Golden Eagle Poisoned (2 Viewers)

[wild freckle]

Yet another Golden Eagle has been found poisoned in Angus
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/tayside_and_central/8176728.stm

It was one that was being satellite tracked by Roy Dennis and known as Alma.

If people havent done so already, please sign the RSPB Birds of Prey Pledge - we must stop this barbaric killing

http://www.rspb.org.uk/supporting/campaigns/birdsofprey/index.asp

:C

 

[solitude-d90]

I was up that Glen yesterday and saw quite a lot of police activity , forensic guys all over the estate and a mountain rescue team .

I hope they do get someone for this horrible cowardly act and make an example of them .

 

[Sandra (Taylor)]

Yet another!!! When - WHEN will something be done and an example made of these cretins? Why don't the Police treat it as other crimes and go do some detective work in the sheds on estates!

I'm so angry - and upset.

 

[Capercaillie71]

While all incidences of poisoning are very sad, this one stands out more than many others because so many people, including myself, have followed Alma's incredible travels over the last couple of years.

I remember the amazement I felt (captured in this thread) when I read of her return trip from Aberdeenshire to Beinn Eighe in Wester Ross.

I hope that the high level of public interest that there had been in this eagle during her life will be reflected in a higher than usual level of publicity and outrage about her death to try to put an end to this shameful criminality. And I hope that the police find whoever has done this and that he gets everything he deserves.

 

[Capercaillie71]

More details on Roy Dennis's website:

http://www.roydennis.org/Golden-eagle/index.asp?id=10

She had been in the hills that I look onto from my house since April.

 

[Ian Bell]

Really,really sad news.It has been well covered,that actually proving someone is guilty is almost impossible.Maybe a Law should come in force,that where poisoned/laced prey is found on land,the shooting season for the guilty Estate is suspended for a period.

Maybe that doesnt make sense but Im so pi&&ed off,that something needs to be done,to stop this murdering.

 

[Tree Sparrow]

I can't even begin to express how I feel about this. I've followed Alma for so long and knowing how close she had flown to where I live always gave me the hope that one day I might even see her. Not to be now.

I hope this time they manage to find out who is responsible.

TS

 

[Capercaillie71]

It has been well covered,that actually proving someone is guilty is almost impossible.

That is always the worry. However, this quote from Roy's website got me thinking: "Much of the information about Alma's last days and the circumstances of her death are confidential while the ongoing police investigation is under way". I wonder if the satellite data might be able to pinpoint where the poison was laid? Often estates claim that birds could have been poisoned on neighbouring land and flown some distance before dying. Perhaps I'm clutching at straws, but you never know.

 

[tippyhamm]

Yet another Golden Eagle has been found poisoned in Angus
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/tayside_and_central/8176728.stm

It was one that was being satellite tracked by Roy Dennis and known as Alma.

If people havent done so already, please sign the RSPB Birds of Prey Pledge - we must stop this barbaric killing

http://www.rspb.org.uk/supporting/campaigns/birdsofprey/index.asp

:C

What a shame to kill such a magnificant jewel. I hope they find the person(s) responsible.

 

[redeyedvideo]

I would guess that if data was being transmitted from the same area before it died and doesn't show it moving any great distance then that pretty much pins it down to Milden Estate.

Finding the culprit though will be almost impossible. No doubt if it comes too close for comfort a gullible young lad will admit guilt for the promise of job security and a few more 'incentives' from the land owner.

Tell me it doesn't happen.

 

[Tree Sparrow]

That is always the worry. However, this quote from Roy's website got me thinking: "Much of the information about Alma's last days and the circumstances of her death are confidential while the ongoing police investigation is under way". I wonder if the satellite data might be able to pinpoint where the poison was laid? Often estates claim that birds could have been poisoned on neighbouring land and flown some distance before dying. Perhaps I'm clutching at straws, but you never know.

I know the data can be very accurate, especially if there has been sunshine and hopefully with the longish daylight hours it should have been charged up. It'll be interesting to find out how widely she travelled in the days before her death.

Redeyedvideo...I'm sure what you have said does happen. Please let them find some evidence to really nail the culprit.

TS

 

[Ian Bell]

That is always the worry. However, this quote from Roy's website got me thinking: "Much of the information about Alma's last days and the circumstances of her death are confidential while the ongoing police investigation is under way". I wonder if the satellite data might be able to pinpoint where the poison was laid? Often estates claim that birds could have been poisoned on neighbouring land and flown some distance before dying. Perhaps I'm clutching at straws, but you never know.

Certainly hope so.

 

[Mex]

Wild Freckle!!! At last! I have missed you on the Sea Eagle blogs! I don't know how this Forum works yet -sorry if I make a mistake. About Alma, I followed up the RSPB Mull officer's stunned reaction, by writing to Roseanna Cunningham, Scotland's Environment Minister at Holyrood. I told her I had copied it also to my MP, to an interested Minister at Westminster (Huw Irranca-Davies) and to the MEP, Chris Davies (all three have been supportive over eagle poisonings previously). Do any of you on this Forum feel like doing the same? The more the better! Are Scotland's legal penalties really so inadequate that these small fines are derisory to, for instance, 'an investment banker from Edinburgh' who is said to hold the grouse moor in Angus? Someone needs jailing for it to have any effect. Roseanna gave her support for the reintroduction of sea eagles in a previous video and this week has had to condemn the poisoning of this second eagle up there this summer. You may be interested to see the links at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Environment/Wildlife-Habitats
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2009/07/30164440
Do read http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jul/30/conservation-scotland as it gives details of the estate manager.
Does anyone feel like writing to the Procurator Fiscal about the inadequate penalties?
Sorry to go on at length. My only motive is to hope that we can each and every one of us do something to help the eagles if only in this little way. It can have a snowball effect if more join in with support. Thanks.

 

[Mex]

PS. I expect you all know about the Irish petitiion against the poisoning of eagles of both varieties there? see http://www.goldeneagle.ie/portal.php?z=198&start=0

 

[Scamp123]

Have followed this bird for 2 years, what a horrible waste.

RIP Alma

 

[ChrisKten]

I feel someone has to say this, so it's going to be me:

Whatever people are doing (petitions, emails, letters, strong words in a forum), it's not working. I've only been in this forum a year, and I've lost count of how many BsOP have been illegally (and ignorantly) killed. The last incident hasn't even faded from memory before another happens.

If you was the person that murdered this bird, would you be quaking in your boots? Or would you not give a damn?

IIRC, there is a UK Government website that asks the Public for suggestions on policy,etc. More than 30,000 went on the site and voted for Gordon Brown to be replaced, last time I checked he was still PM.

The Government doesn't care about emails or letters, they care about appearances. If they look bad, they act, else they just carry on with what causes less fuss to the least amount of people.

Judging by recent history (Joanna Lumley and the Gurkhas) you need public protests and a famous figurehead. Then you keep getting in the Newspapers and irritate the hell out of the Government until they have no choice but to listen.

Just MHO, perhaps I'm wrong and it will all stop tomorrow, or next year, or...

 

[Boom]

Good point, it`s just seems so futile at the moment-when you remember that it wasn`t that long ago that the grandson of the RSPB`S patron thought it was perfectly acceptable to blow Hen Harriers out of the sky (allegedly) it goes to show the horrendous depth of the problem

Especially when his Father a few months later gives a lecture on the enviroment and conservation. Was i alone in finding that hypocrisy hard to take?

Whatever the answer is, the current laws are obviously not it.

Maybe the laws could work but the issue is how they are (or not) being enforced.

In the current celebrity obsessed climate a public figurehead to "bang the drum" would probably make a huge difference-sadly more so, than the thousands of signatures on petitions appear to have.

How totally depressing.

cheers.

 

[mikfoz]

Your biggest problem, and I've said this before, is that your average person down the pub doesn't actually give a damn for more than twenty seconds. Yes, if confronted with it, they'll say that it's awful and possibly even be outraged, but then they'll see something shiny and wander off.

Faced with this apathy, and the cry from the public to arrest burglars, car thieves and suchlike, the police are unlikely to be massively bothered once the press and local politicians see something shiny, too.

Personally I'd love to see the perpetrators dealt with harshly but yet again they'll probably get away with it and the law will not be enforced. Until conservation finally is understood and cared about with due respect by the general population we don't stand a chance.

 

[Boom]

They will get away with it Mike, they always do-i work in a team of ten people and have convinced two of them to join wildlife memberships in the last 12 months, and got them to sign the RSPB Birds of Prey campaign.
When they ask what good it does? what am i going to say?

We can only keep doing "our bit" i suppose but this forum is full of stories of these horrendous acts and as a result makes you wonder why you bother.

Not that it will stop me "bothering" obviously but it`s time that somethings done that makes us all feel that people`s outrage at these vile acts are not just a cry in the dark.

cheers.

 

[Mex]

I know I'm new here, so who am I to write this? - but I do believe that just one voice can have a snowball effect. I know that apathy can and does have a strong hold, on every level (I'm amazed too at how few of my friends will sign up to support birds even though they do care about them). However, history has shown us where this sort of 'persecution mentality' can lead this world on the grand scale if the public hides its head in the sand. Each of us has to stand up to this way of thinking, mentally in the first instance and actively in the second. We CAN change things. Not as naive as it may sound - at the moment politicians ARE listening to the public because they know how unpopular they have become. Surely it's worth a try? Would the world be a better place, do you think, if we just kept quiet - and let this 'evil' trample us into submission?? As I said, forgive me for this when I have only just joined you here, but I love both raptors and all birds - and I believe that if anyone can, 'you and I' can and must help them. Sincerely.