On 11 February, a gamekeeper in Cumbria went into a cage trap he had set and clubbed two buzzards to death with a stick that he kept for that purpose. He was caught on film by an RSPB camera after we were alerted to the presence of the birds by members of the public. On Monday, he pleaded guilty to killing these two birds and five others he had summarily despatched prior to this incident. He was given a 70 day jail sentence, suspended for a year. You can see our press release here.
To see the video evidence, click here. But I should warn you that you may not enjoy what you see. The admission of previous killing shows that 11 February incident was sadly not a one off.
Looking past the details of this individual case, I think it throws up some broader questions. Setting cage traps to catch crows is legal under a ‘general licence’ that is issued by government. Anyone using one should release any fully protected species such as buzzards that are caught by ‘accident’. But how often does this happen? In all of the cases of buzzards in cage traps investigated by us over several years, the law has not been complied with. Either the birds have been killed, or the trap has not been checked within 24 hours. Several gamekeepers have been convicted or cautioned. I expect that many cage traps are being used according to the law but our evidence does show that in too many cases they are not. Why, in this case, was a cage trap set at all at this time of year, it couldn’t have been targeting territorial crows?
We believe it is high time that the Government reconsiders the general licence for cage traps, at the very least their use needs to be tightened up to stop (or at least limit) the by-catch of birds of prey. We said so in our response to the Law Commission review into wildlife management law and we await the Government’s response to this review.
What do you think? I would be interested to hear your views.
Dear Sooty,
I mdo hope you don't resign - it is the wrong thing to do - stay in there and make your views heard - but do listen to what RSPB are saying, too. Because I just don't believe the gap between you and the RSPB - or mme - for that matter is that great. I don't think it is fair to see RSPB as anti-farmer when who is it it who is really fighting for the farmers who care about wildlife ? Did we see NFU arguing hard for more money to agri-environment ? I think not - it was RSPB - and RSPB are not only supporting the farmers who are really trying to do the right thing, but at the same time their lobbying is helping the worse off farmers - people with smaller farms and livestock as opposed to arable. A couple of weeks ago you suggested farmers be paid for 10% of their land to be less intensively managed - for flower rich meadows for example. Wouldn't that be fantastic ? i couldn't agree with you more - I don't agree with bthe increasing intensification of farming and more and more taxpayers money going to the least needy big arable farmers, but I beleive fiercely that farmers should be paid for the real benefits they are delivering to society and, to be fair, that is exactly what RSPB seem to be fighting for.