Four weeks today (and tomorrow) the Court of Appeal will be hearing my, and the RSPB’s, appeals against Natural England issuing licences to allow brood meddling of Hen Harriers ie Tuesday 26 and Wednesday 27 January.
This process started as far as I was concerned in January 2018 and we went to court in December 2018, and for another day in January 2019, were unsuccessful in that challenge and appealed to the Court of Appeal where that hearing began in mid-March 2020 but one of the three judges was taken ill and it has taken 10 months for the courts to organise another hearing (!).
This case is very important to me – it was the first legal challenge I ever took, and it started months before Wild Justice came into being.
Brood meddling has not yet resulted in a rush of Hen Harrier nests on driven grouse moors – it’s almost as if estates have to draw straws each year to see who is going to put up with a pair or two this year… It’s the cover for continuing massive levels of persecution of this wonderful bird.
Thanks very much for taking this initiative and I wish you well in your endeavours.
I note that Natural England have not up dated their HH Excel spreadsheet since August. Do you have any information on how the 8 meddled and tagged birds they helped release in 2020 are faring?
Mike – I don’t but I noticed that RPUK were hinting at a disappeared HH recently.
One wishes you Mark and the RSPB all the luck in the world at the end of January with this appeal. What a wicked disgrace this Westminster Government is. They will do absolutely anything to avoid doing the right thing as far as the shooters are concerned and that is to totally ban the activity. Brood meddling is a total farce and will be proven to be so. Keep up the good work, These legal challenges win or loose continue to demonstrate how rotten this Westminster Tory Government is.