I was in the Peak District for a few days last week – after seeing a Hen Harrier in Snowdonia at 0643 on the 60th anniversary of the Protection of Birds Act becoming law. I celebrated with a big Welsh breakfast (see above)(and a whoop of joy, of course!).
The old military saying that ‘time spent in reconnaissance is seldom wasted‘ is, I believe, right. I checked out several places which might do as locations for our peaceful protest against Hen Harrier persecution and spoke to a handful of local experts and opinions all seem to be centred on the same locality. I hope that next week I can make this completely clear but I am waiting for a promised email from an important organisation who are going to make us an offer we may or may not be able to refuse.
In the meantime, if you would like to assemble with others, somewhere in the Peak District, on 10 August, to express your opposition to the illegal persecution of a bird of prey that has had full legal protection for 60 years (and a few days) then please click on this link to register.
More information, of what I hope will be a quite concrete variety, next Monday at 6pm.
Once those details are available then I would hope that some of our larger wildlife conservation organisations can get behind this event -after all, it’s hardly contentious to protest against wildlife crime. Is it?
[registration_form]
In 1971 a ban on tiger hunting in India met with vociferous protests. Tiger hunting was popular with royals, was worth an estimated $4million a year to professional hunters, employed rural people in impoverished areas and (probably) the shooting of tigers had led to an increase in peacock/samba deer/langur monkey numbers. All sound familiar in another context closer to home? Inconveniently tiger hunting was also leading rapidly to tiger extinction and is viewed now as an anachronistic embarrassment.
It’s time to consign another Victorian aberration to the dustbin of past follies and ban driven grouse shooting. Accompanied as it must be by such a slaughter of our native avian and mammalian predators, while simultaneously requiring such a profound degrading of our hills and watersheds, driven grouse shooting should be unacceptable to any ecologically enlightened citizen.
My family and would love to support this event but the timings are not going to work as we are travelling back from Scotland. Do you have more details of the events further North?
Good news from the Langholm grouse moor at least. Only a couple of miles from the English border so maybe one day they will venture south.
‘This year we are seeing an increase in hen harriers on the moor, as of mid-May we have six nesting females with four males in attendance, as well as a few others of both sexes which have not settled yet. Of the six nesting females, two are young, satellite-tagged Langholm hens from last year, known as “Hattie” and “Grainne” to followers of the Making the Most of Moorlands Blog.’
“after all, it’s hardly contentious to protest against wildlife crime. Is it?”
Apparently yes it is. Last week I tried to stage a peaceful one man (and three badger) protest against gassing badgers when Princess Anne came up to Shetland, to open a new visitor centre at Sumburgh Head, when the police turned up and threatened to arrest me for “breach of the peace” unless I immediately went home and that I wasn’t allowed to protest in any form except in my own garden. They escorted me well away and said they would arrest me if they only saw me again.
Good luck with Hen Harrier Day. Hope it gets a great amount of support. I wish I could make it.
Owen -Unfortunately some police officers assume that most pople do not know anything about law and they can use this to get their own way. Such as “its illegal to take a picture of a police officer” that is not the case but it is used to try and prevent pictures showing police misconduct.
Mark – anymore thoughts of direct action against some of the grouse moor owners that are responsible for such widescale destruction (burning of deep peat) whilst claiming HLS grants for supposedly managing sites of scientific interest. Surely a protest/leafleting outside Boundary Mills letting people know what their hard money supports in Bannister’s mismangement of Walshaw is called for.