A group called the Hunt Investigation Team (whose previous investigations include the South Herefordshire Hunt) have been investigating land identified by them as the Moscar Estate, in the Peak District National Park, owned, it is claimed by the Duke of Rutland.
They have published footage of animals caught in snares including Badgers, Foxes and Mountain Hares (see distressing footage below) and there is a story in today’s Daily Mirror with further footage.
Much of the footage is disturbing but shows legal activity – snares are legal to use in the UK (provided that certain conditions are met) and are commonly used across shooting estates in both the uplands and lowlands. They form a common means of catching Foxes which are then shot – as is shown in video footage in the Mirror story.
Snares will often catch non-target species, such as Badgers, and there is footage here of a snared Badger. Now a Badger is a big powerful animal and approaching a terrified badger to release it from a snare is no easy job. Some of the published footage seems to show a masked, armed man (who might be a gamekeeper – just a guess) shooting at the snare holding a Badger to try to release it. The Badger escapes but with the loop of the snare still around its body and it is seen rolling around in frantic attempts to free itself. The masked man attempts again to shoot the remaining snare wire off the Badger but this appears to be unsuccessful.
These scenes portray what are common, and legal, occurrences across the UK. I was shocked when I saw them, not because I am unaware that this sort of thing happens, but because I don’t recall seeing such scenes filmed before in such graphic detail. Many of the general public will be, until now, unaware that such activity is commonplace in our countryside. This footage was filmed, in the Peak District National Park, a wildlife crime hotspot and clearly not the most wildlife-friendly of locations. Think, again, this is in a National Park (who are asking you for your views on their way forward).
The investigation is said to have focussed on an area around the tourist hotspot of Bamford Edge, which overlooks Ladybower Reservoir and also included land close to another tourist-favoured locality of Stanage Edge. Large numbers of snares were found – fell runners have been injured in this area in the past (Sheffield Star, BBC). More information on the traps found and their locations is here.
All this is simply an every day story of country folk on a shooting estate. However, the HIT website also states that ‘One badger was shot and hastily dragged off to be buried in a nearby wood.‘.
Police are said to be investigating.
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Several of the snares filmed in the video appear not to be legal as they appear to be locking snares that tighten but do not slacken. Why are the keepers masked?
I have been told in the past that a properly set fox snare is set too high to catch badgers, I have never believed it.
Snares are barbaric and should be banned. A keeper once told me that if that happened they would have to go back to poison to kill foxes!!! No morality or ethics such people.
Paul – you are better informed than I am, so thank you.
I have fairly extensive knowledge of snares through personal experience. The vast majority will catch all sorts of species and it’s a fallacy that non-locking snares don’t cause any injuries. I have released badgers from these devices where the wire has cut right through to the chest cavity, the badger was put down humanely by a local wildlife rescue. I have also found fen traps that have caught everything from song birds to hares, illegal set traps for raptors and hundreds of larsen traps where the welfare of the bird contained was totally ignored.
These is no regulation and the suffering involved is huge. Gamekeepers are nothing more than wildlife exterminators doing the dirty work required by their land owning masters to produce the maximum number of game birds to shoot.
We need a completely different approach to this situation, estate have proven they can’t abide by the laws, it’s time for change.
AA – is it not time that The League and others similarly inclined plan mass trespass at key locations during Grouse Season? August 12th sounds like a good date to start. These guys don’t want to change and we need another “Kinder Scout” to make change happen imo.
Having a mass trespass would be ideal. Not only would it show the strength of feeling involved at this barbarity but it would also hit the shooting estates where it hurts – in the pocket.
Unfortunately LACS have to be seen to abide by the law and as such no activity such as this could be sponsored by them, they simply wouldn’t have the stomach for it. However rest assured there are other organisations which will take direct action like this. Watch this space.
I have only once had to get a Badger out of snare. It was a sow in milk and had damaged its neck with so much tugging to get free, The snare had been set on a ‘Badger run’ so it was set to kill Badgers! Remember the RSPB reserve only came about because the owners found a Badger in a snare so no one had learned a lesson!
I took off my coat to cover the animal and got the sow in between my legs and tried to hold it tight. I knew about their teeth so was very worried about my fingers [not to mention other parts of my body]. The sow still did not know I was trying to help her and continued to struggle but in time I managed to get the snare off and she flew down the hill towards the sett.
Snares are basically ‘lazy mans’ tools as it saves the keeper from being up all night. ‘Lamping’ has increased in many parts and with so many moorland roads can cover a large area of the moor so if the snares were banned most estates would not loose out.
Well done. It should be noted that no-one should attempt a release unless you have experience in the matter. I have that experience and also used an animal restraint while another cut the animal free. If in doubt call for relevant assistance.
It’s arguable that, in the circumstances shown in the film, armed gamekeepers concealing their identity constitutes “evidence of disturbing and unusual behaviour of a kind which gives rise to wellfounded fears about the future misuse of firearms” which is cause for a revocation of their shotgun licence.
I don’t have any knowledge of snares but the destruction of wildlife, in a National Park, which I would have thought would have wildlife conservation at it’s very heart makes me angry. That I pay twice for this to happen in the form of subsidy to rich grouse moor owners and for the “privilege” of these national parks makes me twice as angry.
And let’s not forget the fee for shotgun licences does not cover the admin. costs of the police. So we are subsidising that too. Plus think of the grouse moors owned by offshore shell companies thus evading taxes. The list goes on ……
My thoughts exactly. I should love to see one of the opposition parties actually take a stand on wildlife crime; it may be though of as small beer compared to brexit and the state of the economy but I’m pretty sure it would garner a healthy number of votes.
I definitely agree Derik. If Labour only realised that strong environmental advocates will win votes in the same way that condoning fox hunting doesn’t as Mrs May should know only too well.
I’m going to have 3 separate but related rants, in the course of which I will probably annoy most of the regular readers of this blog.
1. There is a lot more wrong with the shooting fraternity than just the killing of Hen Harriers and the burning of heather. I know it’s wrong to generalise, but (in general) people who support shooting (and I know lots of people here do, as do some of my friends) are part of a ‘club’ that does a range of unpleasant and damaging things, and they are at worst actively complicit or, at best, turning a blind eye to what goes on, up and down the country, day in day out.
2. This video, like the one showing the alleged shooting of an HH released in May, is absolute dynamite. I have shown the HH video to people who are not remotely vegetarian ‘animal rights extremists’, but they were outraged and angered by it. Graphic footage like this doesn’t come along very often, and I think it’s important to make the most of it and ensure it is seen by as many people as possible. I was criticised by Mark back in May when I pointed out that the video had only had 12,000 views on YouTube, representing only 1 in 10 of the people who had signed the petition and 1% of the RSPB membership. More recently, I had a disagreement with someone here when I complained that the RSPB had not tried hard enough to make its members aware of the video. Well, two months have passed and the number of hits has now crept up to 16,800, or about 1.4% of the RSPB membership. I could say that this is disappointing – actually I think pathetic is a better word.
3. I know that many people here think, like the RSPB, that wildlife conservation should be kept quite separate from animal welfare issues. I strongly disagree with this. Firstly, I think it’s all about respect for other living things – we shouldn’t kill or hurt anything without good reason, and we should never, ever, do it for the fun of it. But that’s just my opinion. Perhaps more importantly, I think failing to engage the welfare/cruelty angle means we’re fighting with one-and-a-half hands tied behind our back. There are literally millions of people who have never heard of a Hen Harrier, but who would be absolutely ‘on side’ if they knew what the shooters (OK, some of the shooters) get up to. If we’re serious about trying to change things it will be important to join up with people who can help the cause, even if not all of us agree on everything.
Sorry, Mark – overcome by bile, I forgot to add that I’m delighted to see that HH are linked with badgers and foxes for the upcoming London march. A big step in the right direction in my book.
Well, I’m a regular reader and you haven’t annoyed me! Spot on I’d say.
Yes, the RSPB may well be in a difficult position, but who said it was going to be easy?
It’s even more difficult for us members who have to sit back watching these disgusting images, knowing full well that very few will ever see them, and also knowing that the RSPB, our RSPB, could change that in an instant.
As for the millions who have never heard of a Hen Harrier, I said the same myself last week.
I will be boring and say it again, the Hen Harrier days would gain a lot more support if they were a ‘save our corvids, Hen Harriers, Peregrines, Short eared owls, weasels, stoats, foxes, badgers, Gulls etc etc,’ days.
How about, ‘Give us back our wildlife’ day.
Surely the public have a right to know, a right to see these images on the main news programmes. This is 2017 not 1817.
I agree with AlanTwo & Paul.
Absolutely.
The argument is about ALL WILDLIFE.
I can’t disagree (yes I realise it’s a double negative but feel the phrase is more fitting with Alan Two’s assumption that he will ‘probably annoy most of the regular readers of this blog’) with much of what you have said but would advise caution when accusing people of being ‘complicit’ or ‘turning a blind eye’.
I sit here typing on my iPad (which could have been, but wasn’t) bought from Amazon. Does that make me complicit in Apple and Amazon’s acknowledged tax-avoidance? “He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone at her.”
As for point 3….VERY well put indeed.
I don’t suppose many people are reading this thread now, but I take your point. Real life is much more ‘nuanced’ than either my trite statement or, with respect, your biblical quote, make it out to be. None of us is ‘without sin’, but that doesn’t mean we are barred from making any ethical judgements.
I drive a car, and freely admit that makes me complicit in causing climate change. But I try to limit my mileage, drive an economical vehicle and so on, and I’d welcome industry moves to reduce emissions even at the expense of performance.
What I was getting at was that my impression is (and I’d be pleased to be corrected) that most shooters are four-square behind most keepering activities, and leap to their defense if challenged. Some may balk at deliberate illegality, but they never criticise ‘vermin control’, including the use of traps, poisons and snares. They either condone the suffering it causes, or pretend it doesn’t occur.
I agree with all your 3 ‘rants’ and your last piece, AlanTwo.
Thanks for making the case so well, again.
To my mind, much of what is wrong in this issue is attributable to lack of respect for life, and sheer complacency on the part of the authorities.
A new leisure activity should be promoted in our National Parks where members of the public take holidays & set out to find as many snares as they can collect in lieu of the wildlife they’re missing and not able to enjoy. What an upside-down world we live in to serve a minority of profiteering psychopaths!
Watch how quickly the police got involved and prosecuted people for criminal damage!
https://morethanjustbadgers.net/2015/09/21/double-standards/
Update from HIT – January 2018 – for anyone who may find this discussion retrospectively:
The police recently advised us that they agreed there were offences around the botched badger release, but the CPS would not pursue the case. No doubt people will draw their own conclusions.
A quick clarification: The police were passed HIT’s Moscar footage well in advance of its release to the media but were slow to review it. HIT did have reservations about contacting the local police, as it was known that a senior police officer is involved with the neighbouring shoot, and we had genuine fears of the gamekeepers being tipped off. We therefore waited until we had gathered our evidence and offered this to the police before the story was released. HIT now has continued good relations with the Derbyshire WCO team.
The current situation: After 6 months’ minimal snaring and trapping on the Estate in the wake of the mass publicity and attention, sadly the masked gamekeepers recently resnared the Bamford site featured in our videos. We urge people to get out and monitor as much as possible (info here: https://huntinvestigationteam.org/home/traps-of-the-moscar-estate) and we have been greatly heartened by the public’s support on this issue.
Many thanks to Mark and all who fight with us on wildlife persecution – together we are having a massive impact and 2018 will see that continue stronger than ever.