Gamekeeper Poisoning Birds of Prey

[Maggot]

This is the fourth suspended sentence this year for the same crime.

The estates need to be made responsible for their employees, and be heavily fined to prevent it happening...they make enough money (and that's what it's all about) from the shoots so there is no excuse for this appalling behavior.

Also, the increase in buzzards is directly connected to the increase in available food...what do they expect with thousands of extra pheasants added to the ecosystem!?

Could not agree more John.

I used to fly my Harris on our local estate and the keeper actually took the raptors in his stride. His outlook was that if you create an artificial food source, they will appear.

We used to laugh as the so called "country folk" pointed out the "barn owls" quartering on the shot....funny....must have been "short eared" barn owls then. Usless lot, there could not be 2 more different owls and really the only 2 that habitually hunt by day and quarter...s*** kickers eh? clapclap

I had to laugh when the boss's chikens got nailed in their pen....the land owner was convinced it was Buzzards...with wire cutters . We knew damned well the underkeepers ferrets had escaped nearby

We used to leave rabbits off piste to keep them happy, but any impact was neglegable. Raptors (and particularly buzzard) do well to fledge, although knocking DDT on the head has helped.

Buzzards are grubbers and scroungers, they are not massively well equipped to take larger prey preffering carrion, grubs, mice etc. Quite lazy.

A point often missed is the fact that it has been proven that (being bone idle and taking mortal risks every time they hunt) raptors usually take what they can catch. Sick, lame, lazy under achievers (note to self...wear a helmet :shakeshout: ). This means that they are improving the gene pool with every kill, and nothing goes to waste.

Although a lot fo really young poults would be a tempting target.

While I am not averse to any legal cull (based on good proven scientific reasoning...which is usually scant) this keeper and many like him seem to get away with light sentences again and again. And his employers even more so.

A cull only helps anything if it is genuinely required for commercial food/health or to restore a natural balance...try proving the latter though.

The irony of it is that the single spar (particularly if it was a spar (female) and not a musket (lad)) he killed had the potential to do more damage on her own than the buzzards en masse.

Ah well....Beavers next then, another stroke of genius tesnews

[20series]

Yes and not a suspended sentence and pursue the employers.

+2

+3

[dromia]

O'leary!

[Death2Ticks]

I must say I'm very pleased that, so far, everybody who's replied basically agrees 'he got away with it' and should have ended-up in the pokey. It was intersting that his boss, the estate owner, refused to condemn his behaviour - perhaps this suggests he was sympathetic to the keepers actions or was instrumental in them.

I'm not sure if the keepers sentence is enough for his local Police force to automatically revoke his FAC & SGC but bets are if they did he'd win on appeal, citing loss of tools of his trade would mean loss of his job and home (probably lives in a tithed cottage).