IoS Investigation
Wildlife crime: Britain's killing fields
They call us a nation of animal lovers, yet attacks on creatures in their natural habitats have more than doubled in a year
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Crimes against wildlife, including badger baiting with dogs, hare coursing, poisoning of protected birds and even trapping them to sell as caged pets have soared to unprecedented heights. New figures from the police show that the number of wildlife crimes more than doubled in the last year, from 2,177 to 5,854.
Incidents are now being recorded at a rate of 120 a week. They cover not only the slaughtering of badgers and rare birds of prey, but also egg thefts, bird trapping, deer poaching and habitat destruction. Rural areas are where most incidents occur, with Northumbria a conspicuous target for wildlife criminals. More than 500 incidents have been recorded there, with Grampian (244), Humberside (195), and North Wales (188) also wildlife crime hotspots.
What make the statistics even more remarkable is that they do not include crimes against domestic and farm animals. In 2008, the RSPCA investigated 140,000 cases of animal cruelty in England and Wales, a steep rise from the 2003 figure of 105,000. The charity has seen dog fighting rise tenfold since 2004, with nearly 300 incidents last year. Airgun attacks on animals and rustling of sheep and cattle also appear to be on the rise.
One of the sharpest rises has been in what police call "badger persecution", a term that includes badgers being dug out of their setts, pitted against terrier dogs in fights, and being shot by farmers, landowners or their agents. Between February and July this year, the National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU) recorded 241 incidents of badger persecution – a total that in just six months almost exceeded the 280 reported incidents in 2008.
Criminals are travelling hundreds of miles to baiting "events", according to Ian Hutchison, a species protection officer for Scottish Badgers. "Badger baiting is taking place throughout the country. It used to be an urban myth that badger baiters would travel all over the countryside. Well, it's not an urban myth any more – they are travelling far and wide to commit offences," he said.
People are betting on the outcomes of fights, he added, and live badgers can fetch a high price. "We have been told that in the Liverpool area, a live badger is worth £1,000 so that it can be fought with a dog."
Mike Butcher, chief inspector of the RSPCA special operations unit, said: "Digging badgers out is very common, and there is a rise in the calls about badgers that we are getting."
Police now plan a major crackdown, Operation Meles, against the resurgence in badger persecution that they say is being driven, in part, by the perceived threat to livestock from bovine tuberculosis. Another police project, Operation Galileo, against hare coursing, was launched by police in Lincolnshire last month. Between September 2008 and March 2009 there were more than 900 reports of hare coursing to the local force.
The rural crimewave is threatening the very survival of some species. Crimes against bats have increased by 10 per cent a year since 2007, and the loss of one roost can be a severe blow to populations that are already vulnerable, according to the Bat Conservation Trust. Last year, the RSPB received 1,206 reports of shooting, poisoning, trapping and disturbance of birds and their eggs – the second highest they have ever recorded.
The theft of wild flowers is also taking its toll on Britain's biodiversity. In May this year, Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust had to issue a warning to visitors to its nature reserve near Sapperton after a spate of bluebell thefts.
Detective Inspector Brian Stuart, head of the NWCU, said: "There is an increase in wildlife crime in general. We are seeking to use wider policing powers, such as the Proceeds of Crime Act, to target criminals where it hurts them most – in their pocket."
Dr Mark Avery, the RSPB's conservation director, said: "There is far too much wildlife crime going on in the countryside. The scale of it is unacceptable in the modern age."
He added: "The hen harrier is pretty close to being extinct in England, in large part down to wildlife crime."
But conservationists, including the RSPB and the Wildlife Trusts, are calling for a radical shake-up of wildlife policing, and claim that an inconsistent response to crime by police means criminals are able to break the law with little fear of being caught. The NWCU has seen its staff slashed from 14 to nine since it was set up three years ago, and there were just 51 convictions in 2008-09 – accounting for just 3 per cent of the cases dealt with.
Huw Irranca-Davies, a Defra minister, said that a government review into the way wildlife crime is being tackled is currently under way and will report in spring 2010.
A breakdown of the latest figures from the NWCU shows that Northumbria is Britain's wildlife crime capital, with 525 incidents, including the highest number of shootings of wildlife, according to the statistics from the latest tactical assessment for the period between February and July 2009. Humberside came top for poaching – with 119 incidents – and the Grampian region had the highest number of reports of wildlife being trapped or snared, as well as being a centre, along with Tayside and Lancashire, for crimes against birds of prey.
North Wales had the most cases of badger persecution and habitat destruction. In terms of bats being killed or their roosts destroyed, Gwent had the highest number of incidents. Hare coursing was greatest in Lincolnshire, and fox-hunting incidents were most commonly reported in Devon and Cornwall. The greatest concentration of birds' nests being destroyed was in Northern Ireland.
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Comments
Apart from that, Labours law & order campaign to reduce sentences to the minimum for every imaginable offence hasn't helped. Badger baiting included.
Hypocrisy rules, as always.
Humans killing humans; humans killing animals; humans destroying forests and jungles. Madness everywhere we look, as humanity enters its darkest age and the empire of exploitation is left with nothing to exploit.
Then Soylent Green.
The real figures are much higher than the Police or the Public can ever imagine.And let's not forget that habitat destruction is the worst of all wildlife crimes.I find it really annoying when people have the answer to these problems: "Culling". As if that was the solution.How about a world that is clearly overpopulated and nothing is said or done about it?Don't pass this message to some spiritual leaders or some hypocritical politicians, please. They just don't get it !!!!
Why are police not properly preventing criminals from hunting foxes? They need to uphold the laws of the land or face punishment themselves.
How about the large numbers of jackdaws, crows and other wild birds which are now protected by EU law and harass everything in sight? I thought the Europeans ate most of them!
Protectionism has got out of hand.
So you think that badgers should be put into pits with vicious dogs,so that humans can bet on the outcome of this painfull fight to the death.You should think on as to exactly who is the sick element in that chain of events,and it certainly isn't the badger.
Tom
Why compare the figures with 2003, which were the lowest for some time before and after?
2003 was also the year that the RSPCA used in its evidence to the EFRA committee in the hearings for the Animal Welfare Bill. Unfortunately for the RSPCA the SHG discovered that the RSPCA had provided three different sets of figures!
You can see the details at
http://cheetah.webtribe.net/~campaign/S
For more details of how the RSPCA present figures to mislead the public and journalists see:
http://the-shg.org/6th%20August%202
which has a very illustrative graph
http://the-shg.org/SHGPressReleases.h
http://the-shg.org/03%20Oct%202006.pdf
http://the-shg.org/30th%20July%202008.p
http://the-shg.org/03%20Oct%202006.pdf
And as for the claimed rise in abandonments see:
http://the-shg.org/25th%20April%202
I can't quite pinpoint the time that macho men and boys living in the UK started to be a nation of animal haters but surely whoever "They" are, they would have to retract the phrase, as it no longer applies to us in the UK. Research has shown that animal abuse is also linked to child abuse and it is most defintely passed on by abusive parents. We have to be vocal about this and pass heavy sentences on those people that show such hate to other forms of life. They pose a real risk are to our culture and society.
There is a link in cases like that of Dahmer, but it has been shown that one cannot extrapolate from the extreme to the average as Links theory tries to do.
See Echoes of the Satanic Panic by Heather Piper for a full discrediting of the theory:
http://www.spiked-online.com/index.p
p. bloomberg
old man
glendale, ca
the RSPB campaign to preserve bird of prey numbers has led to decimation of song bird populations. as for hunting foxes ilegally, the few cases which have been brought to court have for the most part resulted in aquittals or been overturned on appeal. the use of dogs to control animals is a humane and safe method of hunting. it removes the human error which comes with shooting.
victoriavandal, just because a dog has scars, does not mean that its owners are dog fighters. do you have scars? if so, am i right to infer that your parents made you fight as a child? i dont think so. i think it would be good if you educated yourself about the various different breeds of dog that these "horrible little thugs" have. pitbulls are ilegal to own in the UK. due to quarantine restrictions it is very difficult to bring them into the uk. they are probably some other bull dog breed. labeling them pitbull types is misleading. just because a dog has a short muzzle and big shoulders does not mean it is a pit bull.
-Large predators at the top of their food chain are controlled by the food supply below them.
-The badger is artificially at the top due to humans 'controlling' bears, wolves and lynx to death.
-The highest species in any and every food chain is the human (which causes more damage to humans, livestock, other wildlife and the world at large than ANY other species). What do you propose we do about this top predator?
-Look at the ecosystems for an explanation of songbird decimation, not their NATURAL predators.
-Pit bull terriers are legal in the UK, if registered.
-I have never read Wind in the Willows.
You have access to the sum-total knowledge of the human race from your fingertips.
Learn before you teach!
if you missed that one, did you read of the case where 10 german shepherd dogs were 'euthanised' with a captive bolt gun, designed for the slaughter of livestock. all dog welfare agencies and defra have stated that these captive bolt devices are unsuitable for the slaughter of dogs. the RSPCA was particularly vocal in condeming their use in the greyhound racing industry.
these types of 'wildlife crime shock' articles are designed to provoke public outrage and cause an increase in dontations to them.
cruelty anyway? If caught, would it not be a good thing to publish their names as a deterrent?
"Tom & Ena Kirkman
We farm cattle and sheep in Desford, Leicestershire & the grass is of paramount importance to our livelihood, we have Public Rights of Ways through many fields on the farm, and the County Council are doing their upmost to improve and maintian them by making access for dog walkers easier. Last week we collected 14 lambs from the abbatoir, ten livers had been condemned by the Meat Hygiene Service due to dog urine. The public Rights of Way are used as playing fields and dog toilets. We have mentioned this so many times to so may agencies and Councils all to no action being taken".
Had not heard of this before.
Absolute nonsense. Some song birds are declining and the reasons are various (with Skylarks and Corn Buntings it's largely due to changing farming practises, with Pied Flycatchers it's changing weather patterns). It's got nothing to do with birds of prey.
"i wouldnt trust the RSPCA as far as i could throw them. they are a profit making organisation and should have their charitable status revoked. anyone seen the news articles recently about them starving to death a golden eagle, after confiscating it from the man who was rehabilitating it back from an injury for re-release"
This article (it's on timesonline & elsewhere) is a classic biased and misleading article planted by the field sports lobby. The falconer in question claimed the eagle was fit enough to be released in January, but he was prevented by bad weather. It is therefore extraordinary that he still had the eagle when he was visited by the police in May. If he had released it in January or at the latest February the RSPCA would never have been involved.
Some song birds are declining due to changes in farming practises. however, this the introduction of the conuntryside stewardship scheme and a reduction in the use of pesticides and herbicides used in agriculture these changies are slowing and in some cases reversing. rising bird of prey populations do not help song bird populations. what do you think birds of prey eat (hint the answer is in their name 'PREY'). if i am wrong, how do you explain the case on 15 Jan 2009, where a buzzard in Cornwall killed a rare grey Phalarope ?
i grew up inrural north northumberland, and there was an abundance of song birds. the farming was a mixture of arable and pastoral, but mainly arable. there were very few organicfarmers as the area is quite conservative, and farmers are bynature a conservative people. the dawn chorus there was so lound, i didnt need to set my alarm clock,the birds would wake me up. i now live in rural essex, surrounded by the same kind of farming. however, there is far far fewer song birds. i amsure that farming practices down south are not so different to the ones i witnessed at home. i think the difference is predator control. in northumberland every acre of land is keepered, and a major part of that mans job is to control the predators (legally i might add). this included foxes, mink and weasels. there are less shoots in essex (but still some) and the land around me is not keepered. i have lost count of the number of times that i have seen magpies in groups of 7 or more. rabbits have also reached plague proportions, and are ruining many acres of good quality grazing.
man has changed the enviroment and wild animal populations to suit his own needs through control. this control must continue if the balance is to remain.
another point i have just thought of, is that many of these 'crimes' were not crimes until the labour government forced through the unpopular andunworkable hunting act 2004. bearded vulture, i await you reply with baited breath
The eagle did not die whilst with the RSPCA, it died after it had been returned to the falconer. If the RSPCA were guilty of poor care then I would not defend that, but the article in question is so biased and one-sided that I would be reluctant to accept it as a reliable source of information.
With regard to songbirds your logic (like your grammar!) is hard to follow. It?s the usual anecdotal stuff - I used to live in Northumberland which had lots of keepers and there were lots of songbirds. Now I live in Essex and there are fewer keepers and fewer songbirds, so birds of prey and Magpies must be to blame.
Have a look at the breeding bird survey indexes for various species:-
http://www.bto.org/bbs/trends/england/b
If birds of prey and Magpies are having such a devastating effect, then how come the index for Blackbird is rising? Note how Skylarks are declining ? everything to do with changing crops and loss of winter stubble ? nothing to do with birds of prey.
The breeding bird survey graphs are derived from thousands of survey hours and are much more reliable than your own anecdotal observations.
Your point about the Grey Phalarope and the Common Buzzard is irrelevant. Common Buzzards are opportunists ? it saw a lost and tired migrant and swooped. Common Buzzards feed mainly on small mammals and are about as much of a threat to songbird populations as Hartlepool United are a threat to Manchester United.
i am very pleased that there are some song birds who populations are recovering. as i stated in my previous post, changies in farming practices have helped a lot. the countryside stewartship schemes has seen several hundred miles of hedges re-planted, which can only be good for biodiversity.
if you wish for harder evidence of the benefit gamekeepers bring to the enviroment look at the RSPBs failed grouse moor experiment. well managed and keepered grouse moors have a large amount of bidiversity. the RSPB reserve saw a sharp increase in the number of predators normally culled on managed moors. this led to a nosedive in populations of important and vulnerable moorland birds. if left long enough, i have no doubt that the crow numbers would fall as they starved to death.
www.countryside-alliance.org.uk/.../moor
another excellent example is the league against cruel sports deer 'sanctuary on exmoor. as man has removed all large predators from the british isles, deer no longer have any natural predators. their populations need to be controlled, otherwise they will outstrip their food supply and starve to death.
www.telegraph.co.uk/.../League-Against-C
the league were also videoed driving the deer with landrovers. according to current english deer laws, this is illegal unless they are park deer. the red deer of the leagues sanctuary are not park deer.
i eagerly await your response.
Can I respectfully suggest that you reread the article about the Golden Eagle. The vet employed by the falconer (ie not independent) said that there was ?a very high likelihood of a causative link between the period of care (with the RSPCA) and the bird?s subsequent death?, BUT he also said ?I cannot be certain the bird?s death was a direct result of the Defra seizure and the period of RSPCA care?.
Again ask yourself why the falconer still had the eagle in his possession over 3 months after (by his own admission) it was fit to be released.
If you have alternative information which shows that it died because of lead poisoning acquired whilst in RSPCA care then please post a link to it.
If you want more evidence that birds of prey don?t have any significant impact on prey numbers can I point out that Blue Tits, Great Tits and Chaffinches are favoured prey items for Sparrowhawks, but long-term trends (1970-2007) show increases of 27%, 94% and 36% respectively.
Finally I assume your reference to ?the RSPBs failed grouse moor experiment?.this led to a nosedive in populations of important and vulnerable moorland birds? is a reference to the studies carried out at Langholm where birds of prey were allowed to breed without illegal persecution. The results (published in the ecological journal Oikos) showed:-
Curlews increased by 106%
Lapwings increased by 66%
Golden Plover declined by 47% (but declined by 89% on nearby moorland where bird of prey numbers did not increase).
Skylarks declined by 51%
Meadow Pipits declined by 61%
Despite this some factions in the shooting fraternity claimed that waders were wiped out. The studies do not support that conclusion.
The wildlife crime described in the article above absolutely sickens me, especially animal fights. Certainly more needs to be done to combat this. However, it is also worth bearing in mind that many of the animals that we eat are treated in appalling conditions in factory farms, especially chickens, pigs and rabbits. Information about these can be found from Compassion in World Farming and Four Paws:
http://www.ciwf.org.uk
http://www.fourpaws.org.uk/website/outp
With regards to birds of prey, there is an interesting in-depth interview with the RSPB about their bird of prey campaign here:
http://blog.cheaptents.com/rspb-bir
Birds of prey are persecuted: shot, poisoned and trapped because they are erroneously blamed for killing game birds. The RSPB say that natural bird of prey populations would never be so high that they would have a significant effect on gamebird, songbird and farmland bird populations.