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Birds of prey in Scotland still at risk despite new laws (1 Viewer)

Chris Monk

Well-known member
From The Scotsman:

Birds of prey still at risk despite new laws

JOHN ROSS


BIRDS of prey continue to be under threat from illegal poisoning, shooting and trapping despite new laws designed to tackle the problem.

An RSPB Scotland report says attempts to prosecute are often hampered by lack of resources for wildlife law enforcement and failures of the court system. It says crime against birds of prey is also undermining conservation efforts and Scotland's international obligations to provide proper protection.


The organisation has called for the Association of Chief Constables in Scotland to support the appointment of full-time wildlife crime officers in each Scottish force.

In its 11th report on bird of prey persecution, the RSPB says it received 80 allegations or reports of poisoning in 2004 - compared with 63 in 2003 and 25 in 1999. The Scottish Agricultural Science Agency confirmed 35 incidents of birds being illegally poisoned.

Buzzards were the most common victim, with 40 found dead. Three red kites, three peregrine falcons and a goshawk also died from poisoning in 2004. There were 16 incidents of birds caught in illegal traps, being shot or having nests destroyed. Victims included peregrine falcons, buzzards, long and short-eared owls, sparrowhawks and kestrels.

The report says that eliminating the predators of game on shooting estates was a routine procedure in the 19th and early 20th centuries, but "practices are still firmly entrenched amongst a proportion of Scotland's 21st century land managers".

The RSPB says despite schemes, backed by the Scottish Executive, to combat wildlife crime, few cases come to court because many of the crimes happen in remote areas and are unlikely to be detected.
 
I wonder why these people fail to see the broader picture, I could understand the need to protect the capercailzie but that seems to me to be rather extreme! I think I must be very lucky as I get to see occasionally Long and short eared owls, along with having buzzards, sparrowhawks, Goshawks, Kestrels, and Hobby all nest close by, but to kill in such a barbaric way, I am mortified, I just wish I could climb and travel, I would so give them ignorant Managers/keepers a shock and a half just wish I could do that to offer those great birds some proper protection!
 
Chris Monk said:
From The Scotsman:

Birds of prey still at risk despite new laws

JOHN ROSS


BIRDS of prey continue to be under threat from illegal poisoning, shooting and trapping despite new laws designed to tackle the problem.




.
I have a very interesting book of old newspaper cuttings and it states that in 1840 a slaughter of vermin was carried out in Scotland. Here's what it says .................A regular massacre was organised,and numerous keepers were employed.The list is headed by the eagles,of whom fell in the cause of grouse 27 white tailed Eagles-a race now all but extinct in Britain-15 golden Eagles,and 18 fishing Eagles -as Ospreys were called-now also on the verge of extinction.Then came 98 Peregrine falcons,275 kites,5 Marsh Harriers-whose British race is now written as extinct-68 Goshawks,12 hobby hawks-those lesser Peregrines-285 common Buzzards,371 rough legged Buzzards,3 honey Buzzards-another vanished species-462 Kestrels,72 Merlins-the smallest bird of prey-and 83 Hen Harriers-farly common hawks till recent times,who were easily destroyed from their habit of breeding on the ground.The list also includes 1431 crows,475 ravens,and 8 magpies,beside various owls,caught in pole traps.Studying this remarkable vermin list,certainly it would seem that Grouse have a poor chance of flourishing..... :C
 
Birds of prey still at risk despite new laws JOHN ROSS[/QUOTE said:
I keep banging on about this, but until the authorities start fining the landowners as well as the keepers, this situation will continue. Many keepers are put under extreme pressure to produce as many birds as possible, they risk not only losing their job but probably their home too if they don't produce. How many times do 'keepers keep their jobs, or move on to a neighbouring estate after they've been convicted of killing raptors? This is because the landowners know they are partly repsonsible for putting the keeper in that situation.

Also, it is often impossible to tell who has killed a bird, certainly when they've been poisoned. In my experience hill farmers can be just as handy with the poison as keepers. I've been asked several times to 'deal with' raptors and Ravens by farmers. I can understand their animosity towards Ravens in a way - to see a ewe wandering around with an eye missing or, worse still, both eyes missing, isn't very pleasant. But what harm can a Buzzard do to a sheep or even a lamb?

A little story to illustrate how ridiculas things can get. I used to post on an animal rights forum. One woman - a passionate AR supporter who lived on Anglesey - had started buying up all the old ewes that the farmers would have normally sent to slaughter once fertility started to drop - the local farmers must have loved her! She was a bit of an odd ball and used to email me personally, despite the fact that we had totally opposing views. One day she emailed me and told me a Buzzard had killed one of her two week old lambs (the farmers had assured her the ewes hadn't been tupped!). I assured her that it wouldn't be a Buzzard but probably a fox, but she wouldn't believe me, pointing out that a Buzzard had been hanging around the lambing field. I told her they would simply be looking for afterbirth, but she was adament that it was a Buzzard. She found the lamb carcass partially hidden amongst undergrowth a few days later (classic fox behaviour), when I told her a Buzzard would not be able to carry a two week old lamb she still wouldn't believe me! A week later another lamb went missing and once again she blamed the Buzzard. I gave up on her after that - she probably still blames Buzzards for every lamb she loses!

saluki
 
The kite that is barely flying

The Sunday Times

The kite that is barely flying

The reintroduction of red kites has been highly successful in England, so why are ours dying, asks Stephen Breen

As the red kite swoops in to pick up the scrap of rabbit, its 5ft wingspan outstretched, it is easy to believe it could snatch a small dog or a grouse clean off the ground.
“Visitors have said to me ‘they can take lambs can’t they?’ and I have to explain no,” says Lynn Bowser, who runs the Argaty Red Kites Project from her farm near Stirling. “The largest thing they can capture is a vole.”

Red kites were once a common sight over Britain’s cities and countryside, where they acted as a sort of aerial street cleaning service, flying in to scavenge the rubbish.

Despite their fearsome size, these magnificent birds survive mainly on carrion and hunting small mammals like mice. By the 1870s, they were wiped out in Scotland and England by organised refuse collections that limited their food supply and over-zealous gamekeepers who mistakenly believed they were a threat to grouse and pheasant.

The birds only survived in Wales, but in 1989 they were reintroduced into the wild at the Black Isle near Inverness and at the Chilterns just north of London, in a programme that conservationists have hailed as one of the most successful of its type anywhere in the world.

Today, in a scene the Victorians would have recognised, kites can be seen flying 50ft above Chilterns villages, but in Scotland it has been more difficult for the birds to thrive. This is due to illegal poisoning north of the border, which is killing more than one third of the birds.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) in Scotland suspects some landowners not only know their estate managers break the law, but they condone it.

The Scottish Rural Property and Business Association (SRPBA) says it strongly opposes wildlife crime, but the differing fortunes of the red kite north and south of the border suggest many are turning a blind eye. In 1989, the RSPB and Scottish Natural Heritage reintroduced 93 red kites at the Black Isle and the same number were bred in the Chilterns. Last year, there were 215 pairs at the English site, but at the Black Isle there were just 35 pairs.

The kites are being killed off when they eat dead creatures such as rabbits or pheasant that have been poisoned with carbofuran — a banned chemical formerly used to keep pests from arable crops — or alphachlorolose. In other cases, they will eat an egg or pheasant which has been poisoned and put out as bait. One pinch of the poison is enough to kill a human.

This type of indiscriminate poisoning has been illegal since 1912.

All the reintroduced kites have wing tags, allowing the RSPB to keep records. In 1996, the Stirlingshire-controlled feeding programme overseen by Lynn and Niall Bowser at Lerrocks Farm near Braes of Doune, became Scotland’s second red kite reintroduction programme, followed by a third in Dumfries and Galloway in 2001 when 19 birds were released at a secret location.

Not all dead birds will be found and many that have been illegally killed will be buried to blot out the evidence, but extrapolating the results of post-mortems it has carried out, the RSPB estimates that 37% of all the highland red kites — 93 birds — released between 1989 and 1998 were poisoned, compared to just 10% in the Chilterns.

“This is a consistent problem in Scotland,” said Duncan Orr-Ewing, head of species policy at RSPB Scotland. “Because so much of this activity takes place in remote places or the people involved are taking the baits away quickly to remove the evidence, we believe these allegations are just the tip of the iceberg and that this is still a widespread problem.

“Years ago it was quite common for farmers to poison crows, but most farmers have got their house in order now and the poisoning we see today is strongly associated with sporting estates.”

“Ignorance is not an issue because the people doing this know full well it is totally illegal,” said Orr-Ewing.

In a landmark case last year, gamekeeper Stephen Muir became the first person in Scotland to be convicted of culpably and recklessly endangering humans and animals by placing carbofuran poison baits on the Barns Estate near Peebles.

He was fined a total of £5,500 after pleading guilty at Selkirk Sheriff Court to possessing the poison and illegally killing 17 birds, but kept his job — which the RSPB says proves some estates are reluctant to crack down on poisoning.

The SRPBA stresses that there is increasingly strong legislation to prevent poisoning, and in March this year, possession of eight specified chemicals became an offence punishable by fines of up to £5,000 and/or six months in jail.

Bowser claims the kites interact with pheasants without any problems, and many gamekeepers in the area are supportive of the birds. “Whoever is putting out this poison is totally indiscriminate. It could be a child, a dog, or it could be a kite that is killed,” said Bowser.
 
The big picture now is big profits, most of the estates are now aiming at the big money spenders from Japan, Germany, Holland etc and therefore they expect good returns for the guns. The days of the estates being run for the landowner and his guests for his own amusement and esteem among the establishment are long gone, the villain now is cash!! The keepers on these estates are told to produce the goods or else. It dosen't matter if the birds of prey are targeted as long as the estate owners and syndicates are not brought into the limelight. When occasionally the finger points at the estate owners they say that the keepers were operating without their authority. The only way this slaughter is ever going to be stopped is when the landlords etc are made to pay for the crime. As quite a lot of the estate owners, landlords etc are sheriffs, magistrates, barristers, lords etc, then we have a long way to go don't you think?

nirofo.
 
It should also be said that the job of policing this crime is an almost impossible one.

As with any wildlife related crimes, manpower and budgets are woefully inadequate to support the level of investigation and policing that would be required to act as a visible deterrent to keepers and estate owners/managers. It is obvious that 'education' is not the answer.

As with nest watch schemes it has primarily been the dedicated volunteers who gather evidence (often at great personal risk) required by the police for them to act.

How could you police the whole of Scotland 24/7 to enforce such legislation? Sadly the balance is currently in favour of the transgressor at this time.
 
Chris Monk said:
From The Scotsman:

Birds of prey still at risk despite new laws

JOHN ROSS


BIRDS of prey continue to be under threat from illegal poisoning, shooting and trapping despite new laws designed to tackle the problem.

An RSPB Scotland report says attempts to prosecute are often hampered by lack of resources for wildlife law enforcement and failures of the court system. It says crime against birds of prey is also undermining conservation efforts and Scotland's international obligations to provide proper protection.


The organisation has called for the Association of Chief Constables in Scotland to support the appointment of full-time wildlife crime officers in each Scottish force.

In its 11th report on bird of prey persecution, the RSPB says it received 80 allegations or reports of poisoning in 2004 - compared with 63 in 2003 and 25 in 1999. The Scottish Agricultural Science Agency confirmed 35 incidents of birds being illegally poisoned.

Buzzards were the most common victim, with 40 found dead. Three red kites, three peregrine falcons and a goshawk also died from poisoning in 2004. There were 16 incidents of birds caught in illegal traps, being shot or having nests destroyed. Victims included peregrine falcons, buzzards, long and short-eared owls, sparrowhawks and kestrels.

The report says that eliminating the predators of game on shooting estates was a routine procedure in the 19th and early 20th centuries, but "practices are still firmly entrenched amongst a proportion of Scotland's 21st century land managers".

The RSPB says despite schemes, backed by the Scottish Executive, to combat wildlife crime, few cases come to court because many of the crimes happen in remote areas and are unlikely to be detected.
If poisioning occurs on an estate, then the landowner should be brought to boot and responsible for what goes on in the estate.
A few high profile cases with heafty fines are needed. Wildlife crime and animal cruelty must be stamped out. If an estate owner is worried then perhaps they can take out third party insurance. If poisioning occurs on the estate, up go the premiums. That should hurt them where it matters, in the pocket. Meanwhile birds are always at risk if agencies do not pursue cases to court.
 
nirofo said:
The big picture now is big profits, most of the estates are now aiming at the big money spenders from Japan, Germany, Holland etc and therefore they expect good returns for the guns. The days of the estates being run for the landowner and his guests for his own amusement and esteem among the establishment are long gone, the villain now is cash!! The keepers on these estates are told to produce the goods or else. It dosen't matter if the birds of prey are targeted as long as the estate owners and syndicates are not brought into the limelight. When occasionally the finger points at the estate owners they say that the keepers were operating without their authority. The only way this slaughter is ever going to be stopped is when the landlords etc are made to pay for the crime. As quite a lot of the estate owners, landlords etc are sheriffs, magistrates, barristers, lords etc, then we have a long way to go don't you think?

nirofo.
I am beginning to think that you are on the same wave length as myself. Money talks. Fine if used in the right way, but devastating to the environment if used incorrectly. Birds need every protection. Hurt the pocket, I say. Finally the message will get across, but let's not wait too long and every raptor's life is worth saving.
 
Yes, fine the landowners on suspicion. Let's forget that the court would have to have evidence.

In Scots Law you need two witnesses to prove a charge. For a game keeper to be prosecuted their must be witnesses or other independent evidence to him having laid the poison. The same level of proof would be needed to prosecute the landowner for conspiracy.

A better system would be to licence shooting estates. The factors used in granting a licence would include biodiversity and protection of other species. Estates where raptors were very rare or absent would have their licences revoked and would go out of business.

David
 
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