Alex Thomson (Channel 4 News correspondent): Lockdown has seen a sharp increase in reports of birds of prey found dead. We joined Inspector Matt Hagen of North Yorkshire Police as he followed up reports of a dead bird of prey seen in the Nidderdale area.
Inspector Matt Hagen: I’m absolutely shocked and disgusted at the level of raptor persecution that I am coming across.
Alex Thomson: Inspector Hagen told us that of 30 birds he’s collected in the past six months, only one has died of natural causes and his investigations lead clearly to a single group of suspects.
Matt Hagen: All the shooting investigations that we’ve got going on at the moment are involving gamekeepers on grouse moors.
Alex Thomson: All of them?
Matt Hagen: All of them.
Alex Thomson: Every single one?
Matt Hagen: That’s right.
What the transcript shows is that my perception that NYP were investigating 30 incidents of recent raptor persecution was completely wrong. Alex Thompson informed us that Matt had told him about having collected 30 birds during the past six months. Matt then said that all of the current shooting investigations pointed toward gamekeepers on grouse moors being responsible. What was not disclosed were the number of current investigations. It seemed to me that the production of the report had been undertaken in a way that exaggerated the scale of the problem. To establish whether this was the case I decided to undertake a little bit of fact checking. That could have included direct contact with Matt but I felt that he would not want to discuss ongoing investigations with me, and rightly so.
Looking around the internet, including a review of news stories published by NYP since the 1st November 2019 I found six reports of shot raptors that appear to being investigated by that force. Those allegations involved 10 birds There were also three reports of raptors having been poisoned. Brief details of the six allegations are;
29th May an incident involving the recovery of five buzzards. This incident was featured in the Channel 4 news report.
7th May an incident involving the recovery of a buzzard in Nidderdale that was found to have been shot.
29th March an incident relating to the shooting of a buzzard in Shipton.
17th March an incident in the Yorkshire Dales relating to a report of a Hen Harrier having been shot.
12th March an incident in Bowland relating to a report of a Hen Harrier having been shot. The involvement of NYP in this investigation puzzles me. As far as I can see this incident occurred in an area covered by Cumbria Police.
23rd January an incident involving a kestrel having been shot in Birstwith.
So NYP seem to be investigating a maximum of six incidents, reported to them over the past six months, involving the shooting of or potential shooting of 10 birds of prey. This assumes that all of these incidents remain under investigation and have not been filed. As to the other recovered birds there was no information provided as to how they may have died or whether death occurred as a consequence of criminal activity. Some undoubtedly have gone for post-mortem and/or toxicology testing to establish cause of death. It may also be the case that there are other ongoing investigations that the police have chosen not to disclose details of. That said NYP have a track record of appealing for information relating to incidents of raptor persecution. As such I would be surprised if there were many undisclosed investigations. It is possible that many of the birds recovered by Matt could not be evidenced to have died as a result of criminal offences.
On Sunday evening the BBC's Countryfile programme also presented an article on raptor persecution in North Yorkshire. The information provided suggested that the number of current investigations by NYP into the shooting of raptors involved 6 buzzards and one Hen Harrier. This suggests that the number of current investigations might be three rather than six. For unexplained reasons Countryfile went out of their way to highlight that there was no evidence to suggest that one of the buzzards had been shot on land managed for shooting.
This blog is not intended to been seen as a criticism of NYP nor of Matt Hagan. It is recognised that NYP are, at present, one of the leading forces when it comes to tackling wildlife crime. Their rural crime team are recognised, at present, as being one of the best, with their willingness to engage with all sectors of the rural community and to address all forms of wildlife crime being very evident. Working with the media always presents difficulties. It seems to me that, in the case of the Channel 4 news article, the interview given by Matt had been edited and presented in a manner that he may well be displeased with.
Neither am I looking to minimise the extent of wildlife crime, in particular raptor persecution. Whether we are talking about three incidents, six incidents or 30 incidents, the message is always the same. Raptor persecution is unacceptable. Incidents need to be effectively investigated and where possible offenders given meaningful sentences. Six incidents of shooting plus incidents of poisoning and illegal trapping evidences that raptor persecution is a real problem in North Yorkshire. I would suggest that few police forces would be tasked to investigate even half that number of allegations in a year, most would investigate far less.
What does not help is media coverage that either inadvertently or intentionally misrepresents the scale of raptor persecution. In my view Channel 4's "special investigation" was anything but. If it was the intention of the reporter to leave viewers with the impression that there were nearly thirty investigations relating to raptor persecution being undertaken by NYP that would be nothing less than shameful.
It would be really useful if NYP's rural crime team and similar teams in other forces would produce an annual report providing an overview as to the extent of different types of wildlife crime. To do so would provide much needed clarity.
