Police probe goshawk-killing on Queen’s grouse moor
A protected goshawk has been illegally killed on one of North Yorkshire’s most iconic grouse shooting moors owned by Her Majesty The Queen.
North Yorkshire Police launched an investigation into the Duchy of Lancaster’s Goathland Estate, nestled in the heart of the North York Moors, after being handed footage by Ban Bloodsports on Yorkshire’s Moors showing a man entering a cage trap containing a goshawk and appearing to kill the bird, before removing the body in a bag.
Goshawks were persecuted to extinction in the UK in the late 19th century and, despite an improvement in numbers, persecution remains a constant threat to their survival in Northern England.
So far, three individuals have been interviewed under caution in connection with the incident and police inquiries are ongoing.
Luke Steele, Spokesperson for Ban Bloodsports on Yorkshire’s Moors, said:
“It is a clear illustration of how deeply ingrained bird of prey persecution is on grouse moors when not even the Queen’s wildlife is safe from criminals illegally destroying it to boost game bird populations for shooting.
Grouse moors continue to be implicated in a salvo of wildlife crimes. How many more birds of prey have to suffer and die before the government introduces regulatory reform of grouse moors to end the wave of wildlife crime?”.
The illegal persecution of birds of prey on moorland managed for grouse shooting continues to be a serious issue more than sixty years after laws were passed making the practice illegal.
Despite the game shooting industry pledging in January to exercise better self-regulation, a salvo of persecution incidents associated with grouse moors have been reported over the spring and summer by police forces across Northern England. This includes five dead buzzards—four of which had been shot—discovered hidden in a hole on Bransdale Moor in April, a poisoned buzzard in Nidderdale in March, and a buzzard found shot on Saddleworth Moor in May.
PC Jeremy Walmsley, Wildlife Crime Officer for North Yorkshire Police, said in the police’s appeal for information:
“The goshawk is one of the most protected species of bird in the UK and it is extremely distressing that an individual would choose to kill any bird of prey. I appeal to anybody with information about this horrific crime to get in touch with the police and help us find the person responsible for the death of this magnificent bird.
We see far too many incidents of birds of prey killed or injured in North Yorkshire and as a police force we are doing all we can to put a stop to this inhumane and callous crime.”.
North Yorkshire has been named by the RSPB as the top spot in the UK for bird of prey persecution—accounting for 10% of all incidents nationally since 2007—because of the prevalence of wildlife crime on its grouse moors.
Scotland has committed to introducing mandatory licensing of grouse shooting moors within the next five years after facing a similar wave of wildlife crime, although it is anticipated that ministers could move sooner. Despite the National Wildlife Crime Unit having long briefed government and law-enforcement agencies since 2013 that “intelligence continues to indicate a strong association between raptor persecution and grouse moor management” there has been no similar pledge in England or Wales.
Luke Steele adds:
“Pressure is brewing for England and Wales to follow Scotland’s commitment to introduce mandatory licencing for grouse moors. Now is the time to significantly reform the country’s ecologically-restrictive, outdated grouse moors to restore the full suite of wildlife and habitats to our uplands.”.
– ENDS –
How long do we have to witness this carnage and public statements such as this made before government even acknowledge there is a problem never mind act to bring this to an end. We are being denied spectacular wildlife experiences and a proper ecology by organised crime from within the “game industry.” The game lobby organisations pretence at both condemning and claiming intolerance of this is sickeningly false. If they really interested in solving this problem they would be genuinely co-operating with the police and other agencies in bringing the culprits to court and expelling both individuals and estates from their organisations. These organisations are quite clearly part of the problem not the solution and should be shunned by all others involved in the countryside.
The forests of the North York Moors appear to have a healthy goshawk population yet the rest of the region is almost devoid of these fantastic birds, probably because any dispersing young suffer a similar fate to this bird. Long past time these ignorant criminals, their employers, their toxic attitude to protected wildlife and their biodiversity damaging sport was given the bums rush and flushed down the toilet of history.
Would be an interesting case for vicarious liability.
Yes, although I am sure that the shooting is tenanted and not an in house Duchy activity.
That is my understanding for Goathland too. Pretty sure it’s tenanted, not sure who to though.
Well if that is the case, and it is, they will no doubt be kicked off then won’t they?
Don’t hold your breath.
There is no vicarious liability in England – only in Scotland.
Unfortunately that is the case. That’s why I said would and not should.
English tort law imposes strict liability on employers for the wrongdoings of their employees. Generally, an employer will be held liable for any tort committed while an employee is conducting their duties.
It was very carefully at the committee stage of the WCA put in to the law a clause which states that only those directly guilty of an offence can be prosecuted for it, which has precedence?
All recorded incidents of raptor persecution are the tip of the iceberg. It takes place in remote areas, usually on private estates with restricted public access. In the vast majority of occasions where raptors are killed, there is no dead bird to be found, no video footage, the bird is quickly killed and buried without witnesses or trace of the crime. So for this level of evidence to exist of raptor persecution, it must be very widespread. The claim that it is a few bad apples, is a very long way from the truth, probably the diametric opposite of the truth.
There is the very real possibility, that far from it being a few bad apples, that this is actually standard practise in shoot management. Far more widespread and acknowledged than is thought. Conservationists have fallen into the trap of going along with the idea that most shoot managers would never think about doing this. Let us consider for a moment, that most shooters privately approve of this. After all these do nothing to expose those responsible and go along with the ridiculous pretence that it is a very rare thing done by a few bad apples.
These very private estates will want to know everything that is happening on them. Anyone with experience of them knows exactly how quickly they respond to someone perceived to be trespassing on them. The persecution of raptors on this scale is a time consuming activity. Estates don’t just pay people and let them do their own thing. They, like most employers will want to know what those they are paying are doing most of the time. Otherwise, for all they know, they might be just paying people to sit in the pub for most of the week.
Yet we are expected to believe that the owners of these estates, the land managers, estate managers, shooting lobby groups/associations, all disapprove of the illegal persecution of raptors and naively believe it is just a few bad apples, when the very strong circumstantial evidence is that a lot of the people paid for shoot management are spending a very large proportion of their paid time devoted to the illegal persecution of raptors.
Therefore it is pretty safe to assume, using Occam’s razor, that when these people tell us they disapprove of the illegal persecution of raptors, that it is only an occasional thing done by a few bad apples, that these people are not being honest with us. They above all people, know that the fairy stories they tell us, are utterly untrue. That in reality they know what is going on and have developed this contrivance, where they pretend to disapprove, but actually approve of what is happening.
We really do need more insight into how this actually operates. Does it all happen via the principle of plausible deniability, where it is communicated through hints that this is what the estate owners and managers want, and then a blind eye turned, or is it far more knowing than this. I suspect the latter. The efficiency with which satellite tagged birds are killed, and which many shoots are more or less raptor free zones, indicates a level of organization and methodical approach, way beyond a few bad apples being given free rein.
We are wrapped up in a culture of deference, fear of libel, where there is a refusal to openly acknowledge what this very strong circumstantial evidence points to. Just compare this to any other field of criminal activity. Drug use, violence. Why in these areas of criminal activity is it fine for politicians, the media to speculate on the reality of what goes on? Whereas with raptor persecution were are expected to go along with the absurd and ridiculous pretence that unless there is a conviction, we have to pretend that it’s not going on. This is gaslighting on a society wide scale, where we are prevented from even acknowledging the scale of this orchestrated and organized wildlife crime.
There are no bad apples they are all equally culpable. One only has to look at the breeding distribution of medium to large raptors in the UK or protected mammalian predators to see that whatever the reported crime distribution tells us they are nearly all “at it,” with those few who are not benefitting in their terms from the crimes of others and nobody gets shopped. I was once told in all seriousness that shopping the poisoners, illegal trappers and shooters was, and I kid you not “Bad etiquette” FFS. This criminality is grotesque in its regularity almost if not all our raptors that we cherish have both their distribution and numbers severely limited by these Neanderthal criminals that work for landowners and agents that in any reasonable society would be equally culpable in law. that they are not is down to what we call in other countries vested interest corruption. I am constantly surprised that nobody has taken the law into their own hands against this, much as I think we should stick to the moral high ground hugely frustrating though that is considering the wilful blindness of authority. Why organisations like RSPB (and perhaps others) should take the gloves off, stop being polite to the organisations representing the criminality and campaign for the end of all driven shooting.
I like the “bad apples” metaphor because, like a few contributors on here with enough background experience, I know it is very apt – when it is turned on its head. Within the DGS world, the so called bad apples are the rare (rarer even than Golden Eagles in England) Estates, Agents and Keepers that stay within the law. They are resented and mocked and disliked because the other Estates perceive that they then have to take the time and the risks to clear up “other peoples problems” (i.e.any protected predatory species). I know it has happened that a fanatical Keeper has sneaked onto a neighbouring Estate to do a bit of dirty work…”that needed doing”. I also know that this is often, erronously, used as a defence by a genuinely guilty Estate/Keeper. It just shows how the Protection Laws and their means of enforcement are rigged, it all needs a total rebuild from scratch.
I too know where this has happened in the Yorkshire Dales and Forest of Bowland, where by all accounts it may still continue.
I see the Duchy of Lancaster has just reported a £53 million profit for last year. That’s an awful lot of Red Grouse – no wonder they are killing predators.
This shames the owner and we know who she is, she should sack the whole of the management of this Estate. It shames this Government but they have been shamed so many times already and it shames this country. It also shows how closely Driven Grouse Shooting estates are associated with criminals and criminality. Let’s hope this poor bird did not die in vain. However it really defies ones comprehension that despite all this evidence this Government continues to take no action against the Shooting estates to stop these dreadful activities.
Probably a Forestry England brec Gos. When Gos first arrived in the NYM We hot wind of a tenant’s keeper ‘sitting up got a big Awk’. My boss took a punt and sent a letter to all tenants saying that any suggestion of petsecution would result in i mediate termination. We’d never have got away with if challenged but it worked – the FC ranger responsible for the tip off gleefully reported that the keeper had threatened to thump him ! It can work – if there’s a will.
I make no apologies that I shoot clay pigeons and wood pigeons for crop protection within the terms of the general licences. I am lost for words to see that despite the shooting organisations repeated attempts to appeal for the end of raptor killings it continues, off with the persons head for doing this but sadly that is unlikely in this day and age so I find myself agreeing that the only way this will stop is by a complete ban of grouse shooting on these estates, and we have no one to blame except ourselves.
jihn (really?) – thanks for your first commment here
Mark, Finger error John, no way to edit once submitted for approval.