Search Results for: raptor persecution

Wiltshire teen arrested on raptor persecution charge

Posted on September 24, 2020September 25, 2020 by Charlie

All birds of prey are protected by law (and have been for more than half a century (see The Protection of Birds Act, 1954), but as most of us know all too well illegal persecution is taking place across the UK. Stories like the article we’ve reproduced from the Swindon Advertiser are sadly commonplace, but this one has a particular resonance because the part of Wiltshire featured in the Advertiser is actually pretty close to an important (if absolutely misguided and contentious) raptor ‘reintroduction’ project…Natural England’s Hen Harrier ‘brood meddling’ scheme (see Hen Harrier Brood-meddling 101 for details), which aims to placate grouse moor owners by moving Hen Harrier chicks off grouse moors and putting them – as NE desperately claims – somewhere safe: south Wiltshire.

Yorkshire Post | Mural protesting raptor persecution

Posted on September 2, 2020September 2, 2020 by Charlie

North Yorkshire. How sad that for many of us the very name of what is undoubtedly a beautiful and evocative part of the UK, has become synonymous with the illegal persecution of birds of prey. Persecution to protect Red Grouse which moorland landowners flog off to the ‘have gun, will travel, don’t especially care what we shoot, and don’t especially care about your missing Hen Harriers‘ crowd. It’s such a shame. It’s become so bad that even local newspapers like the Yorkshire Post (a daily broadsheet published in Leeds and covering the whole of what used to be Yorkshire as well as parts of north Derbyshire and Lincolnshire) appear to have become highly irritated that wildlife criminals are turning their corner of the country into a byword for raptor persecution.

Raptor Persecution UK: 6 million views

Posted on June 7, 2020June 8, 2020 by Charlie

Yesterday the remarkable Raptor Persecution UK (RPUK) blog announced – in typically muted style – that it had now had six million views. Six million. That, as RPUK summarised it, breaks down as “approx one million views per year”. It is currently attracting over 100,000 views per month. Which means that on average every single day more than 3000 visitors read what has now undoubtedly become THE most important and most influential website on the internet dedicated to tackling the illegal persecution of birds of prey. Here’s our trubute to RPUK and the wonderful Ruth Tingay who puts the whole thing togethjer…

Harrogate Informer or Raptor Persecution UK

Posted on May 30, 2020May 31, 2020 by Charlie

Remember the regular segment on the Harry Hill programme ‘TV Burp’ which involved setting two unlikely opponents alongside each other and asking “Which is better? There’s only one way to find out: FIGHT!”? We’re of course not suggesting that a local newspaper and the most respected blog on bird of prey persecution on the internet are or should be involved in a fight – but ‘Which is better?’ certainly came to mind when going through Google Alerts this morning.

RSPB | New Raptor Persecution figures

Posted on February 18, 2020March 4, 2020 by Charlie

Yesterday the RSPB and its superb Investigations Team were all over social media and the BBC’s Six O’Clock News relaying information about just how widespread raptor persecution still is. Britain’s largest conservation charity linked to their updated Raptor Persecution Map Hub which pinpoints 1,225 confirmed incidents. Millions of people, writes Charlie Moores, will have probably heard such a clear condemnation of raptor persecution for the very first time.

The ‘voices of the countryside’, raptor persecution, and trophy hunting

Posted on January 30, 2020September 20, 2020 by Charlie

Yesterday shooting lobbyists realised something that the rest of us have realised for quite a while now – outside of their own circles, they’re not actually all that popular. In fact, shooting seems to be under threat How, wonders Charlie Moores, will their support of trophy hunting help that?

Wild Justice | Raptor Forensics Fund opens with £10K

Posted on October 12, 2020 by Charlie

How much can you achieve in eighteen months if you’re focussed enough and sharp enough? If you’re ‘Wild Justice’, our absolute favourite trio of wildlife crime fighters (ie Drs Mark Avery and Ruth Tingay and Chris Packham MBE), one heck of a lot – from judicial reviews to speaking at national events to (now) launching a fund to help tackle an issue close to the hearts of all concerned: forensic testing in wild raptor crime investigations…Fantastic organisation, fantastic initiative. And if the shooting industry start squawking, they should bear in mind that it’s partly their own ‘wilful blindness’ on raptor persecution that will have led to this fund being set up…

North Yorkshire ‘black hole for raptors’ says Yorkshire Post

Posted on July 25, 2020September 2, 2020 by Charlie

This is not what we’re used to seeing outside of the RSPB’s Bird Crime reports or the Raptor Persecution UK blog, but the Yorkshire Post (a daily broadsheet newspaper, published in Leeds and covering the whole of what used to be Yorkshire as well as parts of north Derbyshire and Lincolnshire) has just printed a list of SIXTEEN raptor persecution incidents from January 2018 to July 2020 under the heading ‘North Yorkshire – a black hole for raptors’.

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