Hen Harriers and our e-petition
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Our e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting is doing very well so I thought I'd give you an update.
The
reasons for banning driven grouse shooting are far wider and deeper
than just the Hen Harrier issue - but the illegal killing of Hen
Harriers by grouse moor interests is a very important part of the
problem, and it's one about which I feel very strongly.
On
Monday, we expect the RSPB to make a mid-season statement on the Hen
Harrier breeding season. There may not be very much to say for the
English uplands. Remember, there should be, according to the science and a statutory sector report,
about 330 pairs of Hen Harriers nesting in England. In recent years
there have been 12, 4 and 2 pairs - let's see how many there are
reported in 2016.
This is a Hen Harrier
survey year and so in time we will get an update on the Scottish, Welsh
and Northern Ireland populations too. And this year is the first year of
the rather meaningless Defra Hen Harrier Recovery Plan as well - let's see how much difference that is making!
In that regard it's extremely embarrassing for grouse shooters that this week the news has emerged of a man being videoed setting three poletraps on a grouse moor in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. These traps have been illegal for decades and yet, in a place where a Hen Harrier had recently been seen, these cruel and
indiscriminate traps were in use in plain view. How blatant is that?
Whilst
the identity of the criminal setting the traps
has not been disclosed the estate on which this offence took place is
said to be owned by the van Cutsem family, close friends of the Royal
Family.
It is very difficult to catch
people committing wildlife crimes - they often occur in remote places
where few people live and even fewer police visit. This case must not
just be the tip of the iceberg, but the tip of the tip of the iceberg.
Grouse
shooting is not only an unsustainable land use
but it is also the source of a great deal of wildlife crime and much of
it takes place in National Parks which were set up to protect natural
beauty, not to allow it to be destroyed for financial gain. There is no
sign that the grouse shooting industry is changing its ways - they
appear completely intransigent.
To protect
our wildlife and to rescue our National Parks from being a laughing
stock, we need to raise our voices to get decision makers across the UK
to remove the source of so much wildlife crime and to ban driven grouse shooting.
And
that's where the e-petition comes in. So far, we are nowhere near half
way and we already have over 39,000 signatures. We might get to the
magic 100,000 signatures by 20 September and trigger a debate in the
Westminster parliament
which could be a turning point in how the uplands are managed and
protected.
I guess you have already signed the e-petition if you agree with it so I won't ask you to do that. Instead I'll ask you for your support in two other ways.
First, please forward this email to any friends,
colleagues or relatives who you think might sign it. Please help spread the word through your contacts. Thank you.
Second,
if you can spare a few pounds, say the price of a pint of beer, to help
promote this cause through the production of literature and the
promotion of social media then please consider
donating. Thank you again - every pound will help spread the word.
Many thanks, and here, to end, is another amazing Hen Harrier (both images thanks to Gordon Yates)
Mark
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