At the BAWC conference I read out some accounts of illegal persecution that had not resulted in court cases, let alone convictions. They illustrate what is apparently happening, and also how difficult it is to get a conviction because of the circumstances of these crimes. This is the first of four such accounts I’ll publish…
Category: BAN DRIVEN GROUSE SHOOTING
Mountain of mountain hares
A few lads out and about on the Lecht road a couple of weeks ago. I wonder what they were up to? Take a closer look… The back of that vehicle is full of a mountain of Mountain Hares. So the voluntary restraint seems to be working as well as we might have expected then?…
Torch the parks
As I drove north up the A1 through Yorkshire, plumes of smoke were rising from our National Parks: the North York Moors on the right and the Yorkshire Dales on the left. They were being torched in order to provide the right conditions for unnaturally high densities of Red Grouse. Passing through parts of Yorkshire,…
Awful of Natural England, and confused of RSPB
BBC Wildlife Magazine has a good article about the Hen Harrier plan (welcomed by the RSPB) which will do nothing for the Hen Harrier. I am quoted as saying that neither the RSPB nor Natural England should have agreed a plan which does not have targets in it. What is a plan without a…
You are in charge – stand a tip-toe
On Tuesday evening, as you know, I spoke in Glossop and one question that came up, which quite often comes up, is the question of the great power of the rich landowners to get their way. When a lady asks the question it is usually along the lines of ‘Won’t it be difficult to ban…
A bit of a round up
five MPs were treated to a day’s shooting by BASC, to the value of £772 each. The five MPs were the chair of the all-party shooting and conservation (ho! ho!) group, Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP (Con, Cotswolds), Bill Wiggin MP (Con, North Herefordshire), Sir Edward Garnier (Con, Harborough, former Solicitor General), Graham Brady MP (Con, Altrincham…
Spreading the word
I’ll be talking to what I am told is a sell-out crowd of around 100 people in Glossop on Tuesday evening. My message will be that we should ban driven grouse shooting. In the last couple of weeks I have spoken to a crowd of Cambridge undergraduates (c50 folk), my local RSPB group (c100 people),…
‘More birds of prey illegally killed in the Peak District National Park’
The headline says it all: ‘Reward offered as more birds of prey are illegally killed in the Peak District National Park’. Amongst many press releases issued yesterday by Derbyshire Police, between a couple dealing with illegal off-roading in the Dales and romance fraud, Derbyshire Police and RSPB offered £1000 for information on yet more birds…
HHs in BB – time for the Royals to speak out.
There is an excellent paper in British Birds – there often is. But the February BB has ‘The past, current and potential status of breeding Hen Harriers in North-east Scotland’ by Graham Rebecca, Brian Cosnette, Jim Craib, Alistair Duncan, Brian Etheridge, Ian Frnacis, Jon Hardey, Alastair Pout and Logan Steele. It’s a very good local…
The ‘100 club’
Our e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting closed at midnight on Thursday and now, with most people who signed before midnight having clicked on the confirmation email, it has reached a total of 33,614 signatures; rather satisfyingly, exactly 50% more than last year’s similar e-petition. Without any practical support from our large wildlife NGOs, we…