Tag: gamekeeper

Gamekeeper filmed using Eagle owl to lure Buzzards to their deaths

Posted on March 9, 2021 by Charlie Moores

The remarkable RSPB Investigations Unit has – as the title of this post – states, filmed a gamekeeper on a grouse moor using a decoy to shoot two Buzzards. Just say that out aloud: a professional hired by a shooting estate has been filmed using a tethered owl to shoot two protected birds of prey. Two crimes in one short sentence: using a tethered bird as a decoy is illegal, and – oh, yes – so is killing Buzzards. Gamekeeper. Grouse moor. Wildlife crime. And trolls on this site wonder why we and others are so outraged by the mindset of shooting and its employees. If they haven’t quite got it yet, it is because driven grouse shooting is underpinned by criminality and that criminality is undertaken by gamekeepers…

BOFF! THWACK! KAPOW! The Golden Eagle Satellite Tagging Group sorts out the SGA

Posted on February 24, 2021February 24, 2021 by Charlie Moores

In a typically thorough and measured Raptor Persecution UK post, Ruth Tingay discusses the ridiculous PE01750, a petition submitted by Alex Hogg on behalf of the Scottish Gamekeepers Association (SGA) to the Scottish Parliament’s Environment, Climate Change & Land Reform Committee. Ruth describes how papers have been published on the ECCLR Committee’s website, including a formal response to the petition by the Golden Eagle Satellite Tag Group (GESTG), a research group established in Scotland by scientists as “a forum for data exchange, tagging coordination and general cooperation”. In her words the GESTG “takes apart the SGA’s petition pretty much line by line and eviscerates it “. Boy, do they ever…

Alex Hogg knows nothing about birdwatching…

Posted on December 7, 2020December 9, 2020 by Charlie Moores

The wonderful Raptor Persecution UK (RPUK) has posted a blog today about a claim by Alex Hogg, Chair of the Scottish Gamekeepers Association, that grouse moors – those wildlife crime-riddled, ecologically devastated, playgrounds for so-called ‘sportsmen’ – are ‘a birdwatchers’ paradise’. RPUK has analysed the context and linked back to numerous articles of their own looking at the rampant raptor persecution that takes place on grouse moors, so – stepping outside of ‘team WoW’ for a moment – as a life-long birdwatcher I’d like to add my own comments about Hogg’s ignorant claims from a personal perspective. I had planned to leave it at the tweet posted below, but I won’t let him get away with it so lightly.

Two spaniels poisoned by ‘Nidderdale cocktail’

Posted on July 30, 2020October 19, 2020 by Charlie Moores

This is what grouse shooting has brought us to: the burning of rare habitats, massive use of bird and mammal traps, illegal persecution of birds of prey, and now a spaniel killed by a mix of illegal poisons with its own nickname derived from the Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Ladies and gentlemen, we give you the ‘Nidderdale Cocktail’, “a deadly mixture of chemicals including bendiocarb, alphachloralose and the banned pesticides carbofuran and isofenphos. None of these chemicals should ever be used in an environment where domestic animals and/or wildlife could come into contact with them.

Guest Post | 2020 – Not a good year for Gamekeepers!

Posted on June 29, 2020November 10, 2020 by Charlie Moores

2020 has been dubbed ‘Year Of The Gamekeeper’ by the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC), who say ‘The aim of the campaign is to raise awareness of gamekeepers; what they do, how they support UK agriculture and the role they play in conservation’. With gamekeepers classing themselves as ‘essential workers’ through the lockdown, and stories of illegal persecution of protected species hitting the news recently, we thought it was a fitting time to ‘raise awareness’ ourselves of what gamekeepers actually do…” Guest post by Emily and Rose Jones

Note the quotation marks: ‘Appeal after ”protected” Peak District buzzard is shot’

Posted on June 5, 2020October 19, 2020 by Charlie Moores

Are some in the mainstream media finally understanding how widespread raptor persecution is? And that rather than quoting a few lines of puffery and denial from the likes of the Moorland Association the public want a more accurate account? That could well be the case because for a headline to contain “protected” in quotation marks (as here on ITV News online) suggests that at least a few journalists are starting to recognise that UK legislation “protecting” birds of prey isn’t worth the paper it’s written on while armed individuals are out shooting at them as part of their “job”…

Book Review: Bob Berzins | Snared

Posted on June 1, 2020April 27, 2021 by Charlie Moores

The driven grouse industry will hate every line of ‘Snared’, but Bob Berzins knows what he is talking about, and his experiences have been condensed into this powerful story. Every paragraph, every wildlife crime, every environmental sacrilege, and every abuse of privilege and power rings true.

What motivates gamekeepers? That’s not the point…

Posted on May 8, 2020May 14, 2020 by Charlie Moores

It does seem, according to a recent PhD research paper, that the prevailing view that gamekeepers are out to tally up as many dead ‘predators’ as possible partly because they enjoy it might indeed be correct. After all, if you spend your working life laying waste to wildlife just so that your employer can sell tame birds to shooters getting their rocks off using live animals for target practice you’d better enjoy it. It would be an unbearable way to pick up a wage otherwise, surely. But is ‘what motivates gamekeepers’ really the point?

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