorms National Park.

This investigation took place in June 2024 – see here for the police’s appeal for information at the time.

Screengrab from BBC Highland Cops programme

Officers had received a report of the active Goshawk nest being found abandoned in suspicious circumstances in a forest near Loch Gynack, and the programme follows experienced wildlife crime officer PC Dan Sutherland throughout his investigation.

The commentary from Dan is excellent – he speaks calmly and with authority about the link between illegal raptor persecution and gamebird shooting estates, and how the criminals have been getting away with their crimes for so long. That’s not opinion or conjecture, it’s based on factual evidence, and I applaud him for being prepared to say it on camera, knowing full well that it will attract vicious retaliation from some within the gamebird shooting industry, including, I have no doubt, official letters to his superior officers demanding punitive action against him.

Dan visits the abandoned Goshawk nest where he finds empty shotgun cartridges at the base of the tree and a shotgun wad is found lodged in the bottom of the nest.

The nest is removed for forensic examination, along with several nearby tree branches. They’re taken to the Kincraig Wildlife Highland Park for x-rays, which reveal a large number of shotgun pellets:

As Dan says, the evidence is damning.

He then teams up with PC Gavin Ross from the National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU) and they set out to visit all the people who legally own shotguns in the area, to either rule them out of the enquiry or to see if they can provide assistance.

The first person they visit is a gamekeeper who lives on the estate. They knock at his house and a woman speaks to them through a crack in the door, telling them he’s not in. As the officers leave to go and visit the next person on their list, Dan gets a phone call from a solicitor who tells him that none of his clients will be talking to the police without him being present.

“It’s the nature of the beast”, says Dan.

Dan and Gavin comment to one another that the speed of the solicitor’s phone call is probably some kind of record – coming in less than ten minutes after they’d knocked on the gamekeeper’s door. Their wry smiles tell you this is a common occurrence and was not unexpected. It puts a halt to their investigation until they can organise a time to meet with the shotgun owners and their legal representative.

PC Gavin Ross & PC Dan Sutherland take a call from the gamekeeper’s solicitor (screengrab from BBC Highland Cops).

If someone had shot out a Goshawk nest on my land, potentially killing any adults or chicks present on the nest, and the police knocked on the door to see if I could assist, I’d be welcoming them in with open arms, breaking out the tea and posh biscuits and offering up all the assistance I could muster to help them find the culprit, especially if there was evidence that armed criminals had been active on my property. I certainly wouldn’t be calling in my attack dog solicitor to warn off the cops. Why would I?

At the end of the programme there’s an update on the case – the police did meet with the shotgun owners and their solicitor. The text on the screen says:

‘However, with no new leads the case has been closed‘.

I guess it was probably the usual ‘no comment’ interviews, then.

According to Andy Wightman’s excellent Who Owns Scotland website, Loch Gynack is situated on the Glenbanchor & Pitmain Estate, whose owner, Pitmain Holding Ltd, is registered in Grand Cayman:

It’s not the first time a police investigation has taken place there in relation to suspected wildlife crime. In 2019, four Greylag Geese were found poisoned at Loch Gynack – toxicology results showed they’d ingested the banned pesticide Carbofuran, so dangerous that it’s an offence to even possess this chemical in Scotland, let alone use it.

The birds had been found by estate workers who reported the incident to the police. There wasn’t any information about whether poisoned bait had been discovered and so no information about where they’d come in to contact with the Carbofuran, although given how fast-acting it is and the fact the geese were found dead together in one place, I’d think it unlikely they’d been poisoned far away.

Nobody was charged and the estate was not subject to a General Licence restriction.

Back to the Goshawk case…

The police were first notified about the abandoned Goshawk nest on 8 June 2024. This was after the enactment of the Wildlife Management & Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024 on 30 April 2024, which introduced a licence for grouse shooting in Scotland.

I don’t know whether the Glenbanchor & Pitmain Estate applied for a grouse shooting licence in 2024. I don’t even know if they still shoot Red Grouse there (they certainly have done previously – e.g. see here and here) or whether they’ve switched to Red-legged Partridges and Pheasants as alternative quarry due to low grouse stocks, in which case they’d be exempt from needing a grouse shooting licence because the Scottish Government refused to include the shooting of RLPs and Pheasants as part of the requirement for a grouse shooting licence, despite being warned about this massive loophole.

It would be interesting to know whether (a) Pitmain Estate did apply for a grouse shooting licence in 2024, (b) if so, did NatureScot grant them a licence even though this wildlife crime investigation was ongoing, and (c) if the estate does have a five-year grouse shooting licence, will the licence be withdrawn following this incident or was the Goshawk nest beyond the area where the licence applicant indicated Red Grouse are ‘taken or shot’ (yet another loophole)?

Aside from the questions around a potential grouse shooting licence, I’ve been interested in whether NatureScot would impose a General Licence restriction following the police investigation in to the shot out Goshawk nest.

In June this year I submitted an FoI to NatureScot to ask about the status of any pending General Licence restriction decisions. My main focus was on the case concerning a Golden Eagle called ‘Merrick’ who had been shot and killed whilst she was sleeping in the Scottish Borders in October 2023.

You’ll already know that NatureScot has still not made a decision on whether to impose a General Licence restriction as a result of that crime, two years after it happened (see here).

But as well as asking about the Merrick case, I also asked how many other cases were pending.

NatureScot wrote back to me in July and said this:

You can see that the case involving the shot out Goshawk nest is included on the list (‘an incident that occurred in the Highland Council area in June 2024‘).

NatureScot says it asked Police Scotland in December 2024 for the information package NS would need to begin the process of considering whether to impose a General Licence restriction.

Seven months on, in July 2025 when NatureScot responded to my FoI, Police Scotland hadn’t provided the information to NatureScot.

The Highland Cops programme demonstrates the evidential difficulties faced by the police when investigating suspected wildlife crimes, particularly those that take place on privately-owned gamebird shooting estates, and the lengths the police will go to to find out who was responsible. It was the very reason that the Scottish Parliament introduced grouse shoot licensing as part of the Wildlife Management & Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024.

The efforts made by PC Dan Sutherland and his colleagues were exemplary in this case. But someone, somewhere, has dropped the ball in the later stages of the enforcement process by not providing an information package in a timely manner. That’s just not good enough.

The Highland Cops episode (series 3, episode 2) is available on the BBC iPlayer here. It’s well worth an hour of your time.

“Act boldly, without delay and introduce game shoot licensing” – open letter to Defra Ministers from Northern England Raptor Forum Chair

The Northern England Raptor Forum (NERF) is the representative body of voluntary raptor fieldworkers across the north of England, including in many of the raptor persecution hotspots in this region.

NERF is a well-respected organisation in conservation circles and has been at the forefront of the fight against the illegal killing of birds of prey, with its members often the first to raise the alarm to the police when suspected raptor persecution incidents have been uncovered.

NERF has also been involved in the many ‘partnership’ efforts over the last few decades that have tried, but failed, to tackle these pervasive crimes.

The group has standing, experience, and real skin in the game.

Steve Downing, NERF Chair, is a man who doesn’t mince his words. He’s written an open letter to Defra Ministers, including the newly-appointed Secretary of State for the Environment, Emma Reynolds, laying out previous Government failures to get on top of this issue and telling her that enough is enough, the time for talking is over.

It’s well worth a read – here.

If Steve’s letter resonates with you, it wouldn’t hurt for you to write to your own MP in support of NERF’s stance. There’s nothing to lose and everything to gain. Politicians won’t act if they don’t know that illegal raptor persecution is an issue of concern amongst their constituents.

If you haven’t written to your MP before, why not give it a go? If you’re not sure who your MP is, you can find out here.

‘Eyes on the Skies’ – new campaign to raise awareness of raptor persecution in the Yorkshire Dales National Park

Following the recent collapse of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Bird of Prey Partnership (due to its failure to tackle crimes against birds of prey), and the news that since 2015, 29 Hen Harriers have gone ‘missing’ in suspicious circumstances and almost 40 other raptors have been found poisoned, trapped or shot in the Yorkshire Dales National Park since 2015, including Peregrines, Hen Harriers, Red Kites and Buzzards, there’s some welcome news from a local community who has had enough and has decided to do something about it. Bravo!

Press release from Friends of the Dales:

SPEAKING OUT FOR BIRDS OF PREY

Friends of the Dales, the environmental campaigning charity, is launching a powerful new campaign − Eyes on the Skies − calling for an end to criminal killing of birds of prey in the Yorkshire Dales. The campaign kicks off with a high-profile live webinar on Tuesday 21 October at 5.30pm, featuring leading conservation expert Kate Jennings, UK Head of Site Conservation & Species Policy at the RSPB.

Kate will highlight the long history of bird crime in the Yorkshire Dales, drawing on evidence and case studies from the RSPB’s Investigations Team which works in support of the police and statutory agencies to bring criminals before the courts.

“We are delighted that Kate is joining us at the Eyes on the Skies launch event,” said Jonathan Riley, Chair of Trustees at Friends of the Dales. “She will shine a spotlight on Bird Crime in the Yorkshire Dales and the illegal and inhumane methods criminals use to trap, shoot and poison birds of prey − crimes that persist despite more than seventy years of legal protection.”

The Yorkshire Dales remains a blackspot for raptor persecution, with species such as hen harriers, short-eared owls, and red kites especially targeted. Just last week the RSPB issued a press release about the disappearance of Sita, a one-year-old female satellite-tagged Hen Harrier. The RSPB said that Sita is the 29th hen harrier “to suspiciously disappear in the national park since 2015” and that the bird “is likely to have been shot”.

“It is appalling that the hen harrier, one of the UK’s rarest birds, continues to be shot, trapped, and poisoned in our National Park, which should be a sanctuary for wildlife,” added Jonathan.

Public concern for these crimes is growing. In early 2024, more than 1,000 people responded to the first consultation on the new Management Plan for the Yorkshire Dales National Park, with ending the illegal persecution of birds of prey emerging as one of the top priorities.

David Butterworth, Chief Executive of the Authority also confirmed: “The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority is unwavering in its commitment to raptor conservation. We will continue to collaborate with landowners, managers and organisations sharing our vision. We applaud those whose efforts have helped some species recover. But we must also confront the grim reality that criminal persecution still occurs.”

Friends of the Dales Eyes on the Skies campaign supports one of the core objectives of the new management plan for the Yorkshire Dales National Park, as well as the vital work of other organisations such as the National Wildlife Crime Unit, RSPB and Hen Harrier Action. The campaign will amplify messages around the scale and nature of these appalling crimes, educate people in how to spot and report any suspicious or illegal activity they might see and also inspire people to learn more about the birds themselves and why they are vital to a healthy, biodiverse ecosystem.

David Butterworth added: “The uplands of the Yorkshire Dales National Park should be a stronghold for a diverse range of raptor species. As apex predators, their presence signals a healthy environment. Their absence, conversely, is a warning.”

Summing up Jonathan Riley said: “Our Eyes on the Skies campaign will incorporate many more events including further webinars from insider experts, outdoor educational events and even some more creatively focussed activities. So, on behalf of the charity, I would encourage anyone who is interested in learning more to register for the free launch event on Tuesday 21 October at 5:30 pm, and sign up to our monthly email newsletter so they can be kept updated.”

Register for the Eyes on the Skies launch event and learn how to take action at: https://friendsofthedales.org.uk/events

ENDS

UPDATE 5 November 2025: Video of launch now available on Friends of the Dales YouTube channel – here.

Sparrowhawk killed with banned poison in Aberdeenshire – Police Scotland appeals for information

Press release from Police Scotland:

APPEAL FOR INFORMATION FOLLOWING THE DEATH OF A BIRD OF PREY IN ABERDEENSHIRE

Detectives are appealing for information after a bird of prey was poisoned in Aberdeenshire.

On Saturday, 6 September, 2025 a member of the public found a dead sparrowhawk in a wooded area near to Lumphanan.

Following enquiries, it has been established that the sparrowhawk had been poisoned.

Sparrowhawk. Photo by Pete Walkden

Police Scotland Wildlife Crime Liaison Officer Constable Ann Ashman said:

“From enquiries carried out so far, we know this sparrowhawk has been poisoned with insecticide carbosulfan, resulting in a harrowing death.

“Sparrowhawks are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, and it is an offence to intentionally or recklessly kill or injure them.

“The use of carbosulfan is illegal, with the substance having been banned in the UK since 2008. This substance can cause death in humans, so its illegal use is extremely reckless.

“We are carrying out an investigation in relation to this incident and will be working with a range of partner organisations. The public has an important role to help up combat wildlife crime. If you see anything suspicious, please report it to us via 101, or anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact Police Scotland on 101, quoting incident number 1179 of 2 October, 2025.

ENDS

29 ‘missing’ Hen Harriers & nearly 40 birds of prey poisoned, trapped or shot in Yorkshire Dales National Park since 2015

Media attention has been drawn to the Yorkshire Dales National Park this week, following the RSPB’s press release on the suspicious disappearance of a satellite-tagged Hen Harrier named ‘Sita’.

When it comes to the illegal killing of birds of prey, the Yorkshire Dales National Park is rarely out of the news, and that’s hardly surprising when 29 satellite-tagged Hen Harriers have gone ‘missing’ there and 39 other raptors have been found poisoned, trapped or shot there since 2015, including Peregrines, Hen Harriers, Red Kites and Buzzards.

Yorkshire Dales National Park. Photo by Ruth Tingay

Given these appalling figures, the RSPB has described the Yorkshire Dales National Park as a ‘no-fly zone for birds of prey’.

High profile cases within the National Park have included the conviction of a gamekeeper who was filmed shooting two Short-eared Owls on a grouse moor and then stamping the corpse of one of them into the peat and shoving the other one inside a drystone wall (here); a gamekeeper filmed on a grouse moor using a tethered Eagle Owl to attract Buzzards that he then shot and killed from close range (here); the stamping to death of four Hen Harrier chicks in a nest on a grouse moor (after obscuring the camera pointing at the nest, here); the grisly death of a Hen Harrier caused by his head and leg being pulled off whilst he was still alive (here); and three individuals caught on camera on a grouse moor discussing the shooting and killing of a Buzzard and a Raven before apparently shooting and killing a Hen Harrier (here) – one gamekeeper has been charged with conspiracy to kill a Hen Harrier, he has pleaded not guilty and his case will proceed to trial in January 2026 after his barrister failed in his attempt to have the case thrown out on a legal technicality.

The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority has also long recognised the extent of this criminal activity and has responded to public concern (e.g. see here and here). Earlier this year the Park Authority terminated its five-year ‘partnership’ with the grouse shooting industry to tackle these crimes, after recognising the futility of this endeavour. Two conservation organisations (the RSPB and the Northern England Raptor Forum) had already walked away from the sham in 2023 and 2024 respectively.

In an article published a couple of days ago by the Craven Herald & Pioneer, Mark Corner, a member of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority is quoted saying the continued illegal killing of raptors in the Park was “a crying shame“.

He added: “As the member champion for the natural environment, I’m personally embarrassed that we are the worst spot in the country in terms of the illegal killing of birds.”

In the same article, there’s an hilarious quote from the Yorkshire Dales Moorland Group, which is one of a number of regional groups set up in 2015 to represent local grouse moor owners and their gamekeepers in an attempt to counter the bad publicity about ongoing illegal raptor persecution. I think that members of most of these regional moorland groups have been, or still are, the subject of police investigations into illegal raptor persecution.

A spokesperson for the Yorkshire Dales Moorland Group reportedly told the reporter that ‘hen harrier numbers were at a 200-year high across the uplands’.

That’s simply not true – Hen Harrier breeding attempts on grouse moors across the north of England have been in sharp decline over the last two years – the only areas where they remain stable is on land managed for conservation rather than for Red Grouse shooting.

According to its FaceBook page, the Yorkshire Dales Moorland Group claims to have “around 100,000 acres of managed uplands here in the Dales where the estates are members of this group (virtually all of the moors)“.

Why is it then, there were only two Hen Harrier breeding attempts in 2025 across the whole of the Yorkshire Dales and neighbouring Nidderdale? I’d like the Moorland Group to provide a plausible explanation for these absences.

The Yorkshire Dales Moorland Group also told the Craven Herald reporter:

“Our keepers have and will always assist the police in searches for missing persons, lost dogs or missing birds. Tag failure is rare but not unheard of.

“The default accusation that persecution is responsible is regrettable. The conservation work undertaken by moor keepers is commendable as can be seen by the abundance of raptors and other rare species in the Dales“.

What “abundance of raptors” are those then? All the dead ones? Or just the ones that are allowed to breed because they don’t pose any threat to Red Grouse stocks?

And if these grouse shooting estates are so keen to help the police, how many of them signed the letter last year agreeing to allow the police to enter the land and use equipment for the purposes of crime prevention and detection? Did any of them sign it?

And if these gamekeepers are so keen to help police investigations, how many of them have given ‘no comment’ responses when interviewed about suspected raptor persecution crimes on these moors? Maybe it’d be quicker to count how many gamekeeper didn’t give a ‘no comment’ interview.

The article also quotes Alex Farrell, Head of Uplands at BASC:

“As a committed conservation organisation, we are taking progressive steps with our partners to oversee the continued recovery of hen harriers.

“Figures released by Natural England today show that collaborative effort resulted in 106 fledged hen harrier chicks in England this year – up from 80 last year“.

What “progressive steps” is BASC taking?

Oh, and those figures released by Natural England show that the small increase in Hen Harrier fledging rates are in spite of, not because of, any so-called ‘collaborative effort’ from the grouse shooting industry.

The data couldn’t be any clearer (see here).

New consultation on Second Generation Anticoagulant Rodenticides (SGARs): your opportunity to tell the HSE how damaging these are to raptors & other wildlife

In November last year, conservation campaign group Wild Justice published a report (Collateral Damage) highlighting shockingly high levels of rodenticides (rat poisons) found in Buzzards and Red Kites and showed how the UK Government was ignoring the evidence (see press release here).

This led to a flurry of Parliamentary questions (see here) and promises for a review in 2025.

Since then, further reports show that the use of Second Generation Anticoagulant Rodenticides (SGARs), particularly Brodicfacoum, is causing widespread harm to wildlife including Foxes, Otters and Peregrines (see here).

A poisoned Red Kite. Photo by Dr Marc Ruddock

The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) which controls the approval regime in the UK for rodenticides and decides what can and cannot be used, has announced a consultation on rodenticides. The consultation is looking at what alternatives to SGARs are available.

If the HSE is going to continue to approve SGARs for use, it needs to show that no other viable alternatives are available.

Apart from taking preventative measures, there ARE other viable alternatives, but the chemical companies aren’t keen for these to be promoted because SGARs are highly profitable financially, even though they’re disastrous for many species, especially raptors, from an ecological perspective.

The alternatives include:

  • Non-SGAR alternative rodenticides such as Cholecalciferol, with which the targeted rodent stops feeding once a lethal intake has been consumed (reducing risk of secondary poisoning of predators and scavengers). 
  • Zinc Phosphide – a highly effective acute rodenticide.
  • DR8 – a product developed with the support of the New Zealand Government which is specific to rats and poses no apparent secondary poisoning risk.
  • Carbon Dioxide gas (also known as Rat Ice). 
  • Contraceptive products such as ContraPest, which controls rat populations by restricting rodent reproduction. 

The HSE’s public consultation is not especially user-friendly, and nor does it seem to have been widely promoted (apart from amongst the chemical companies who will no doubt be pushing for the HSE to retain its approval for SGARs and to ignore the alternatives).

However, Wild Justice has prepared some helpful guidance on how to complete the consultation and is encouraging as many members of the public as possible to take part – you’ll find the guidance here.

The deadline for completing this consultation is this coming Tuesday (30 September 2025) so we don’t have long.

Please, if you have some time today, have a go at completing the consultation and help put pressure on the HSE to remove, or at least limit, the use of SGARs.

Thank you.

Trial of 87-year-old man accused of 11 offences relating to raptor persecution is put on hold as defence applies for Judicial Review of judge’s ruling

The trial of an 87-year-old man, accused of multiple offences linked to alleged raptor persecution, has been put on hold after his defence lawyer told the court he intends to apply for Judicial Review of the judge’s ruling that the case should not be dropped.

Brian Chorlton, of Morkery Lane, Castle Bytham, Lincolnshire, was summoned to court in April 2025 following reports that birds of prey were being poisoned in the Castle Bytham area.

In May 2025, Chorlton appeared at Lincoln Magistrates’ Court and pleaded not guilty to 11 charges relating to the unapproved or unlawful storage of the chemical Aldicarb, possession of a poisoner’s kit, and possession and use of four pole traps. The trial was set to take place in October 2025.

However, on 18 September 2025 a case management hearing took place at Lincoln Magistrates’ Court where the defence submitted three separate legal arguments calling for the case to be dismissed. I won’t elaborate on those arguments at this stage but they are unusual, and are not related to the use of covert surveillance as is often the case.

The District Judge rejected all three legal arguments and the application to dismiss the case was rejected.

The District Judge said he intended for the trial to proceed in October but offered a further case management hearing, due to take place one week later, to allow the defence time to consider the ruling.

That second case management trial took place at Lincoln Magistrates’ Court yesterday (25 September 2025) and the defence announced its intention to apply to the High Court for Judicial Review of the judge’s earlier ruling.

This means the original trial date (October 2025) has now been vacated. There will be a further case management hearing in January 2026 for the defence to update the court on its application for Judicial Review.

Royal Courts of Justice in London. Photo by Ruth Tingay

The application for Judicial Review is a process whereby the defence will be seeking permission from a High Court judge to proceed to a full Judicial Review. This typically takes between two to six months but can take longer, depending on the court’s schedule and the availability of a judge and also whether the judge wants an oral hearing or is satisfied with the written submissions on which to make a decision.

If permission is granted, the case will then move to a full Judicial Review and that can take up to a year before it’s heard, sometimes longer, and if the judge’s decision is reserved, there can then be a further wait, often months, waiting for the judgement to be delivered.

NB: As criminal proceedings are still live, comments have been switched off.

Red Kite found dead in Perthshire confirmed to have been poisoned (banned pesticide + rodenticides)

Press release from Police Scotland (24 September 2025):

BIRD OF PREY FOUND TO BE POISONED IN PERTH & KINROSS AREA

Enquiries into the death of red kite are ongoing.

On 22 June, 2025 a dead red kite was found near to its nest to the north west of Braco, in the Perth and Kinross area. 

Subsequent post mortem examination and toxicology testing have shown that the bird had ingested toxic levels of rodenticide.

The red kite was also found to have ingested the banned substance aldicarb. Aldicarb has been illegal in the UK since 2007 and no products containing this substance are approved for use in the UK. 

Birds of prey, like all wild birds in Scotland, are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, and it is an offence to intentionally or recklessly kill or injure them.

Red Kite photo by Pete Walkden

Wildlife Crime Coordinator, Detective Sergeant David Lynn, said: “This red kite has been poisoned resulting in a very painful and distressing death. Legal rodenticides must be used with extreme caution to avoid the poisoning of non-target species or you may be liable to prosecution. The use of Aldicarb is an illegal and reckless act as this substance can be fatal for both animals and humans.

“Our investigation into this incident is continuing and we will pursue anyone who targets Scotland’s birds of prey. I would encourage anyone with any information in relation to this incident to contact us.

“We ask anyone using the area to be vigilant if they find anything suspicious, don’t touch it, but do take photos and report to Police Scotland immediately on 101.”

Anyone with information is asked to call Police Scotland on 101 quoting incident number 1176 of 23 September, 2025. 

ENDS