A game keeper set out to protect his pheasants by trapping
some of Britain
Shaun Allanson, 37, subsidised his income from working on
the Blansby Park
near Pickering , North
Yorkshire , by breeding and selling game birds to shooting parties.
Goshawks, so rare they were once declared extinct, were a
known predator on the estate but protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act.
Natural England
officer Justine Clark was carrying out a survey at Blansby Park
It was inside a pheasant pen on the estate which was
surrounded by a six foot high electric fence, Scarborough Magistrates were
told. She found a wire cage "letter box trap" - with a slot just big
enough for a bird to get in but not out again.
"Inside was a buzzard eating what appeared to be a
freshly killed pigeon," said Sarah Tyrer, prosecuting for the CPS.
"Her immediate thought was that this was an illegal trap. Looking inside
she could see food, water, and a perch.
"She released the buzzard and reported the matter to
police."
In follow up visits by police, a pigeon skull was found in
the bottom of the cage, and a second small trap was discovered hidden in the
pen 100ft from the bigger one.
The officer also arranged logs in front of the gate to the
pen and when he returned they had been rearranged, showing someone had been
inside again.
The court heard such cages were not illegal but were only
supposed to be used for catching crows at certain times and not baited with
live pigeons.
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