ROGUE
gunmen killing England’s rarest birds of prey over grouse moors have caused
outrage among the country’s top shooters.
PUBLISHED: 17:45,
Wed, Mar 20, 2019 | UPDATED: 19:06, Wed, Mar 20, 2019
Hen
harriers: RSPB warns of threat of hunting to birds of prey
Academic
proof that hen harriers are being illegally slaughtered has seen the country’s
leading shooting organisation warn how the killings are causing “terminal
damage” to the sport. A ten-year study tracking 58 satellite-tagged harriers
that vanished mysteriously has concluded almost three quarters were either
confirmed or highly likely to have been destroyed illegally. As the study was
published this week, the British Association for Shooting and Conservation
warned: “the criminals are wrecking shooting”.
The
plight of the hen harrier on moors managed for grouse shooting has become one
of conservation’s most controversial issues.
Harriers,
known as sky dancers because of their flamboyant breeding display flights, are
blamed for taking young red grouse and posing a serious threat to a countryside
tradition that has become big business and starts with a bang on the Glorious
Twelth of August.
Prestigious "driven shoots" can cost up to £15,000 a day for a party of eight guns, with a brace of grouse costing a shooter more than £140 to bag although they only fetch around £4 from game dealers for the table.
With far fewer legally protected harriers nesting on English uplands than conservationists believe the landscapes should be supporting, illegal persecution to protect game birds has long been suspected.
Prestigious "driven shoots" can cost up to £15,000 a day for a party of eight guns, with a brace of grouse costing a shooter more than £140 to bag although they only fetch around £4 from game dealers for the table.
With far fewer legally protected harriers nesting on English uplands than conservationists believe the landscapes should be supporting, illegal persecution to protect game birds has long been suspected.
By
analysing a tracking study from the Government’s wildlife agency, Natural
England, along with data supplied by the Royal Society for the Protection of
Birds, researchers from the University of Aberdeen and the University of Cape
Town found direct evidence of four tagged harriers being illegally killed while
another 38 disappeared in a way that makes them believe they were also
illegally slaughtered.
The findings prompted a stern response from BASC.
The findings prompted a stern response from BASC.
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