Raptor Persecution Scotland: Mass raptor poisoning in Wales: police cover-up?

Evidence is emerging of what looks to be a pretty comprehensive police cover-up of the mass poisoning of birds of prey in the Powys region of Wales.

According to the RSPB’s annual Birdcrime report (2012), the following incidents are listed:

• Oct 2012: 1 x pheasant bait (Bendiocarb), location: Powys.
• Oct 2012: 1 x pheasant bait (Bendiocarb), location: Powys.
• Oct 2012: 2 x pheasant bait (Bendiocarb), location: Powys.
• Oct 2012: 1 x poisoned red kite (Bendiocarb), location: Powys.

This little cluster is of interest, but becomes of even greater interest when you look at the RSPB’s annual Birdcrime report (2013), where the following incidents are listed:

• Aug 2013: 1 x pheasant bait (Bendiocarb), location: Powys.
• Aug 2013: 1 x pheasant bait (Bendiocarb), location: Powys.
• Aug 2013: 1 x pheasant bait (Bendiocarb), location: Powys.
• Aug 2013: 1 x pheasant bait (Bendiocarb), location: Powys.
• Aug 2013: 1 x poisoned red kite (Bendiocarb), location: Powys.
• Oct 2013: 7 x poisoned buzzards (Bendiocarb), location: Powys.
• Oct 2013: 3 x poisoned red kites (Bendiocarb), location: Powys.
• Oct 2013: 1 x poisoned red kite (Bendiocarb), location: Powys.
• Oct 2013: 1 x poisoned raven (Bendiocarb), location: Powys.
• Oct 2013: 1 x poisoned pheasant bait (Bendiocarb), location: Powys.
• Oct 2013: 1 x poisoned red kite (Bendiocarb), location: Powys.

In total then, over a period of 12 months, seven poisoned red kites, seven poisoned buzzards, one poisoned raven, and nine poisoned pheasant baits were found in Powys.

Now, Powys is a pretty big county and unfortunately the RSPB Birdcrime reports do not specify a more precise location so you can’t tell from these reports whether these poisoning incidents are related, although the use of Bendiocarb each time is striking. We don’t recall reading anything about these crimes in the media.

To find out a bit more, an FoI was submitted to Dyfed-Powys Police. The FoI asked three questions:

1. Were all these poisoned baits and poisoned birds all found in the same area? Or
2. Are they from multiple locations in different parts of Powys?
3. What is the status of any police investigation(s) into these crimes?

Here is the Dyfed-Powys Police response to the FoI:

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, the details of which are as follows:

1. Yes they were.
2. No they do not.
3. They have been concluded.

One thing’s for sure – you can’t accuse the FoI officer at Dyfed-Powys Police of being verbose! No matter, the information provided is still useful.

What we’re now interested in is finding out where, exactly, these poisoning offences took place, why there hasn’t been a prosecution, and why there hasn’t been any media statement from the police?

Raptor persecution is one of the UK’s six wildlife crime priorities so you might expect that the mass poisoning of 14 raptors + one raven + the discovery of nine poisoned baits in one area might have warranted some kind of public statement, right? That seems a pretty reasonable expectation, and especially when you consider that the head of the Dyfed-Powys Police force is one Chief Constable Simon Prince. Who he? Why, he’s only the Chair of the Partnership for Action Against Wildlife Crime (PAW) UK Steering Group, and he also happens to be the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) lead on wildlife crime! This mass poisoning is right up there as one of the worst ever recorded in the UK – think Barns Estate, think Ross-shire Massacre, think Stody Estate – all involved the illegal mass poisoning of birds of prey and all received high profile media attention. What is it about this mass poisoning in Powys that the police decided it should be kept quiet?

We thought we’d look to the England and Wales PAW raptor subgroup (Raptor Persecution Priority Delivery Group) to see if they’d commented on it. After all, this is the group that DEFRA has identified as being integral to their highly controversial Hen Harrier Recovery Plan. Part of the RPPDG’s role is to provide publicity about raptor persecution, in order ‘to build trust and transparency’. Unsurprisingly, we couldn’t find any statement from the RPPDG about the mass poisoning of raptors in Powys. Why is it unsurprising? Well just look at the membership of the RPPDG – along with some very good organisations, it also includes DEFRA, Moorland Association, National Gamekeepers’ Organisation and the Countryside Alliance, none of whom are known for being keen to publicise illegal raptor persecution! Although membership of this group also includes the Police and the Welsh Government – both of whom should have commented on the mass raptor poisoning in Powys.

What we did find on our search was a protocol the RPPDG is using for publicity of annual raptor poisoning maps (see here). Strangely, the RPPDG has only once published a raptor poisoning map (covering the period 2007-2011). This map was published in 2013 – see here. The group hasn’t published any maps since then, although according to DEFRA’s Hen Harrier Recovery Plan, “the RPPDG have been publishing information on raptor poisoning since Feb 2013 and this is updated annually“. Really? Where is this published information?

So in summary, we know that the illegal mass poisoning of raptors took place somewhere in Powys between Oct 2012 and Oct 2013. We know it represents one of the worst raptor poisoning incidents discovered in the UK. We know that Dyfed-Powys Police have not issued a media statement about this atrocity. We know that the Raptor Persecution Priority Delivery Group has not issued a media statement. We don’t yet know where the mass poisoning took place but work is underway to find out. Watch this space.

UPDATE 11.50hrs: Please note, we have been asked to clarify that this blog post refers to the POWYS region of Wales and does not relate to the fine work of the North Wales Police Rural Crime Team.

Original post at https://raptorpersecutionscotland.wordpress.com/2016/03/09/mass-raptor-poisoning-in-wales-police-cover-up

UPDATE 10/03/2016: Following on from yesterday’s blog (above) about the illegal mass poisoning of raptors in the Powys region of Wales and our question about whether Dyfed-Powys Police had covered up this atrocity…

Poisoned Red Kite

Chief Constable Simon Prince (head of Dyfed-Powys Police, Chair of the PAW UK Steering Group and ACPO lead on wildlife crime) sent us a tweet yesterday saying he would investigate our report and provide an update. He was as good as his word as this evening he sent us another tweet directing us to a statement that has just been added to the police website. In case it disappears, we’ve reproduced it here:

In response to blog by Raptor Persecution Scotland

Dyfed Powys Police take allegations of wildlife crime very seriously and investigates all incidents reported to us. Following information received in 2012 and 2013, relating to the deaths of raptors in Powys, a full investigation was carried out in partnership with the RSPB, the National Wildlife Crime Unit and the Wildlife Management Team in the Welsh Government.   During the investigation a number of search warrants under the Wildlife and Countryside Act were executed and two people were arrested in connection with the incidents. A file of evidence was subsequently submitted to the Crown Prosecution Service who advised that there was insufficient evidence to proceed with a prosecution.

END

We’re grateful to Chief Constable Prince for replying so promptly but this police statement leaves a lot to be desired and a lot of questions still unanswered.

The statement tells us that an investigation was undertaken, and this is further verified by a detailed blog written by one of the RSPB investigations team that has just appeared on the RSPB website (here). Good, we shouldn’t expect anything less. But, as is common in so many of these raptor persecution cases, the evidence was insufficient to proceed to a prosecution. That doesn’t mean that the mass poisoning didn’t occur – it clearly did – but it was not possible to identify a named suspect to face charges. We’re not going to criticise the police for that, especially after reading how pleased the RSPB investigator was with the police’s efforts during the investigation.

However, the focus of yesterday’s blog was whether Dyfed-Powys Police had embarked on a ‘cover-up’ of this mass raptor poisoning and that question still remains open. This crime has been described by the RSPB investigator as “the most significant wildlife poisoning case ever recorded from Wales, and the second highest recovery of poisoned birds of prey in any UK investigation during the last 40 years“. So why has Dyfed-Powys Police not made any public statement about it until we started asking questions yesterday? Surely it’s in the public interest to know about this?

In the recent past it has been standard practice for this police force, and other Welsh police forces, to make public statements about other (much smaller and thus less significant) poisoning/persecution incidents – e.g. see here, here, here, here and here. These statements can include an appeal for information and/or a warning to members of the public to be aware of dangerous toxic poisons in the local vicinity.

So just what is it about this mass poisoning crime that Dyfed-Powys Police has kept quiet about it for so long, even after the investigation had concluded?

You’ll note in the above police statement that the location has not been revealed. You’ll also note in the RSPB investigations blog that the location is given as a sporting (pheasant shooting) estate in the Brecon Beacons National Park, although the estate is still not named.

We think we’ve got a pretty good idea why this mass poisoning crime has not previously been made public (we’d call that covering it up). Since we published yesterday’s blog, several people have contacted us privately and each has named the same estate as being at the centre of the investigation. We’re not yet in a position to publish that estate name because we need to verify a few things first. But OH MY GOD. If it does turn out to be this estate, you’ll not struggle to put two and two together.

Photo of one of the poisoned red kites found on a pheasant shooting estate in the Brecon Beacons National Park, by Guy Shorrock (RSPB).