NGO responds to BBC report on bird of prey crime

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An item on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme and on their website discusses the illegal killing of birds of prey.

The BBC did not come to us for comment, however if they had we would have been clear in our response: there is no place for crimes against wildlife, particularly against birds of prey, in responsible land or wildlife management, the shooting sector or gamekeeping.

We have been consistently firm in our stance, and the two cases mentioned in the article are ones we have addressed in the past (here, and here).

Pointing out that we have already addressed these cases is not to downplay them. The NGO invests substantial time and resources into ending bird of prey persecution, including collaborating with all UK police forces and maintaining a close working relationship with the National Wildlife Crime Unit, Natural England and Defra.

The vast majority of gamekeepers conduct their important work within the law and regard those who break the law as taking us in a backwards direction. Gamekeepers are overwhelmingly a force for good in the countryside, and behaviour such as this damages the hard work that gamekeepers carry out every day of the week.

As the lead body for gamekeeping, the NGO has a no-tolerance approach to any kind of wildlife crime. Membership of the NGO carries a clear expectation: all members must uphold the Code of Good Shooting Practice and operate fully within the law. This is regularly reinforced to our members. We condemn all wildlife crime, including offences against birds of prey, and we will not tolerate such actions among our membership.

As referred to in the BBC article, the RSPB bird crime reports – the latest of which is due to be published tomorrow – tend to result in dramatic headlines. However, the RSPB have stated that the report shows is that there is a continuous, year-on-year decline in the number of incidents, which can only be seen as a positive.

Even one wildlife crime or illegal bird of prey killing is, in our opinion, too many.

As Professor Davy McCracken, from Scotland's Rural College, said to the BBC, “persecution is carried out by a minority of those with game-shooting interests… focusing only on them can obscure conservation work elsewhere in the sector”

We have not yet seen the most recent RSPB birdcrime report. In past reports, questions have been raised over where the data has been sourced from, and clever wording has meant that alleged instances of a crime have been counted as fact without a post mortem.

Most wildlife crimes are classed as "non notifiable" by the police, meaning that they do not need to be recorded. Many police forces do record instances though, and the NGO through FOIs have data on such cases which is at odds with the RSPB's claims. This then begs the question – how has the RSPB data been acquired?

Crimes against birds of prey are a hugely rare occurrence and we at the NGO continue to work towards stamping out these crimes completely.

ENDS

The National Gamekeepers’ Organisation (NGO) represents the gamekeepers of England and Wales. The NGO defends and promotes gamekeeping and gamekeepers and works to ensure high standards throughout the profession. The National Gamekeepers’ Organisation was founded in 1997 by a group of gamekeepers who felt that keepering was threatened by public misunderstanding and poor representation. Today, there are 13,000 members of the National Gamekeepers’ Organisation.  www.nationalgamekeepers.org.uk