How low will they go? A toxic environment
The grouse shooting industry doesn’t like to talk about raptor (bird of prey) killing because it’s wildlife crime. It’s not good for an industry which supplies an expensive leisure activity to be underpinned by criminal activity. There are many reasons for wanting change (we’d say a ban) of driven grouse shooting and criminality is one of them.
Incidents of the illegal persecution of raptors on driven grouse moors are well documented and ongoing. They’re also woefully under-punished, with prosecutions few and far between, largely due to the difficulty of securing sufficient evidence and/or witnesses in remote locations. The cases that do make it through the courts are often stacked in favour of the defendant, who is represented by expensive senior lawyers (paid for by the grouse-shooting estate) up against the poorly-funded and under-resourced public prosecuting authority (CPS in England & Wales, COPFS in Scotland). Where a conviction is secured against these odds, strong sentencing options are available but are rarely applied consistently and often these cases result in the equivalent of a slap on the wrist for the offender, providing little deterrent for other would be raptor killers.
Driven grouse shooting is an industry with a problem. It seems many overseeing and working within the industry have a fixation; an urge that they can’t seem to fight, to eradicate raptors. This urge appears to be driving the perpetrators of raptor persecution to carry out shocking crimes against wildlife, as well as engage in acts of deception to cover up their crimes.
And so, in a series of blogs we will be asking the question – ‘How low will they go?’ Looking at case studies from a range of locations, affecting many species of raptors, we’ll look at the lengths that criminals will go to, either to kill birds of prey, or to hide the fact that they’ve done so.
A toxic environment
How low will they go?
Using dangerous amounts of illegal poisons
Species:
Golden Eagle and Sparrowhawk
Method:
Poisoning
Date:
May 2010
Location:
Skibo Castle Estate, Sutherland
Repercussions:
Sporting Manager convicted of possession of Carbofuran. No prosecutions for poisonings of raptors.
The crime:
We’ve looked at a case of poisoning already in this series – involving a poisoned Red Kite that was also shot – but this shocking incident demonstrates the scale on which these dangerous substances have been used to kill birds of prey.
In Spring 2010 a group of walkers on the Skibo Castle Estate discovered a dead Golden Eagle; its body slumped and hanging from a Larch tree. You can imagine this wasn’t a nice thing to see, and luckily the group were aware and suspicious enough to report the scene to the police. What they didn’t realise, however, was that this wasn’t a standalone incident. Only three days earlier another dead Golden Eagle had been discovered a couple of miles down the road.
One dead eagle is suspicious, but two were enough for the police quickly to get a warrant to search Skibo Castle Estate. This search yielded yet another dead Golden Eagle. Near its body the police also found a Red Grouse carcass that had been staked into the ground, as well as another dead bird of prey – this time a Sparrowhawk.
The grouse carcass was tested for poison and results revealed traces of Carbofuran – an insecticide that had been banned for nearly a decade at the time of the incident, and has been used as an illegal poison for birds of prey many times previously.
When two of the eagles and the Sparrowhawk were tested, they were also found to have ingested Carbofuran. The third Golden Eagle had been poisoned too, this time testing positive for Aldicarb, another banned insecticide.
When searching the premises of the estate, police came across a locked storeroom, to which only the sporting manager for the estate had access. Inside they found a sack containing 10.5kg of Carbofuran; the largest ever seizure of Carbofuran in the UK. It was later calculated that the sack contained enough Carbofuran to kill every bird of prey in Scotland six times over – which indicates the level of harm possible even if only relatively small amounts were used locally. It’s no wonder the police were dealing with four dead raptors within the boundaries of just one estate.
Dean Barr, the sporting manager, was convicted of possession of the Carbofuran and was fined £3,300. Nobody was charged with poisoning the three Golden Eagles and the Sparrowhawk because there was insufficient evidence to identify the person(s) who had laid the poisoned baits.
Our view:
The remote locations where driven grouse shooting takes place means those working on the estates are mostly out of view of the public. These cases of illegal poisoning were detected, purely by chance passers-by, but how many others go unnoticed? How many more kilograms of illegal poisons are being used on driven grouse moors, with the hope of killing more birds of prey? This is an industry creating a toxic environment, with a long and filthy track record of poisoning. It’s time it came to an end.
Further case studies:
Lacing baits with poison is a favourite method of gamekeepers when it comes to illegally killing raptors. Read more about more cases of poisoning here, and cases specifically involving the banned substance Carbofuran here. Persecution has population level impacts on Golden Eagles – read more here.
Help us put a stop to this.
When an industry is underpinned by criminality, something needs to change. Those operating driven grouse moors have had plenty of opportunity to do so – but birds of prey continue to be illegally killed.
This is why, along with many other reasons, we at Wild Justice believe driven grouse shooting should be banned.
Over 64,000 people have signed our government petition calling for a ban so far. Help us reach 100,000 and secure a parliamentary debate:
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