Tag: spring trap

why is it so difficult to investigate the illegal killing of a golden eagle?

Way back in June, we blogged about a golden eagle that had been found dead in suspicious circumstances in Grampian in May (see here). Four and a half months after the dead bird was found, a press release has now been issued by the RSPB which provides the sickening details of how this eagle is believed to have been destroyed (read it here, if you’ve got a strong stomach). It is reproduced below:

CONSERVATIONISTS APPALLED BY EAGLE DEATH

RSPB Scotland has today issued an appeal and a reward for information, following the discovery of the body of a golden eagle on Deeside.

The bird, fitted with a satellite transmitter, was found on 5 May 2012, after signals sent by the transmitter indicated that the bird had not moved for several days.

The body was found, lying face down, with its wings folded, under a tree branch, close to a lay-by on a quiet country road near Aboyne, and was seized as evidence by officers from Grampian police.

The carcass was then taken for a post mortem at the Scottish Agricultural College laboratory in Aberdeen. This concluded that the bird had suffered two broken legs due to trauma ‘that could be consistent with an injury caused by a spring type trap’ and that the severity of these injuries ‘would prevent the bird from being able to take off.’

The bird had been fitted with a transmitter by RSPB Scotland staff, in full partnership with a local landowner, a few days before it had fledged from a nest in the Monadhliath Mountains, south-east of Inverness, in July 2011.

By re-examining the satellite data, staff discovered the young bird spent its first few months in its natal area before venturing further afield. By April 2012 it was frequenting an area of upper Deeside, before moving south-west into Glenshee.

On 28 April, the bird moved eastwards into Angus. The following day, at 6am, the bird was located on a hillside overlooking Glen Esk. Over the next 15 hours, a succession of satellite tag readings, accurate to within less than 20 metres, showed that the bird did not move from this precise spot until at least 9pm that evening, after nightfall.

However, by 4am the next morning, 30 April, according to transmission data, it appeared to have travelled during the hours of darkness, some 15km north, to the location where its body was subsequently discovered some five days later. Satellite readings revealed that whilst the bird did not move from this position, it was probably alive until 4 May.

Follow-up enquires by both Tayside and Grampian Police found no further evidence as to how the eagle came to suffer its injuries, nor could it be established how the eagle came to move from Glen Esk to a position under a tree branch on Deeside overnight. However, a number of eagle down-feathers were found between the lay-by and the bird’s final resting place.

Ian Thomson, RSPB Scotland’s Head of Investigations, commented: ‘It is disgraceful that this magnificent bird was subjected to such suffering. The post mortem evidence suggests that this bird was caught in an illegally set-trap, smashing both legs. The data obtained from the satellite transmitter indicated that the eagle did not move from one spot on a hill high above Glen Esk, for over 15 hours. Then, during the night, when eagles do not readily fly, it has inexplicably moved to a new position, hidden under a tree and close to a road. Here, over the next four days, this eagle suffered a lingering death.’

Stuart Housden, RSPB Scotland Director, added: ‘Anyone who cares about our wildlife will be disgusted by what appears to be an appalling crime and the lengths taken to hide the facts from discovery. Whilst efforts to stamp out the illegal poisoning of birds of prey are perhaps beginning to yield results, this dreadful case shows that the persecution of our raptors continues through the use of traps and other means.

‘We call upon anyone who can provide further information about this case to contact the wildlife crime officer at either Tayside or Grampian Police without delay. Cases like this really do have a negative impact on Scotland’s reputation as a country that respects and values all its wildlife heritage. I am today offering a £1,000 reward for information that will assist a successful prosecution.’

ENDS

Yet again, as in so many other alleged persecution cases, there has been an unexplained and lengthy delay in releasing this information to the public. It should not take this long, especially for such a high-profile incident of such an appalling nature. Isn’t investigating wildlife crime a supposed ‘priority’ amongst Scottish police forces? That’s what we’re told! The reality still seems somewhat removed from that ideal, even after all this time and all these other cases with which to fine tune a response. Note that it’s the RSPB that has released this information today; not Tayside Police and not Grampian Police.

We’ve been given some interesting information about this incident. The press release states that this eagle’s satellite tag sent signals from “a hillside overlooking Glen Esk” and those data apparently suggested the eagle didn’t move from that precise spot over a 15-hour period, until it inexplicably moved, under cover of darkness, close to a layby 15 km north over the border into Grampian. Well, according to the grid reference provided by the sat tag, which may or may not be accurate because accuracy can be affected by a number of variables, this location is on Millden Estate. Millden Estate may be a familiar name to some as it was where a young sat-tagged golden eagle named ‘Alma’ was found poisoned in 2009 (see here). Nobody has ever been charged in connection with her death.

It appears the police trusted the accuracy of the sat tag data enough to pinpoint a location for an informal ‘search’ on Millden although the extent of this ‘search’ was apparently limited to the precise grid reference  from the sat tag. We understand that a search warrant was not requested to examine vehicles or the wider estate for potential evidence. Why not? It’s also worth noting that there are two other sporting estates in Glen Esk – were either of these also searched as part of this inquiry? If this eagle had been caught in an illegal spring trap in Glen Esk, as is being alluded to in the media, who’s to say on which estate the trap was located? (although that assumes the trap was un-anchored, which would be highly unusual). That’s where a wider search, especially of vehicles, might have come in useful.

So here we are again. YET ANOTHER eagle persecuted in Scotland and YET ANOTHER profoundly unsatisfactory response from those with a  statutory duty to investigate. How many more of these (e.g. see here for a long list of others) do we have to endure before we see a fundamental change in the way these offences are investigated and prosecuted?

UPDATE 25th September: If you would like to use your anger about this case in a positive way, please send an email to the new Scottish Environment Minister, Paul Wheelhouse MSP, to tell him how you feel about this disgraceful crime: ministerforenvironment@scotland.gsi.gov.uk He already knows about the incident – he tweeted about it last night: @PaulWheelhouse “Absolutely appalling – disgusted with whoever did this“. What he might not know is the strength of feeling of the rest of us.

UPDATE 26 February 2013: Deeside golden eagle fiasco rumbles on as SGA release their ‘report’ (here)

Yet another golden eagle mysteriously ‘disappears’

Last month we blogged about the ‘disappearance’ of a satellite-tagged golden eagle (see here). Now 22 days later we’re blogging about another one. Isn’t it strange how many UK satellite-tagged raptors go ‘missing’; not just golden eagles, but white-tailed eagles, hen harriers and red kites too. Wonder how these figures compare with tagged raptors in other parts of the world?

The last signal from the latest young golden eagle (#32857) to go ‘missing’ was received on May 11, just to the north-east of the Cairngorms National Park (see here).

Was it just a satellite tag failure and the eagle is still alive and well? Possibly.  Did it die of natural causes? Possibly. Was it poisoned? Possibly. Was it shot? Possibly. Was it caught inside a crow cage trap and bludgeoned to death? Possibly. Will we ever find out? Possibly. If it is found to have been killed illegally, will the perpetrator be brought to justice? Probably not (see here for the ever-growing list of dead and/or missing eagles in recent years for which nobody has ever been prosecuted).

Somebody asked a question the other day and we’ve still not been able to provide an answer:

“What does it take to secure a conviction for killing an eagle in the UK?”.

We’ve heard all the excuses in the book, some valid, some not:

(i) The discovery of a poisoned eagle on a sporting estate isn’t enough to secure a conviction because either it could have been poisoned elsewhere and then flown to die at that location, or, it could have been ‘planted’ on the estate by the anti-game-shooting lobby (according to claims made by various gamekeepers over the years although without any actual evidence).

(ii) The discovery of a poisoned eagle lying next to a poisoned bait on a sporting estate isn’t enough to secure a conviction because it’s virtually impossible to identify which individual gamekeeper laid the bait, especially when they all deny it.

(iii) The discovery of a poisoned eagle and a stash of the same poison found on premises on the same sporting estate, and an admission from an individual gamekeeper that he had sole access to the poison isn’t enough to secure a conviction because….well, we don’t know the answer to that one, you’d have to ask COPFS.

(iv) The discovery of a poisoned eagle and a stash of the same poison found in vehicles and traces of it on knives and gamebags on the same estate isn’t enough to secure a conviction because….we don’t know the answer to that one either – ask COPFS.

(v) What if somebody was filmed laying out a poisoned bait and was then later filmed returning to remove the eagle poisoned by that bait? The film evidence would probably be ruled inadmissable because the cameraman was operating ‘covertly’ (i.e. without the landowner’s permission!).

(vi) What if a gamekeeper was found with a dead eagle in the back of his vehicle, and the eagle had injuries consistent with being caught in an illegal spring trap (e.g. broken legs) and having had its head caved in with a blunt object (e.g. smashed skull)? This wouldn’t be enough to secure a conviction because the keeper would probably claim he had just found the dead bird and was taking it home to report it to the authorities. At best he’d be charged with ‘possession’.

The shocking truth is, there has never been a successful prosecution for the illegal killing of an eagle in the UK, in spite of the sometimes overwhelmingly compelling evidence in some cases. So, just what does it take for someone to be convicted of killing an eagle in the UK?

UK parliamentary audit on wildlife crime: evidence available for viewing

In February we blogged about the forthcoming UK parliamentary audit on wildlife crime (see here). Some of the (uncorrected) oral evidence that was presented to the audit committee (including that from RSPB, RSPCA and National Gamekeepers Organisation) is now available to view on the audit committee’s website, as well as a lot of written evidence from these and many other interested parties.

Although some of the oral evidence provides some cause for optimism (i.e. the RSPCA’s success rate for animal welfare prosecutions), other parts of the oral evidence are deeply depressing. Particularly the evidence concerning hen harrier persecution, which focused on the lack of prosecutions for hen harrier persecution since 2006, which was then used as an indication that persecution is not an issue for this species!!

There was a lot of discussion during the oral evidence about how difficult it is to detect the perpetrators of certain wildlife crimes, which is why it’s so bloody frustrating that when investigators do find evidence of hen harrier persecution (e.g. the harrier that was found caught in an illegally-set spring trap on Moy Estate in 2010), no charges were forthcoming.

Uncorrected oral evidence to the UK parliamentary environmental audit committee on wildlife crime available to view here

Written evidence from many individuals and organisations available to read here

The government’s 2011 report that identifies illegal persecution as one of the main problems for hen harriers here

Eyes wide shut

It’s often said that the number of reported raptor persecution incidents in Scotland represents just the ‘tip of the iceberg’, which means that many more incidents probably remain undetected and thus unreported (see here for an earlier blog post about this). This shouldn’t come as a surprise to any of our regular readers, who understand that the combination of remote locations, increasingly-aware gamekeepers and some less-than-interested police forces can often result in an inaccurate (under)-estimation of the number of persecution incidents taking place each year.

With the imminent publication of the Scottish government’s 2011 Raptor Poisoning Map, due out any day now if they follow the pattern of previous years, we’ll soon hear claims from the game-shooting lobby that poisoning figures have dropped. We’ll also hear from the conservationists that the officially reported figures may have dropped but that the real extent of persecution remains unreported. The poisoning maps are a good example of this, because apparently they only show the areas where poisoned birds have been detected. What they don’t show, we’re told, is the areas where poisoned baits have been discovered. If that’s true, why do you think poisoned baits are not mapped and reported?

The Raptor Poisoning Maps also don’t show the extent of other types of illegal raptor persecution, such as shooting, trapping, nest disturbance, egg-smashing, chick killing etc. Nor do they show the last known locations of satellite-tracked raptors that have mysteriously ‘disappeared’ into thin air. Perhaps it’s time that the Scottish Government started to publish other maps to depict the extent of these various other incidents. Why don’t they do this already?

Inevitably, many potentially illegal incidents will slip through the net. We’ve been told of one such incident that happened very recently on a shooting estate in Scotland. We’ve been asked not to identify the estate or the gamekeeper for operational reasons.

So, a member of the public (let’s call him John) goes for a walk on this estate and sees what he thinks is a buzzard, in some distress, flapping around with a Fenn (spring) trap dangling from one of its legs. John is fairly clued up and immediately calls the police to report it. It’s a Sunday afternoon, so the Police Wildlife Crime Officer isn’t available (?!). Instead, an ‘ordinary’ police officer is sent to investigate. Mr Police Officer heads onto the estate to look for the distressed buzzard. He is met en-route by a certain gamekeeper, who asks him what he’s looking for. Mr Police Officer explains, and Mr Gamekeeper tells him that, by pure coincidence, he is also looking for a missing Fenn trap that has disappeared from a site where he had set it (legally), inside a tunnel to prevent non-target species from getting caught. His explanation for what had probably happened went something like, ‘Oh, the buzzard must have got inside the tunnel and then got caught in the jaws of the trap and flew off with the trap still attached’. Mr Police Officer apparently believed this explanation and off they went together to find the buzzard. They located it, and Mr Police Officer apparently asked Mr Gamekeeper what to do, and Mr Gamekeeper said the buzzard wouldn’t survive and it would be best if he killed it and disposed of the body, which he duly did. No body, no trap, no evidence, end of story.

The following day, two people visited the area where the buzzard had been found. Mr Gamekeeper appeared, challenged them, apparently told them to ‘get ‘arf my land’ (although his language was reportedly more colourful than that) and then told them ‘come back and collect your car tomorrow’, before dashing off down the road to block the exit with a tractor and trailer, preventing the visitors from leaving. The police were called, and eventually Mr Gamekeeper was instructed to remove his tractor.

The incident in question may or may not have been a case of persecution. Mr Police Officer clearly thought is was just an accident, which of course it could have been. Had he been aware of this estate’s history though, he might have viewed the incident differently. The estate in question has a well-documented track record of alleged raptor persecution (although none of the incidents have ever resulted in a prosecution). The incidents include the reported discovery of at least three poisoned raptors, and multiple nesting failures of breeding hen harriers in suspicious circumstances. In addition, at least two gamekeepers on the estate have a reputation for what might be generously called ‘obnoxious behaviour’ towards members of the public, dating back over a number of years, including claims of alleged assault (prosecution failed) and the deliberate blocking-in of vehicles to inconvenience visitors (presumably to discourage them from further visits). The police would be well aware of this history. Whether Mr Police Officer knew is not known, but hopefully he has now passed on the details of this latest incident to the Police Wildlife Crime Officer. If nothing else, the WCO could pay Mr Gamekeeper a visit to make sure his Fenn traps are being set legally (ie. covered).

We’re told that this estate is one of the 250+ that have signed up for the new Wildlife Estates Initiative. Unfortunately this cannot be verifed yet as the Initiative doesn’t seem to be interested in transparency at this stage of its development, even though one of its stated aims is ‘to introduce an objective and transparent system that demonstrates how wildlife management undertaken by Scottish landowners, in line with the principles of biodiversity conservation, can deliver multiple benefits for society and rural communities’. We’re all looking forward to the time when the Initiative is opened up to public scrutiny.

Things to do list #2

In the November 2011 edition of Birdwatch magazine, Mark Avery calls for our views about hen harriers and grouse moors. He says that if we send our views to the Birdwatch editor, they’ll be summarised and sent to a range of organisations including the Moorland Association, the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, the RSPB and the Scottish Raptor Study Groups.

Is there any value in doing this? Do you think the anti-harrier brigade will pay any attention to our views? Why would they? It’s been illegal to kill harriers since 1954 – this hasn’t stopped anyone doing it, and has pushed harriers to the very brink of extinction as a breeding bird in England, and severely depleted their numbers in parts of Scotland, so why would the harrier killers stop now?

The alternative is to do nothing, giving the grouse-shooting fraternity the chance to use our silence as an indication that we simply don’t care. We can’t let that happen, can we?

In Avery’s Birdwatch article, he writes a small piece about the harrier problem, but given the limited page space he can’t explain the problem in detail. He then offers three possible options on how to deal with the harrier/grouse issue, and asks readers to comment on them, or alternatively, suggest other options. Avery’s three options are paraphrased here:

A: Just forget it. Conservationists are fighting a losing battle and should turn their attention to more important issues.

B: Keep up the fight and keep publicising illegal persecution because if we lose the harrier, other species will surely follow. Keep talking to the ‘good guys’ in shooting who also want to see an end to harrier persecution.

C: Forget about trying to work with grouse shooters – they’ve had their chance to put their house in order and have failed miserably. Instead, lobby for an outright ban on grouse shooting.

If you want to comment on the issue, email your views to: editorial@birdwatch.co.uk. You’ll need to write before the end of November.

If you want some detailed background reading on the issue, we recommend reading Avery’s earlier articles about the harrier-grouse problem that he’s written on his personal blog (see here), and some of our earlier blog posts on harriers (see here, here, here, here, here, and here).

To subscribe to Birdwatch magazine online, click here.

The mysterious case of the Inverinate Estate gamekeeper’s trial

Way back in March 2011, the case against Inverinate Estate gamekeeper, Andrew Malcolm Slaughter, opened at Inverness Sheriff Court. He was reported to be facing charges under the Wildlife & Countryside Act, the Animal Health & Welfare (Scotland) Act and the Agriculture (Scotland) Act (see here).

Over the next eight months, five different court dates for this trial have been and gone (see here). Today was the 6th court date and we were expecting the case to be concluded one way or another. Well, it was and it wasn’t. Apparently, this case has been ‘deserted pro loco et tempore’. We are told that this means the case is finished as far as this court is concerned, but that the Procurator Fiscal may raise it again in the future. No explanation has been given for this decision.

A satisfactory outcome?

By pure coincidence, Alex Salmond MSP (the current First Minister of Scotland), on a recent trip to Dubai earlier this month, met the son of the man believed (but not confirmed) to be the Inverinate Estate owner (the son happens to be the Deputy ruler of Dubai), “to discuss opportunities to strengthen links between the two nations” (see here). What an amazingly small world.

Red kite persecution study wins science award

A recent study that revealed how illegal persecution is affecting the growth of a red kite population in Scotland has won a scientific research award.

The new award, the Watson Raptor Science Prize, is given for the best raptor study published in a peer-reviewed journal, and is made in honour of two exceptional raptor biologists, the late Donald Watson and his late son, Jeff Watson. Donald pioneered studies on the hen harrier and Jeff was a world authority on the ecology and conservation of the golden eagle.

The award-winning paper: Illegal killing slows population recovery of a re-introduced raptor of high conservation concern – the red kite, was published in the international journal Biological Conservation in 2010. The study, undertaken by RSPB scientists, compared the growth of two red kite populations, one in the Chilterns in southern England and one in the north of Scotland. The researchers found that after 17 years the Chilterns population numbered around 300 pairs, whereas the north of Scotland population only numbered around 50 pairs. The reason for the difference in survival rates was conclusively demonstrated to be illegal persecution.

Well done to the team of researchers, led by Dr Jennifer Smart, for scientific excellence, and especially for adding to the ever-increasing body of scientific literature that shows, unequivocally, that the illegal persecution of raptors continues to affect the conservation status of these iconic species.

BBC news article here

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.

More on the Moy case

According to an article published in The Scotsman (view here), a post mortem carried out on the dead red kite discovered in the vehicle used by gamekeeper James Rolfe on Moy Estate last June, revealed it had broken legs and had died as a result of a blow to the head. Rolfe was convicted for being in possession of the dead kite. Why weren’t charges brought against anyone for the unlawful killing of this bird?

In the same article, it is reported that over a five-week period, the remains of a further two dead red kites, six illegal baited spring traps, a trapped hen harrier, and a poison bait laced with a banned agricultural pesticide (poison) were also recovered from the estate. No arrests or charges have been made in connection with these incidents.

Why not?

In an article in Birdwatch Magazine, further gruesome details are revealed about the discovery of a severed red kite leg and wing tags belonging to a red kite that was being followed by satellite tracking, all hidden in holes covered by moss. The article also reports that four golden eagle leg rings were discovered in Rolfe’s possession. No arrests or charges have been made in connection with these incidents.

Why not?

You may wish to ask the following people:

Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service: pn_copfs@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

Northern Constabulary Force Wildlife Crime Co-ordinator, Chief Inspector Matthew Reiss: matthew.reiss@northern.pnn.police.uk

Environment Minister for Scotland, Stewart Stevenson MSP: msp@stewartstevenson.net

Moy Estate results

Today at Inverness Sheriff Court, gamekeeper James Roderick Rolfe, 20, was convicted of being in possession of a dead red kite which was found in his vehicle during a police raid on the Moy Estate in June last year. Rolfe said he had found the kite caught in a trap set for stoats. It had not been poisoned. Rolfe was fined £1,500 for possession of the dead bird.

The images here show the dead kite in the back of his vehicle. No explanation has been given to account for the obvious injury this bird suffered to its head area. According to the Inverness Courier, Rolfe claimed the bird was already dead when he found it.

Another gamekeeper working on Moy Estate was accused of being in possession of 56 gull eggs. The court accepted his plea of not guilty.

Northern Constabulary press statement

Inverness Courier news report