Tag: poisoning

SGA call for buzzard, badger and raven culls (again)

The following article was published in the 10 August 2011 edition of Country Life:

The Scottish Gamekeepers’ Association (SGA) is renewing calls for licences to control buzzards. In a survey of some 950 gamekeepers across Britain, 76% said buzzards had a detrimental effect on game birds and 63% said they had a negative effect on wildlife. Sparrowhawks and goshawks were considered a similar nuisance, but marsh harriers, merlins, barn owls and ospreys were viewed more benignly, and the majority of keepers said kestrels and red kites had little or no adverse effect. More than 70% said badgers are a serious problem and the figure for pine martens was even higher on those estates that have them. Charles Nodder, political advisor of the National Gamekeepers’ Organisation, commented: “The idea that keepered land is a raptor desert is nonsense. But keepers understand the countryside and there is a clear indication that certain species are prevalent and having a deleterious effect on wildlife”.

The SGA came close to getting buzzard-control licensing in 2009, but incidents of raptor poisoning – including that of a golden eagle – weakened the case. SGA chairman Alex Hogg says: “We’ve lost the plot when it comes to the control of buzzards, badgers and ravens. Their populations need to be properly assessed each year and, if necessary, action should be taken to redress the balance. There’s no doubt buzzards have changed their predatory habits in the past 30 years. ‘Rogue’ buzzards have learned to predate chicks – and not just game birds: I saw one take three lapwing chicks. We don’t want to shoot every buzzard in Britain, we just want to control the rogue ones, but birds of prey are ‘sexy’ birds and nobody wants to take the first step to control them”.

The encouraging aspect of the survey was the spread and volume of wildlife; 83% of shoots reported the presence of lapwings, 75% had skylarks and 79% cuckoos. The geographic area covered – 1.3 million hectares (3.2 million acres) – is significant, too: five times that of the area of designated nature reserves, more than 13 times that of the RSPB reserves and nearly 60% of national parks.

The ‘survey’ referred to in the article was the ‘survey’ we discussed here on 21 July 2011. Since then, the report has been made public. You can read it, along with an interesting and entertaining discussion about its credibility, here.

Dead red kite is suspected poisoning victim

Toxicology tests are underway on a dead red kite found on farmland in the village of Glaston, Rutland. It is suspected to have been poisoned. Two other poisoned kites were found dead in the area three years ago. In August 2008 a red kite was discovered to have been poisoned by the banned pesticide Carbofuran in a rabbit bait at Glaston. In September 2008, another kite was poisoned with Carbofuran at Seaton, Rutland (see here for details of these two incidents). The lab results from the latest dead kite have not yet been released.

Leicestershire police wildlife crime officer, Neil Hughes, is asking for locals to contact him to report any other poisoning incidents in the same area, such as cats and dogs. Contact Neil: 0116 222 2222.

Story in the Rutland Times here

No vicarious liability for England

Richard Benyon MP, the DEFRA Minister for the Natural Environment and Fisheries, doesn’t see any need to follow Scotland’s lead of introducing vicarious liability to make landowners legally responsible for incidents of raptor persecution that occur on their estates.

On 30 June 2011, Labour MP Angela Smith (Penistone & Stocksbridge, South Yorkshire) asked the following question: Only two weeks ago, a gamekeeper was convicted for illegally killing birds of prey in my constituency. Is it not time to think about introducing a vicarious liability offence to ensure that landowners and estate managers supervise their gamekeepers more closely and more effectively?

Richard Benyon’s response: There are very good laws in place to punish the illegal killing of any animal. If they are not being effectively enforced, they must be and we will take steps to make sure that happens. However, this is a good opportunity to applaud gamekeepers for the wonderful work they do in providing excellent biodiversity across our countryside.

It was reported in the Telegraph last year that Mr Benyon is a ‘keen grouse-shooter’ (see here).

Perhaps Mr Benyon hasn’t looked at the national poisoning statistics of the last few years. If he had, he couldn’t have failed to notice how many of these confirmed incidents were now listed as ‘closed’ before any enforcement action was taken! (see here for 2008-2011 database).

Perhaps we should all be writing to Mr Benyon, to point him in the direction of these official statistics and to ask him what ‘steps he will take’ to ensure that effective law enforcement is taking place? Here’s his email address: richard@richardbenyon.com

Welcome to the inglorious twelfth!

Today is the inglorious 12th, the start of the four-month grouse shooting season in the uplands of northern England and Scotland. Today, and for many days to come, ridiculously rich people will dress up in clownish outfits and head for the moors in the hope of shooting dead some birds. Many will pay an estimated average of £15,000 for the experience. I wonder how many of them will enjoy the sight of a hunting hen harrier or a golden eagle quartering across the moor? Very few, infact probably none of them because scientific evidence shows that hen harriers and golden eagles have been exterminated on most grouse moors in the UK, with just a few notable exceptions. Has anyone been convicted? One person was once convicted for killing a hen harrier, and that’s it. Nobody has ever been convicted for killing a golden eagle (someone was once taken to court a few years back but the case was dropped). Even though several dead eagles and the UK’s biggest stash of the poison they died from were all found on a sporting estate last year, still nobody has ever been convicted.

Four years ago today, this golden eagle (pictured) was found dead in Peebleshire. She was one half of the last breeding pair of golden eagles in the Borders. She had been poisoned by the banned pesticide Carbofuran and was found dead under her nest tree. Her death caused outrage and triggered the thematic inspection into the prevention, investigation and prosecution of wildlife crime in Scotland (read the resulting 2008 ‘Natural Justice’ report here). This report highlighted the problems that stand in the way of effective wildlife crime law enforcement in Scotland. Four years later, many of the same problems still exist. Nobody has been charged with the illegal killing of that female golden eagle in Peebleshire and according to a report by the Wildlife Incident Investigation Scheme, the case is now closed.

Since the year she was killed (2007), how many other protected raptors have suffered the same fate? The following have all been confirmed poisoned in Scotland over the last four years – the vast majority of them were found dead on grouse moors:

8 golden eagles, 3 sea eagles, 63 buzzards, 25 red kites and 8 peregrines.

These numbers do not account for birds that were trapped, shot, or had their heads smashed in with a shinty stick while their broken legs were pinned in an illegal spring trap. Nor do they account for the ‘missing’ birds – including over 2,000 hen harriers.

Today, the grouse-shooting industry will have filled the media with stories about how ‘great’ grouse moors are for conservation, how ‘great’ grouse shooting is for the economy, how ‘great’ grouse-shooting is for biodiversity. Fortunately, the general public are becoming wise to the propaganda.

It’s just ‘a few rogues’

One of the most significant barriers to ‘sorting out’ the widespread illegal persecution of raptors in Scotland is getting anyone to accept responsibility for these crimes. Previous analyses by the RSPB have shown an irrefutable link between illegally-killed raptors and the game-shooting industry (e.g. see here). Time and time again, scientific peer-reviewed studies have also shown the incontrovertible relationship between areas that are ‘missing’ breeding raptors such as golden eagles and hen harriers, and areas managed as sporting grouse moors (e.g. take a look at the government-funded Conservation Framework Reports for the golden eagle and hen harrier as a starter).

Despite the long-standing and highly-regarded body of evidence, the game-shooting industry continues to refuse responsibility. The latest article in the Scotsman (see here) provides a perfect example of this.

It’s a handful of “rogue estates” carrying out poisonings, say the gamekeepers. It’s a “handful of estates” says David Hendry of the Cardney Estate. It’s “a minority” says Susan Davies of Scottish Natural Heritage. It’s a “tiny minority” according to the SGA response to the article on their Facebook page.

It’s an interesting choice of words isn’t it? The term ‘rogue’ is often used in a jocular sense in today’s society – “Oh, he’s just a loveable rogue”, meaning yes an individual is bending the rules but he’s not doing any real harm, he’s alright really. The term ‘rogue’ is also used to infer just one or two individuals (e.g. it was a rogue crocodile, or it was a rogue tiger that attacked the man), as is the term ‘a handful’. What is a handful? One or two? Not more than five? Not more than ten? The term ‘minority’ (depending on the context) refers to less than the majority.

Do any of these words adequately describe the extent of illegal raptor persecution on Scottish sporting estates, or are they just words used to deflect the increasingly obvious conclusion that illegal raptor persecution is endemic across many sporting estates? Let’s look at the stats.

This blog has been accused of using out-of-date information to create the false illusion of widespread raptor persecution. It’s a valid criticism in some ways as our Named Estates page dates back to incidents that were recorded in 1979. Actually it only includes one record from 1979 but to be fair the list does include a lot of reported incidents from the 1980s and 1990s. These early reported incidents were only used to illustrate the historical nature of illegal raptor persecution – i.e. it’s been going on for decades, but to be completely upfront we have since indicated which of those estates are known to have since changed hands (and thus potentially changed their ‘management’ practices). So, let’s just look at reported incidents from the last two years – that is, from January 2009 to March 2011, the most up-to-date figures available in the public domain.

During this period, twenty-six named locations have been identified as places where dead raptors have been reportedly found in suspicious circumstances. Most were poisoned but ‘a handful’ were shot or trapped and one (on Logie Estate) was found dead but the cause of death remains unknown. Of these 26 locations, 14 were on named estates: Auch Estate, Edradynate Estate, Farr and Kyllachy Estate, Glenbuchat Estate, Glenogil Estate, Invercauld Estate, *Leadhills Estate, Logie Estate, Millden Estate, Mountquhanie Estate, *Moy Estate, *Redmyre Estate, *Skibo Estate, Strathspey Estate. The remaining 12 locations were un-named and may or may not involve estates: eight in 2010 and four between Jan/Mar 2011. Of course, just because an illegally poisoned, shot or trapped dead raptor is discovered at a location doesn’t necessarily implicate the estate owner, shooting tenant or gamekeeper. It could just be a series of unfortunate coincidences, even though in the Scotsman article David Hendry of Cardney Estate admits that “there are a number of estates using poison still.” On only four of the above estates have gamekeepers been convicted for related crimes (Leadhills, Moy, Redmyre and Skibo).

If we expand the search to the previous five years (2006-2011 – as this is still relatively recent), then obviously the list grows:

*Birthwood Farm, *BlythFarm, *Cabrach Estate, Clova Estate, Dawyck Estate, Dinnet & Kinord Estate, Dunecht Estate, *Frogden Farm, *Glenbuchat Estate, Glenfeshie Estate, Glenogil Estate, Glen Turret Estate, *Innes House Estate. (The ones with an asterisk indicate a conviction during this period).  In addition, a further six un-named locations are reported.

If we remove from this expanded list those estates that were already included in the two-year analysis (i.e. Glenbuchat, Glenogil) then we are left with a total of 25 different estates where dead raptors have been reportedly discovered in suspicious circumstances in the last five years. Add to these the 18 un-named locations and you get a running total of 43 different locations, assuming that all of the un-named locations were different to the named locations.

Forty-three. Is that ‘a minority’? Well yes, in the strictest sense it is because there are hundreds of shooting estates in Scotland. The exact number seems hard to pinpoint but it’s certainly at least in the low hundreds, which means that 43 is a minority in this context. But is it a ‘tiny minority’? Is it ‘a few rogues’? Is it ‘a handful’? No it isn’t. It’s a lot more than that and the game-shooting industry is being disingenuous if it continues to peddle this rural myth. But of course they’ll continue to peddle it because they want us to believe that they’re a law-abiding industry who just happen to want licences to be allowed to legally kill ‘just a few rogue’ raptors.

And what of the locations that haven’t been reported but can be implied by the ‘missing’ breeding raptors reported in the scientific papers? How many of these locations are there? Who knows. One thing is for sure – if the landowners and gamekeepers won’t admit responsibility for the incidents we do know about, they sure as hell aren’t going to admit to the ones we don’t know about! The representative bodies all say they’re working hard behind the scenes to get the ‘rogues’ to stop, but they’ve been saying that for a long, long time and here we are in 2011 and the killing continues up and down the country, with the exception of ‘a handful’ of decent estates who proactively welcome breeding raptors. Why does it continue? Because the majority know they can get away with it, just as they have been doing for the past 50+ years.

RSPB tells estates & landowners to ‘sort out’ illegal raptor persecution

In an article published in today’s Scotsman newspaper, RSPB Scotland has told estates and landowners it is time they “sorted out” the problem of birds of prey being killed.

They place the blame for illegal raptor persecution firmly at the feet of landowners and estates and say that persecution could be halted if landowners were more willing to address the problem. In reply, landowners and gamekeepers say it is just ‘a handful of rogue estates’ involved and that peer pressure is being applied behind the scenes to try and get them to stop. Bob Elliot, Head of Investigations with RSPB Scotland says more needs to be done. “They (estates and landowners) have said they don’t condone it time and time again – but what other industry do you know that wouldn’t have sorted this out by now, internally? Evidence that there is anything changing is very difficult to judge. We need to concentrate on the fact that our species are being targeted illegally and being killed.”

While Elliot is happy that vicarious liability has been included in laws covering wildlife crime, meaning landowners as well as gamekeepers have responsibility for what happens on estates, he says he would like them to be toughened further: “You can charge someone with possession of a banned chemical but there is no equivalent to a charge like ‘going equipped’ or ‘concerned in the use of’.”

The concept of ‘just a handful of rogue estates’ being involved is a familiar one, but when you look carefully at the recent persecution incidents you realise it’s simply not true. The next blog post will investigate this concept in more detail.

Well done to Bob Elliot and his colleagues at RSPB Scotland for continuing to expose the criminal persecution of raptors on sporting estates and elsewhere, and for trying to bring to justice those responsible for these selfish, disgusting crimes.

The article in the Scotsman can be read here.

National UK poisoning statistics show steady rise

The UK’s national statistics documenting animals poisoned by pesticides have been released by the Wildlife Incident Investigation Scheme. The scheme covers Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The spreadsheet provides poisoning data from 2008 up to the end of the first quarter of 2011 (Jan – March). The figures clearly show an increase in the number of deliberate poisoning incidents recorded (classed as ‘abuse’ in the spreadsheet) nationwide:

2008 – total confirmed abuse incidents = 66.

2009 – total confirmed abuse incidents = 71.

2010 – total confirmed abuse incidents = 80.

Whether this increase is due to a rise in illegal poisoning activities or a better detection rate is unclear. What is clear is that illegal poisoning continues across our landscapes. The figures for the first quarter of 2011 show 17 confirmed abuse incidents.

It’s notable that many of the individually-confirmed abuse incidents have not appeared in the press. It’s also worth reading how many cases are now considered ‘closed’ because the source of the poison hasn’t been established. It would have been interesting to have seen the different locations involved (eg how many were discovered on land managed for game-rearing and shooting?) but once again this level of detail has not been provided.

Spreadsheet available here

Update on last week’s police raid

Further to the blog post on 19 July 2011, the name of the Highland sporting estate that was raided last week has been reported as Farr and Kyllachy Estate, near Inverness. The police raid was in connection with alleged wildlife crime incidents that include a poisoned sea eagle and a poisoned golden eagle, believed to have been discovered in June 2010, and four dead red kites.

Allegations of wildlife crime in this area date back several decades, including the previously reported discovery of poison bait, hen harrier nest destruction, poisoned eagles, poisoned red kites and attempted trapping of goshawks and peregrines. All of these allegations can be found by anybody interested in doing an internet search, although no allegation has ever been proven in the Scottish courts.

No charges have been reported in relation to last week’s police raid. On this basis, blog commentators are reminded that anyone connected with Farr and Kyllachy Estate must be presumed innocent.

According to a 2005 report in The Times, Farr Estate is expected to receive profit of up to £11 million from revenue generated by recently erected wind turbines (see here).

Last year, The Press & Journal ran an article (here) about tick management on the estate, including an interview with the Laird, Philip Mackenzie. The article claimed that tick control had led to a 20-fold increase in the number of brace shot (red grouse) in the previous six years. It also stated the Estate was expecting 2010 to produce the best grouse bags since 1938, leading to 15 days of let driven grouse shooting, at a tidy charge of £10,000 + per day.

Last year Farr Estate donated driven and walked-up grouse shooting days to the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust’s (GWCT) 2010 Grand Scottish Draw (see here).

Poison hunt called off and incidents ‘missing’ from official SASA figures

In April, we reported on a series of suspected poisoning incidents at Fullerton Woods, Troon, Ayrshire. Poisoned rabbit baits were reported to have been found in February and March 2011 and were believed to be implicated in the deaths of a fox, two dogs and possibly two buzzards (story here).

In an article published in the Troon Times on 31 May 2011, wildlife police were reported to be “no longer hunting poachers after dead animal bodies were found in Troon Woods“. The on-line article does not provide any more information about this decision.

Interesting then that in the SASA animal poisoning report released earlier this week, the dead animals from Fullarton Woods were not included in the list of suspected poisoning incidents in Scotland between January and March 2011. Does this mean the dead animals were not submitted for poison analysis? Or does this mean that they were submitted somewhere other than SASA? Or has SASA deliberately excluded them from their interim report?

There’s another missing incident in the SASA report. Remember the allegedly poisoned buzzard discovered on Mountquhanie Estate, Fife, in January 2011? The news report at the time stated that the dead bird had been sent for post-mortem to establish the cause of death. Where is this bird in the SASA report? Was it sent to SASA for post-mortem, or somewhere else? If it was sent somewhere else then surely the SASA figures cannot be used by the government as the official reporting mechanism for poisoning incidents, because they are excluding a number of suspected incidents?

Latest SASA figures reveal widespread poisoning incidents in early 2011

The latest figures detailing illegal animal poisoning incidents in the first quarter of 2011 have just been released by Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture (SASA) on behalf of the Scottish Government.

The figures cover the period January to March 2011, and show that criminal raptor poisoning incidents were detected in each of the three months. They include 3 buzzards, 1 golden eagle, 1 red kite and 2 peregrines.  Poisoning incidents were widespread, taking place across Scotland, including in the Borders, Strathclyde, Tayside, Grampian and the Highlands. The illegal poisons used included Carbofuran, Chloralose and Strychnine. So much for the game-shooting industry’s self-regulation. I guess 2011 will not be the year they ‘stamp out’ illegal raptor persecution.

Not for the first time, two of the five recorded incidents were apparently unpublicised in the media: 1 x buzzard poisoned with Carbofuran in the Borders in January 2011, and 1 x red kite poisoned with Chloralose in the Highland region in February 2011.

SASA poisoning figures for period Jan – Mar 2011 available here