Tag: spring trap

8 buzzards & 1 red kite dead on Corrybrough Estate, Tomatin

8 buzzards and 1 red kite were found dead on the Corrybrough Estate, Tomatin, near Inverness in March 1998. One buzzard was found in a spring trap with its legs chewed up. Many of the dead birds were found on a rubbish dump and later tests showed they had been poisoned with Carbofuran.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4156/is_19990919/ai_n13941450/

At the time of the discovery, Corrybrough Estate was owned by former English magistrate, John Tinsley. It’s not the first time Tinsley has been in trouble with the police: http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/spl/aberdeen/english-landowner-cleared-over-struggle-with-police-officers-at-his-highland-estate-laird-feared-kidnap-bid-1.349215

The Corrybrough Estate was sold in 2009. Let’s hope the new owner is a law-abiding one.

Dumfriesshire gamekeeper fined for setting illegal trap

On 12th January 2009 at Dumfries Sheriff Court, part time gamekeeper Jonathon Charles Galbraith of Hightae, Lockerbie, pleaded guilty to two charges under the Wildlife and Countryside Act. These related to the illegal use of a spring trap against wild birds and animals listed under section 6 of the Act.

He was fined £1,400

Example of a Fenn spring trap as used by Galbraith.

On the 21st August 2008 the Scottish SPCA received an anonymous complaint that there was an injured bird in a trap at Kirkhill Farm near Dalton where Galbraith had sole responsibility for the management of a pheasant shoot.

The following day SSPCA officers visited Kirkhill Farm to look for the injured bird and subsequently discovered an un-set spring trap beside a dead pheasant poult next to an active pheasant release pen.

 As officers widened their search of the area they were alerted to an approaching motor vehicle. They then observed Mr Galbraith set the spring trap and place it on top of the dead pheasant poult.

The officers approached Galbraith and interviewed him about the trap. He admitted setting the trap and claimed that “something” was killing his pheasants. Presumably he was referring to a raptor.

Spring traps are often illegally set in this manner or on top of posts to catch raptors and corvids by the legs.