Dear First Minister – from Bob Elliot and OneKind

Dear Cabinet Secretary (and copied to First Minister Sturgeon)

I write as the Director of OneKind and also from a personal point of view regarding the recent very bad news of yet another poisoned bird of prey discovered on a grouse moor, and my wider concerns about the killing of our wild animals. 

You may remember me from my days at RSPB where I was Head of Investigations in Scotland and then Head of Investigations for the UK. Your chairing of the PAWS partnership meetings has always been very welcome and has given some gravitas to wildlife crime issues in Scotland. I understand you care about these issues and that is very welcome and appreciated. OneKind welcomed the news of the greater protection for mountain hares, but we are getting increasingly concerned that we have a situation where the shooting of hares will start once more from the 1^st of August, in two days. We have written separately to the Environment Minister on that matter, and await a reply.  

But it is the poisoning of the white-tailed eagle that I write about now. I remember when I started working for the RSPB in Scotland some 18 years ago. One of the first wildlife crime incidents I, and my team, had to deal with was the poisoning of a golden eagle in the Borders. I think you will remember that case? On my promotion to Head of Investigations UK it was quite obvious that the same pattern of wildlife criminality applied throughout the UK in those areas managed for driven grouse shooting, and in the lowlands the intensive rear and release of pheasants and partridge for shooting. 

The recent picture of the poisoned white-tailed eagle reminds me of so many other incidents. Some of the worst moments of my RSPB career were having to retrieve dead eagles, kites, buzzards and peregrines from grouse moors and to assist on the resulting police searches where suspects were uncooperative at best, and often downright obstructive on many occasions. Our natural heritage killed right under our noses. I will never forget the sight of a dead eagle, a majestic bird reduced to a rotting carcass by the actions of criminals. On one occasion we had to deal with a situation where a total of three golden eagles were poisoned on one moor, with the resulting discovery of 10kg of banned  and lethal carbofuran located on the police search. Even with direct film evidence of gamekeepers killing protected wildlife, prosecutions are few and sanctions, whilst improved, are rarely applied. In my UK role I was always somewhat grateful that Scotland seemed more progressive in fighting the issue of wildlife crime and the illegal killing of our wildlife. It does now seem we have stalled somewhat with change seemingly impossible, or incredibly slow. 

Now, as Director of OneKind, I still seem unable to avoid the issues of driven grouse shooting. The level of legal predator killing is very worrying. The high densities of grouse needed for driven grouse shooting necessitates consistently high levels of lethal predator control and astonishingly, we still allow the use of snares, cage and spring traps in our countryside. There is no requirement to quantify nor report on the numbers of foxes, stoats, weasels or corvids killed each month in Scotland. I am quite frankly ashamed that we allow such methods of killing to go on in our countryside, and that we sanction the cruel methods we do. Other negative impacts of driven grouse management will be well known to you: the medication of a wild bird (red grouse), the creations of tracks, the burning of the heather (and on deep peat) and the killing of mountain hares being just a few.

This eagle is one of many and I do despair that between these incidents life seems to carry on as normal and driven grouse moor management continues with little change. The short gaps between the many incidents over the years have been peppered with consultations, reports and some changes to legislation, but these haven’t got to the heart of the matter and effected real change. We really need to do more, and far more quickly, to bring the scourge of driven grouse shooting to an end. 

The evidence is compelling and the way forward clear. We need to change how our uplands are being managed. I do hope you agree that the Scottish Government must act very quickly and to legislate effectively. It has all gone on far too long.

Yours sincerely

If you are maddened or saddened by the level of wildlife crime in Scotland’s Cairngorms National Park then please write to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon ([email protected]) and copy in Cabinet Secretary Roseanna Cunningham ([email protected]).

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