I’ve been at Cheltenham racecourse this week, and it was just before the last race on Wednesday that our lawyer, Tessa Gregory, phoned me to say that we had had a response from Natural England to our pre-action protocol letter. It wasn’t a very interesting response as NE said that because they were dealing with…
Category: BAN DRIVEN GROUSE SHOOTING
Yorkshire Dales NP takes the high ground on raptor persecution
There have been previous signs that the Yorkshire Dales National Park is ashamed of its deserved reputation as being a raptor persecution hotspot – and wants to do what it can to highlight the issue and move people towards a solution. This is in stark contrast with the inspid response of the Peak District National…
Defra’s third draft on grouse shooting: wholly inadequate
The e-petition of Ed Hutchings, which calls for licensing of grouse shooting, has received a government response.I know that Ed is travelling at the moment but before he headed off he said he would write a guest blog here on his return in which he was expecting to comment on the government response which he…
RSPB joins the party on Judicial Reviews
The RSPB has just announced on Martin Harper’s blog that it, too, is making a legal challenge to Natural England’s licensing of brood meddling. The RSPB tipped me off on Tuesday that they had made this decision but they were waiting until they had sent off their letter before action before going public. It’s good…
Peregrines
The results of the 2014 Peregrine survey are now published (not very quickly). It’s good to see the detail although the overview results have been available for quite a while. Peregrines have done well in the lowlands and badly in the uplands. We already know (since 2011) at an even finer grain, for northern England,…
Podcast on #justice4henharriers with Lush’s Charlie Moores
Charlie Moores came to have a chat with me on Monday. Here is our conversation. It’s quite long – 37 minutes.
Press release from Leigh Day on legal challenge to brood meddling
5 March 2018 Campaigners are challenging the legality of Natural England‘s controversial decision to grant a licence for the ‘brood management’ of a protected bird of prey, the Hen Harrier. Brood management involves removing young harriers from nests, rearing them in captivity and then releasing them back into the wild. Natural England, the government’s adviser…
Thank you again – you eco-zealots!
Over the last few years we have been on a journey together. Those of us who are affronted by the scale and impacts of wildlife crime, and/or those who object to driven grouse shooting as an unsustainable leisure activity which is underpinned by wildlife crime, have used a range of techniques that are available to…
Thank you!
That was quick! Less than four and a half days. And 919 people donated (actually 920 now) – that’s amazing. And it shows the passion for Hen Harriers and the strength of feeling against this daft brood management plan but also, I suspect, against all the other nonsense going on thanks to Defra and…
Marc’d down on Wemmergill
The news (RSPB blog, RPUK blog) of yet another disappeared Hen Harrier from the cohort of 2017 youngsters is not a great surprise. There aren’t that many left! But the location is interesting – Wemmergill Moor. Wemmergill Moor is a big-name grouse moor. Until 2006, this moor, of 17,000 acres had been in the same…