BBC news website: Keeper found guilty over raptor trap

it does look like a ladder trap, but you cant go baiting them with a white dove :rolleyes: £10,000 in costs thats going take a while to pay off with no job :doh:
 
Gamekeeper trapping birds of prey

Just watched this on the 6pm news. Bad mistake which will probably cost him his job never mind the £10k fine!!!!
 
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Surely they must have had more footage than just a white dove ion a trap. To convict they must have had footage of a trapped BOP adn the game keeper killing it. I guess he may have tried to say it was to catch crows :doh:
 
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I dont condone killing BOP,s and as a fulltime keeper I stay well away from them.

BUT !
"just for the sake of the odd pheasant, but no need to worry, that is all in hand"

Shows a complete lack of understanding as to the serious problems that these birds can cause!

If it was just the odd pheasant,no-one would give a sh1t!

" I would guess it had been shot", You dont work for the RSPB or the BBC do you ?

What chance do we have with attitudes like that!I would guess the RSPB would think we are all guilty because we have GUNS OOOH!
 
It's about time that people realised how much damage these bl**dy buzzards cause.
We have got a very keen bird watcher that walks through our place nearly, every day and he keeps telling us they need controlling.
Last year I was combining linseed and there was a buzzard sat on the linseed, no more than 15ft in front of the combine waiting for a leveret to come out.
I had never seen anything like it. It ended up with the old doe coming out and driving the buzzard away. There were three leverets on that field when I cut it.
I know for a fact two of them did not last more than three days.:(:mad:
How long will it be before farmers or keepers get the blame for declining hare numbers ?
The same goes for badgers but thats another story.:mad:

ATB

Nick
 
I might be wrong but it always seems the keeper getting the blame, is he/she getting the blame because they are under pressure from the estate to keep there job??? to xxxx raptors to produce good numbers for ourselves fellow stalkers for good shoot days etc for the revenue that they turn over in a year, thats some pressure for the keeper to handle knowin the eatate turn over depends on it and there job income to support familys rely on it. Wood they do it if there job did'nt depend on it ?? It;s so easy to blame indivional and there name like sxxt sticks but why arn't the estate backing them up ??
 
Whether you kill a BOP or get done for drink driving its breaking the law.Any estate cannot back anyone if they break the law regardless of what they did.

It is extremely frustrating these days being a keeper, between BOP,dog walkers,mountain bikers,bird watchers ,the right to roam,tree huggers,the Raptor group? and uncle Tom Cobbly and all!
There are not many other jobs where so many things outwith your control can make or break your year.I live and work knowing there are a few out there with cammo clothing and long camera lenses just waiting for me to trip up somehow?

If your guilty and get caught ,then its your own fault.
Personally I am not convinced they are all genuine cases.The possibility for a "set up" is far too easy these days, and the wealth of PR the birdy boys would get out of it is too valuable to ignore?????? Over the last ten years I have found and been informed of quite a few BOP,s lying dead in different places on the ground. I dont even go near them never mind picking one up .All it takes is a guy with a camera and Hey Presto! your in the news!

The answer to it all is not going to come easy.
Not as long as the RSPB and the publicity is coining in the money from Joe public £££££££££

We have to be on guard and squeaky clean!
Everyone else can please themselves it seems?
 
This was aired on the mainstream news last week I believe. It also appeared to me to be a letter box trap for crows. But it was baited with a live white dove which is illegal (correct me if I am wrong)

It also appears that the dove or at least one of them if there were more than one, was fitted with a homing device by the RSPB and traced back to the loft at the chaps home!

Again we find gamekeepers all being tarred with the same brush.There are good and bad in all walks of life including our own sport stalking. However the law is there for everyone to observe and comply with, and if you are caught breaking it then it is the individual at fault, not the entire profession of gamekeeping or for that matter stalking.

Sikamalc
 
RSPB formed in 1889 this is the 100th keeper convicted , not many is it given all the man hours they put into it
 
Ok - - it's illegal and he shouldn't have done it - - - but a £10,000 fine together with loss of his job isn't justice either - - - and will this criminal record now affect his Firearms and Shotgun Licences when reapplying ?

JR
 
How can they prosecute him if no protected species were found in the trap or more to the point bodies, or did I miss something ?
Surely the pigeon could have got caught in the trap?
Is it just another case of guilty until proven innocent ?

Nick.
 
Nick,

Of course you missed something. You only looked at minutes of a news report, not the days of court evidence.

Not a £10,000 fine but costs.

Stan
 
:doh:
Just gone back and had another look, illegally baited trap no mention of catching any thing.
I had it in my mind it was a fine.:coat:

ATB

Nick.
 
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