Where is the logic in wildlife crime sentencing?

On 11^th May, serial egg collector Matthew Gonshaw pled guilty to charges of taking 20 eggs of Manx shearwater, willow warbler and meadow pipit at Inverness Sherriff Court.  Many of the clutches of eggs he has taken over the years were from nests in Scotland, and Sherriff Margaret Neilson decided to make an example of him.  This is not the first time Matthew Gonshaw has appeared in court.  He has five previous convictions for egg-collecting offences, and has served four previous prison terms as a result. His most recent period of imprisonment was imposed just last December, as a result of police finding some 700 eggs in his possession. These included osprey and golden eagle eggs taken in Scotland, as well as those from a host of other rare species. So he is pretty dedicated to his kleptomania.  This time, Mr Gonshaw was sentenced to six months, and received an ASBO banning him from visiting Scotland during the nesting season for the rest of his days. 

Egg collecting is the easiest of wildlife crimes for courts to understand.  The perpetrators effectively ‘steal’ the eggs of protected species, and they go equipped to do so often travelling large distances in the process,  There is no doubt this Victorian era ‘crime’ can have a serious impact once species are rare, restricted in range or they are slow breeders that don’t relay once a clutch is taken.  And the number of eggs taken can be considerable -see here.  Accordingly the courts take a pretty dim view of this practice and the sentences reflect this.

Rather perversely the courts don’t seem to take quite such a robust view of those people charged with illegally killing protected species such as hen harriers, red kites, golden eagles or peregrines.  Indeed quite often charges are dropped or not pursued and lesser charges involving the possession of illegal poisons pursued instead.  For example a charge against shooting manager Dean Barr of the Skibo Estate in Sutherland, for the possession of enough of the banned pesticide Carbofuran to kill every bird of prey in Scotland several times over, resulted in a £3,300 fine.  Nobody was charged with the deaths of two golden eagles and a sparrowhawk poisoned with the same pesticide, or the laying out of a poisoned bait found on the same estate.

This is not unique.  A quick look at the fines levied by the Courts shows that egg collectors are regularly dealt with far more robustly than people who trap, poison or otherwise destroy adult birds – particularly birds of prey. 

This despite the fact that such activity is far more damaging at a population level than egg collecting – serious though that is. The theft of a clutch of eggs destroys a pair’s nesting attempt for one spring, but the killing of an eagle removes it’s breeding potential for maybe ten or fifteen years.

Look at these cases:

a) Perth Sheriff Court – 24^th March 2010: gamekeeper pled guilty to shooting a buzzard and possession of Carbofuran & Chloralose – fined £400 for killing the buzzard and admonished for possession of banned poisons.

b) Lanark Sheriff Court – 5^th January 2012: gamekeeper pled guilty to killing four buzzards by poisoning – sentenced to 100 hours community service (this was his second conviction for wildlife offences in two years)

c) Forfar Sheriff Court – 3^rd April 2012 – gamekeeper pled guilty to illegally trapping a tawny owl and illegal use of a crow trap – admonished.

All reputable land managers condemn such activity unreservedly. But it continues to stain the reputation of the sporting community.

The people who poison and trap raptors often have heavy duty legal teams to plead their mitigation and defence – in contrast to the egg collectors, but I don’t think that explains the trend.  Rather courts are often faced with people who live locally who stress their ‘stocks’ are suffering or livestock decimated. With limited evidence for either.But this is wrong headed.  It is a serious crime. So when might a custodial sentence be used to crack down on a kite, eagle or peregrine killer?