On Saturday 21st September a new organisation was launched at the ‘Rewilding’ conference held at Stirling University. It was the Scottish Rewilding Alliance – https://www.rewild.scot/. Seventeen organisations had joined up as they all thought this was a great way of pushing the benefits of ‘Rewilding’ which include increase wildlife, jobs in rural areas and expanding tourism. These organisations were Southern Uplands Partnership, John Muir Trust, Reforesting Scotland, Mountaineering Scotland, Woodland Trust Scotland, Borders Forest Trust, Scotland The Big Picture, Trees for Life, Rewilding Britain, Open Seas, Royal Zoological Society Scotland, Scottish Wildlife Trust, Scottish Wild Beaver Group, Scottish Raptor Study Group, Community Woodlands Association, The European Nature Trust and Scottish Badgers.
Terry Pickford a founder member of the North West Raptor Group (1967), provides his views in the attached video of the ongoing raptor persecution taking place throughout Lancashire’s Forest of Bowland. Terry points out that the persecution of raptors in his opinion is currently much worse now than it was 40 years ago. Many followers will be astounded to learn that since 2006 Peregrine nesting pairs in the Forest of Bowland have been reduced from 18 to a single breeding pair, with many breeding territories completely destroyed making their future use impossible. No one will be surprised to learn both the Peregrine and Hen Harrier are now being forcibly restricted from settling to breed on all of Bowland’s privately owned shooting estates, being contained to one estate owned by United Utilities Plc.
John Armitage former Regional RSPB Officer Forest of Bowland
It’s some little time since I put out an entry on this Blog. There are good reasons for this as it happens , but the explanations can wait as the topic below demands urgent action from us all.
Recently the Directors of Wild Justice registered an E-petition calling for a ban on driven grouse shooting. I’m presuming at this point that readers are conversant with the background details and arguments surrounding such a plea. As I look at the petition site this afternoon the number of signatures stands at 69,153, a truly remarkable response given the little time which has elapsed since it went public. To gain a debate by elected members of Parliament the number of signatures must reach 100, 000 and preferably be in excess of that figure. As many will probably know there has already been one debate associated with the petition dealing with the same subject matter and based on a previous petition registered by Mark Avery. The ensuing proceedings can only be described as a travesty, if not resulting in a wholly predictable outcome.
Langholm Moor Nature Reserve: Community Land Buy-Out
The Langholm Moor Working Group are working on a community land buy out to establish the Langholm Moor Nature Reserve to benefit the local people, nature conservation & tourism.
This Guardian story below is now over 4 years old, however it highlights the inconsistencies and shambles in Scottish Courts when sentencing wildlife criminals today. In 2015 George Mutch gamekeeper was sentenced to 4 months in prison by Aberdeen Sheriff Court after being found guilty of 4 charges, including setting stares hitting a goshawk over the head in 2012. Read about the case HERE.
Sheriff Noel McPartlin hearing the case against Mutch said “the persecution of wild birds was a huge problem”.
He said: “Having regard to the gravity of the offence, I am of the view that there is no other method of dealing with you which is appropriate to this case other than the imposition of a custodial sentence.”
Now compare the sentence handed down to George Mutch with the more recent successful prosecution of Alan Wilson, 61, of Duns, who admitted to nine charges including killing goshawks, buzzards, badgers and an otter. Other charges against Wilson involved the setting of illegal snares and possessing illegal pesticides. In addition the court was shown records where Wilson kept ‘kill lists’ of 1000 animals he’d slaughtered and then dumped the bodies in stink pit.
Wilson was ordered to carry out 225 hours unpaid work and given a restriction of liberty order. Wow!
An undercover Scottish SPCA investigator described what Wilson had done as a “despicable case of serious and systematic crimes to indiscriminately remove wildlife from an estate”. “The sheer volume of dead wildlife discovered is truly shocking,” the investigator added.
We understand the Scottish Gamekeepers Association have now expelled Wilson from his SGA membership. That’s great, but what does this sentence signify? It’s certainly was no deterrent, indeed the leniency of the sentence invites others of the same ilk as Wilson to carry on their killing and take the ‘punishment.’
Because of the huge scale of killing taking place on this single estate carried out by one man, someone on the estate must have seen the evidence lying around the estate grounds uncovered by investigators. We would like to think the police are at least investigating the possibility of prosecuting the estate owner under the Vicarious Liability legislation for what was taking place for all to see?
There are now calls for stricter penalties for wildlife crimes as Scottish gamekeeper avoids jail after killing protected birds. You can read the Revive Coalition article HERE
There are sufficient reasons depicted by the images below, including Chris Packham’s video, why we should all sign the ongoing petition calling for the banning of Driven Grouse shooting in England. We would ask each of you to please take a few moment to sign and share the petition to your friends to ensure the government take our views seriously.
Petition asking our government to consider Banning Driven Grouse Shooting. Wilful blindness is no longer an option.
Chris Packham, Ruth Tingay and Mark Avery (Wild Justice) believe that intensive grouse shooting is bad for people, the environment and wildlife. People; grouse shooting is economically insignificant when contrasted with other real and potential uses of the UK’s uplands.
Environment; muirburn impacts negatively upon climate change and drainage leads to flooding and erosion. Wildlife; the wholesale culling of all predators and Mountain Hares has a disastrous effect on the ecology of these areas and the industry is underpinned by a criminal tradition of raptor persecution which shows no signs of abating. It’s time to provide an opportunity to implement immediate , legislative and meaningful measures to address this abhorrently destructive practice.
International consortium to strengthen global action on combating wildlife crime
Geneva,15 August 2019 – The International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC) will host three high-profile events at this month’s CITES conference to draw attention to activities for enabling authorities to effectively respond to wildlife crime and the organized crime groups behind such crimes.
The ICCWC is a collaboration involving the CITES Secretariat, INTERPOL, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the World Bank and the World Customs Organization (WCO). Through its Strategic Programme 2016-2020, the Consortium is supporting and enhancing the capacity of customs, police, wildlife authorities and entire criminal justice systems around the world to respond to wildlife crime.
Check out the Bird Fair this year with ‘Chick Books‘ run by John Miles sponsoring the children’s section called the ‘Wild Zone’. John has worked with Birds of Prey most of his life, and was employed by the RSPB for many years as their warden on the Society’s Geltsdale reserve in the Northern Pennines.
John Miles already teaching his two grandchildren all about the beauty of wildlife
John is looking forward to welcoming everyone to his stand, in particular anyone with an interest in children’s wildlife education; are you a primary teacher with an interest in children’s natural history books? Call in and talk with John at his stand 14 located in the Wild Zone. You will be most welcome to brows and learn all about John’s 3 new books [and his older ones] ideal for getting children into wildlife.
The image clearly shows a spring trap attached to the eagles foot of feet.
Hearing appalling news via @policescotland about a young golden eagle, photographed near Crathie, Aberdeenshire, flying around with a spring trap clamped round its leg. Pls report any sightings to Police asap.
This left a pocket of money not spent due to all the 5 estate game keepers being removed from their jobs a year earlier. Come 2019 and still the Game Conservancy [They want you to use their new name which includes the word conservation!!] is still active and doing things with that public money!! Reports suggest that evil work like spraying which can contaminate water courses, secret surveys which of course will not be scientific and re seeding heather are all being undertaken.
If anyone has any information about the illegal persecution of raptors, either in the UK or abroad, PLEASE forward details immediately to Raptor Politics via our confidential “contact us” link.
If you read in the national or your local press of any persecution incidents, please send this information to Raptor Politics immediately. Thank you.
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