How low will they go? A double whammy
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 Double Whammy
How low will they go?
Estates will employ multiple methods of persecution, attacking from all angles.
Species:
Red Kite
Method:
Shooting and Poisoning
Date:
October 2022
Location:
Stanhope Burn, North Pennines National Landscape
Repercussions:
None (no prosecution).
The incident:
When somebody finds a dead or injured bird of prey, it can be tricky to determine exactly what happened to it. Perhaps the bird died of natural causes, disease, starvation, or injuries from a fight with another of its own kind, or was killed by a predator. Whilst this is often the case, we would always encourage a good degree of scepticism – it helps to wonder in these situations if anything illegal might have occurred.
In autumn 2022, a Red Kite was found by a member of the public, hanging lifelessly in a tree, next to an area of moorland managed for driven grouse shooting in the North Pennines National Landscape. This area is dominated by driven grouse moors and is a notorious raptor persecution hotspot. The person who found the bird was luckily somewhat suspicious of the scene, and so the kite was reported to the authorities and subsequently sent away for a post-mortem to determine if its death was suspicious.
When a dead bird of prey is collected, initial tests usually include an x-ray; the best tool to determine if any bullets or shot remain within the bird’s body. In the case of this Red Kite, the x-ray highlighted several lead pellets, showing that the bird had been shot with a shotgun. Yet this wasn’t considered to be the cause of death of the bird.
Further tests, including those for toxicology, showed the kite tested positive for two highly toxic insecticides; Carbofuran and Bendiocarb. Both of these substances are restricted; Carbofuran has been banned since 2001, and the use of Bendiocarb has been illegal in Scotland since 2005, but is controlled elsewhere in the UK.
Both of these substances were present in the kite’s body at high enough concentrations to kill the bird, with poisoning being determined as the official cause of death. So, whilst it had been shot at some point, this was thought to be historical and something that the unfortunate Red Kite had managed to survive.
Our view:
The driven grouse shooting industry is so determined to kill raptors that birds have multiple encounters with criminality. This poor Red Kite was shot – and survived – only to die later from feeding from a poisoned bait. . Our birds of prey are being attacked from all angles.
Further case studies:
See further examples of Red Kites being illegally killed here. There are also plenty of examples of birds of prey being poisoned, specifically with Carbofuran and Bendiocarb.
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.
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