How low will they go? An ambush
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.
An Ambush
How low will they go?
Using barbaric and inhumane tools to ambush raptors in their place of safety.
Species:
Hen Harrier
Method:
Spring Traps
Date:
11th May 2019
Location:
Leadhills Estate, South Lanarkshire
Repercussions:
No prosecution; General Licence restriction imposed on estate by NatureScot
The incident:
In early May 2019, fieldworkers from the Scottish Raptor Study Group were walking across Leadhills, a driven grouse shooting estate in South Lanarkshire. The group were there carrying out routine monitoring including visiting a Hen Harrier nest to check on its progress. Leadhills Estate has been at the centre of multiple police investigations over a 20-year period and two gamekeepers were previously convicted for committing wildlife crimes.
When the fieldworkers approached the nest, they realised something was very wrong. Next to the nest, a male Hen Harrier lay distressed and injured, his leg grasped tightly in the jaws of a metal spring trap.
Spring traps are designed to snap shut upon a target animal when the animal places its weight on a tread plate and triggers the mechanism. It’s illegal to use one in the UK out in the open; they should only be used in enclosed tunnels (artificial or natural) in order to prevent non-target species being trapped in them (and since this incident in 2019 further restrictions to their use now apply). This was set in the open, right next to the Hen Harrier’s nest, and thus was illegal.
Taking photos of the immediate scene for evidential purposes, the raptor workers called the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and rushed the injured bird to a specialist vet, who tried his best to reconstruct the shattered and almost-severed leg. Sadly it became clear that the injury was too significant and the decision was made to euthanise the Hen Harrier. The vet later compared the force of the trap on the bird’s leg to a human’s leg being run over by a tractor, indicating just how powerful the illegal trap was.
Perhaps the worst part of this story is that when the fieldworkers inspected the scene more closely, a second illegally-set spring trap was discovered, positioned under some moss next to two Hen Harrier eggs inside the nest. The female of the pair was nowhere to be seen and the two eggs didn’t survive.
A search of Leadhills Estate took place but there was insufficient evidence to identify who had set the traps. However, NatureScot imposed a three-year General Licence restriction on the estate for this, and other alleged wildlife crime offences reported on the estate by Police Scotland.
Our view:
Persecutors often use tools which cause prolonged suffering for birds – they just don’t care. Placing traps in such calculated locations, where the chance of catching their target is so high, shows a concerning lack of empathy and humanity. This is just a single example but the science shows that illegal killing is frequent enough to have a population level impact on Hen Harriers and that impact comes from areas rich in grouse moors.
Further case studies:
Cruel and inhumane spring traps are a well-known tool of the driven grouse industry, whether they’re used legally, or illegally to kill birds of prey.
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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