Wild Justice donates a further £5,000 to support forensic investigations into alleged raptor persecution crimes

Wild Justice has donated a further £5,000 to the PAW Forensic Working Group (a sub-group of the Partnership for Action Against Wildlife Crime) to help support police investigations into alleged crimes against birds of prey.

You may recall we began this funding initiative in 2020 with an initial budget of £10,000. Those funds were donated by Wild Justice, Northern England Raptor Forum, Tayside & Fife Raptor Study Group, Devon Birds, and a number of individuals who wished to remain anonymous.

Since then the fund has been used to help secure the conviction of at least four gamekeepers.

The first one was gamekeeper Hilton Prest who was found guilty in December 2021 of the unlawful use of a trap in Cheshire (see here). The second one was gamekeeper John Orrey who was convicted in January 2022 of beating to death two buzzards he’d caught in a trap in Nottinghamshire (here). The third one was gamekeeper Archie Watson who was convicted in June 2022 of multiple raptor persecution and firearms offences on a pheasant shoot in Wiltshire (see here). The fourth one was gamekeeper Paul Allen who was convicted in January 2023 of carrying out multiple wildlife, poisons and firearms offences on a pheasant shoot in Dorset (here).

All this work had almost depleted the forensics fund so we’re delighted to have been able to contribute another £5,000. Rare Bird Alert has also recently donated £6,000 so the fund currently stands at approx £11,000 which will enable this important work to continue.

Dr Lucy Webster, Chair of the PAW Forensic Working Group said:

“The additional funding provided to the Forensic Analysis Fund has demonstrated the benefit of supporting early-stage investigations where no crime has yet been proven. Veterinary examinations at this stage allow crimes against birds of prey to be quickly identified, giving an investigation the best chance of progressing to a prosecution. The PAW Forensic Working Group welcomes these further donations to the Forensic Analysis Fund which will allow this early-investigation support to continue and help tackle bird of prey persecution”.

The fund is solely administered by the PAW Forensic Working Group and is open to any regional or national statutory agency in the UK, specifically to support forensic testing in raptor crime investigations. For further details please visit the PAW Forensic Working Group website here.

Wild Justice would like to thank its friends and supporters who have donated to this work.

Separate to this forensic fund, Wild Justice also recently provided funding of approx. £800 to cover the cost of DNA testing in the case of a Hen Harrier found dead with shotgun injuries on a grouse moor in Northumberland. The DNA results were used by the RSPB to demonstrate a genetic link between the shot Hen Harrier (a breeding male called ‘Dagda’) and his offspring who were at an early nestling stage in a nest on the adjacent RSPB Geltsdale Reserve. It is believed that Dagda was away hunting on the neighbouring grouse moor when he was shot, although so far police have been unable to determine who was responsible. See here for further details of that case.