Bird of Prey Maps Welcomed by NGO

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The National Gamekeepers' Organisation (NGO) welcomed publication today of official maps showing confirmed incidents of bird of prey poisoning in England and Wales. The NGO has been part of the broadly drawn group which has helped Defra, the police and Natural England to produce the maps.

"Poisoning birds of prey is illegal and unacceptable and we have always condemned it," said an NGO spokesman. "Any incident is one too many, wherever it takes place."

But the NGO said it was also important to put the extent of the problem into context.

"These maps confirm that today we are talking about very low numbers of instances where the law is broken. Birds of Prey are thriving in our countryside, with nearly all species now at or near their highest populations since UK records began.

"Addressing raptor persecution remains, officially, a national wildlife crime priority and the NGO will continue to play its full part in stamping it out but the matter needs to be kept in proportion. We will not allow law abiding gamekeepers to be tarnished with the selfish actions of a remaining handful of criminals."

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Notes:
1. The maps are available to the public via the PAW (Partnership Against Wildlife Crime) website http://www.defra.gov.uk/paw/.

2. The map for 2011, the latest year for which full figures are available, shows 19 confirmed bird of prey poisoning incidents in England and Wales, making it a very rare crime. By way of comparison, Home Office statistics show that there were 619 murders in the same period.

3.. The National Gamekeepers' Organisation, founded in 1997, has over 5,200 Gamekeeper Members. None has ever been convicted of poisoning birds of prey.

4. Individuals can obtain licences from Natural England and the Welsh Government to kill birds of prey in really exceptional circumstances where they are causing serious problems and there is no other satisfactory solution. (Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, Section 16 (1)).